Tag Archives: 24896

Air New Zealand to retire the last Boeing 747 on September 10

Air New Zealand (Auckland) as planned, is phasing down its aging Boeing 747-400 fleet as new Boeing 777s and 787s arrive. The Boeing 747 fleet is now down to two aircraft (ZK-NBV and ZK-SUH) with an average age of 19.3 years. The 747s are operated mainly to Brisbane and San Francisco. The flag carrier is planning to operate its last Boeing 747 revenue flight from San Francisco to Auckland on September 10 per Airline Route. Prior to this, the airline will operate a one time “goodbye” flight on September 6 between Auckland and Sydney.

For Australia, Air New Zealand’s last Boeing 747 flight is now scheduled on July 13, on the Auckland – Brisbane route per Airline Route.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 747-475 ZK-SUH (msn 24896) is pictured arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. The airframe was originally delivered to VARIG 91st) as PP-VPI on May 31, 1991.

Video: A video by Air New Zealand featuring the Boeing 747-400. The video shows ZK NBT over the Southern Alps and the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand in April 1997.

Air New Zealand:

Air New Zealand to remove its blue-turquoise tail from its livery

Air New Zealand (Auckland) is further reducing the “color” in its “color scheme”. According to this report by the airline via its “The Flying Social Network”, the flag carrier will remove its blue and turquoise tail combination next year to a very unexciting black tail with its traditional white Koru logo. The black titles are being updated with a new font style. The rest of fuselage is a boring all-white.

Current logo:

Read the full story: CLICK HERE

Top Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing. Air New Zealand has been gradually reducing “color” in its livery with each change. The most recent change was to remove the “Pacific Wave” fuselage accent marks from the original 1996 color scheme. Previously the 1996 color scheme update had removed the blue and turquoise fuselage cheat lines of the more colorful 1973 livery. Boeing 747-475 ZK-SUH arrives at Los Angeles in the basic 1996 livery minus the Pacific Wave fuselage marks which were removed in 2008.

Air New Zealand:

View the 1973 livery: CLICK HERE

Bottom Copyright Photo: Micheil Keegan. Did the special All Blacks color scheme influence the carrier to go a very basic black and white livery? Airbus A320-232 ZK-OAB (msn 4553) arrives at Auckland.