liveries

Emirates has a new NBA livery

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Emirates is the official airline global airline partner of the NBA – the National Basketball Association – and is the inaugural partner of the Emirates NBA Cup.

To celebrate the 2024-25 NBA season, the carrier has painted one of its A-380s with an NBA-themed livery featuring a blue fuselage with an NBA logo.

The Emirates lettering, which is usually gold, is red on this aircraft and there’s a basketball bouncing between the NBA logo and the Emirates logo.

Want to see the plan in action?

The Emirates NBA logo plane will be flying from November 1 through December 17 to 14 destinations in the US and Canada, coinciding with the schedule of the NBA Cup. In addition to the logo on the outside, there will be NBA-inspired touches inside the plane, including co-branded headrests, drinks served on specially designed coasters and courtside-themed menus.

Basketball fans will also be able to watch select Emirates NBA Cup games live on Sport24 on ice, Emirates’ inflight entertainment system.

If you’ve got access to an Emirates lounge, you’ll also be able to enjoy an NBA-themed menu in the lounge in Dubai, New York JFK, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston.

Basketball fans can also get a limited edition replica aircraft model sporting the newly rolled-out livery at the Emirates Official Store.

The 2024 Emirates NBA Cup tips off on Tuesday, November 12. You can check the schedule of games here.

Eva Air brings another Hello Kitty plane to the U.S.

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People of all ages love Hello Kitty and her friends.

Put them on – and in – and aircraft and fans will be delighted.

That’s why the carrier partners with Sanrio, the Hello Kitty marketing company to put Hello Kitty characters on a series of themed airplanes.

The newest is the Hello Kitty Besties Jet, which set out on its inaugural flight on August 29, 2024, from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Taiwan Taoyuan Intl (TPE).

The aircraft will depart from Chicago every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday during the summer schedule, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in winter. 

In addition to the lively Hello Kitty and friends livery on the outside of the plane, plenty of Hello Kitty elements are inside the cabin.

Fans will spot Hello Kitty, My Melody, and the popular character Kuromi as well as specially designed headrests and meal service place settings.

Fun, right?

EVA Air now has four routes that feature Hello Kitty Jets.

Hello Kitty Besties Jet will be flying the Chicago route, while BAD BADTZ-MARU Travel Fun is flying the Philipines route, and Celebration Flight and Joyful Dream are alternating on EVA Air’s Bali and Cebu routes (Indonesia & Philippines).

As a nice touch, EVA Air still offers all the Hello Kitty-themed in-cabin amenities on days when the specially liveried planes aren’t flying on these routes.

Fun!

WestJet’s Disney planes retiring. But stand by for a new Hello Kitty livery from Eva Air

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West Jet will retire the Walt Disney “Frozen” and “Magic Plane” liveries

This week we’ve been poking around for cool airplane liveries and learned from Calgary-based WestJet that the carrier is getting ready to retire the Walt Disney World Resort livery on the popular “Frozen”-themed plane and on the “Magic Plane” that features Sorcerer Mickey on the tail.

According to a WestJet spokesperon, “later this year,” the airline will be repainting these planes to match the existing WestJet fleet.

Good news for Hello Kitty livery fans

If you’re a Hello Kitty fan, there’s some good news.

Tawain-based Eva Air, which currently operates four Hello Kitty-themed jets – Travel Fun, Celebration Flight, Joyful Dream and Shining Star – says it is “working hard to create designs for our next generation Hello Kitty Jets” and will share news about those new special liveries when they’re ready to go.

In the meantime, the carrier says it’s using the four current Hello Kitty jets on flights to Clark (in the Philippines), Bali and Sapporo but not on specific schedules. 

“We are using them just as we operate other aircraft in our fleet. A passenger on one of these routes could end up on an EVA Hello Kitty Jet or on another aircraft.”

 

Alaska’s new Disney livery

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(Photo by Ingrid Barrentine, courtesy Alaska Airlines)

Alaska Airlines’ new ‘Mickey’s Toontown’-themed plane

Sure, it’s essentially an ad. But Alaska Airlines’ new Mickey’s Toontown Express livery is charming. And will be fun to spot landing or taking off at an airport near you.

The plane, a Boeing 737-800, with tail number 565AS, has fun images of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, along with their friends Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck in Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland Park.

It’s Alaska Airlines’ eighth livery in collaboration with Disneyland Resort and took artists over 400 hours and 20 days to hand-paint the brightly colored aircraft exterior from nose to tail.

Plane paradise for Pokémon Fans

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More Pokeman characters are taking to the skies thanks to the Pokémon Company’s “Pokémon Air Adventures” partnership with a variety of airlines to decorate planes with  Pokémon characters – inside and out.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) launched a Pikachu Jet NH on June 4, 2023 and will be launching a second Pokémon themed plane, the Eevee Jet NH, on August 31.

ANA’s Pikachu Jet flies mainly in Asia, to and from Tokyo. The Eevee Jet, a specially painted Boeing 777-300ER, will operate for 5 years and fly between Tokyo Haneda and the US (New York and San Francisco) and between Haneda and London from August 31, 2023 through October 28, 2023. After that, the plane will likely be used on other routes.

Here are some images of the Pikachu jet, along with a ‘behind-the-scenes’ video of it being painted.

And here are some images of the Eevee Jet NH, plus the themed headrests inside the plane.

ANA isn’t the only airline participating in Pokémon Air Adventures. China Airlines, Scoot and several others have special Pikachu planes too.