Air Canada rouge’s (Air Canada) first newly painted Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft touched down on Saturday morning (June 1) at Mirabel airport from Tel Aviv where it underwent an exterior transformation during a scheduled maintenance check. The plane was flown from Tel Aviv by Air Canada pilots Captain David Lywood, First Officer Kurtis Paproski and Captain John Liska (above).

After being stripped to its aluminum base, painters applied primer, two coats of white and finally used massive stencils to spray on the airline’s distinct red and burgundy branding — about 70 gallons of paint were used over nearly eight days to complete the painting. In order to maximize fuel efficiency by adding minimal weight, the least amount of paint possible is applied while achieving optimal coverage. Following a short period flying Toronto-Dublin for Air Canada in June, starting July 1 the Boeing 767-300 ER plane will fly Air Canada rouge’s three European routes between Toronto (Pearson) and Venice/Athens/Edinburgh and Montreal (Trudeau)/Athens.

The aircraft will now undergo minor interior modifications; Air Canada rouge’s aircraft will be among the first in North America equipped to offer streaming inflight entertainment to customers’ own devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc).

It joins two Air Canada rouge Airbus A319 aircraft already at Mirabel airport, which will initially fly Caribbean routes and are also undergoing interior modifications to reflect the airline’s relaxed, stylish approach to leisure travel. With this delivery Air Canada rouge now has 3 of its 4 startup aircraft, with the last painted Boeing 767-300 ER arriving at Mirabel airport early next week. Air Canada rouge introduced its new inflight crew look earlier this week and also announced that its flight crews would be taking customer service excellence training at the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida.

Copyright Photo: Air Canada. The crew of the ferry flight pose in front of Boeing 767-33A ER C-GHPE (msn 33423) at Montreal (Mirabel). C-GHPE is the first AC 767 to wear the rouge colors.

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