The main sections of the first Airbus A380 for Japanโs All Nippon Airways (ANA) have arrived at the Airbus final assembly line in Toulouse, France via a special convoy, with six subassemblies โ the nose, central and aft fuselage sections, the tailplane, and the two wings.
ANA Holdings placed a firm order for three A380s in 2016, becoming the first customer for the superjumbo in Japan.ย The first delivery is scheduled early in 2019, and the A380 will initially be operated on the Tokyo-Honolulu route. ANAโs A380s will feature a special โHonuโ Hawaiian green sea turtle livery (below), symbolizing good luck and prosperity.
Today, 222 A380s are operated by 13 airlines on 60 destinations, and 240 airports around the world can accommodate the A380.
ANA made this announcement about the special A380 livery:
ANA, Japanโs largest airline, announced today it has selected โFLYING HONUโ as the theme for its limited edition livery to be used on the carrierโs Airbus A380, which will be introduced on the Tokyo-Honolulu service, launching in spring 2019. The new route marks ANAโs first introduction of the Airbus A380, the worldโs largest passenger airliner.
The aircraftโs final design was selected from among 2,197 submissions from around the world, which were received by ANA during an open design contest conducted from Oct. 7-Nov. 30, 2016. An in-house selection committee awarded the grand prize to Chihiro Masuoka of Tokyo, for his concept โSea Turtle Family,โ featuring the Hawaiian green sea turtleโa symbol of good luck and prosperity in Hawaii. Mr. Masuoka was awarded a pair of roundtrip business-class tickets for ANAโs Tokyo-Honolulu route. In addition to the design contestโs grand prize winner, four runners up, including the creators of the design โStephen+Caydenโ from the state of Hawaii, will receive commemorative gifts from ANA.
Known as โHonuโ in the Hawaiian language, the green sea turtle is considered a sacred creature, and is widely loved by the people of Hawaii. ANA selected โFLYING HONUโ as the nickname to call the special edition aircraft, with the hopes to pass on some of the happiness and luck to its passengers to Hawaii.
ANA Group will be supporting activities in Hawaii to protect the Hawaiian green sea turtle, which is listed by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a wild animal in danger of extinction.
ANA is moving forward with preparations to offer new passenger services to coincide with the introduction of the A380, and will provide updates as they become available.
Four runners up designs:
Photo: Airbus.
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