Air New Zealand’s last aircraft painted in the old teal blue livery has been transformed into the iconic black and white look.
The De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 aircraft arrived at Airbus’ facilities in Blenheim, New Zealand, where it underwent a rigorous paint job.
In May 2023, Air New Zealand announced that its final eight Q300 aircraft would all be stripped and repainted in black and white livery.
The final aircraft, registered ZK-NEO, has already been photographed at Wellington International Airport (WLG) sporting its fancy new colors.
The teal pacific wave livery that was first used in the early 2000s and was a homage to the airline’s 83-year history which began life as Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) before becoming Air New Zealand.
Air New Zealand’s symbol, the Koru, was the only reminder of the aircraft’s previous livery left on the new design and the famous Fern Mark was added too.
A video of the work that took place changing the Q300’s livery was shared by Air New Zealand on social media.
“After many years we’ve said mā te wā to an era of TEAL, with the last aircraft ZK-NEO switching to our black and white livery,” the airline wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“Black is also an iconic Kiwi color, the color of the sports jerseys we wear with pride and part of our national identity, so it will be fantastic to welcome these aircraft with their updated livery back into our fleet,” Brett Daley, Air New Zealand’s Group general manager of Engineering and Maintenance, said.
The Q300 aircraft can seat 50 passengers and are used on Air New Zealand’s regional network. The airline has a total of 23 Q300 and 29 ATR – 72 in its turboprop fleet.