Monday, February 07, 2011

Crazy About Rugby!

Air New Zealand has been generating a bit of interest lately with its latest arrival, an Airbus A320-232, ZK-OAB. This aircraft is the first and only of the fleet to be painted All Black [they did have a bright green Boeing for a while], and is celebrating not only New Zealand's passion for the game, but also the upcoming Rugby World Cup which is to be hosted around New Zealand. Quite appropriate with New Zealand also winning the Rugby 7's here in Wellington this weekend!

ZK-OAB is being used on the domestic routes and is bound to be a popular addition to the fleet. No word on how long it will remain in these colours [does anyone know how long a paint job lasts?].

The only negative [almost sorry to mention this] is this story from the NZ Herald website, announcing that mobile phone calls and txt messaging will be allowed on the aircraft... so much for peace and quiet on a 1 hour domestic sector!

Anyway, back to the aircraft. Here are some pictures from just this evening [still cloudy and wet in Wellington today!]. The final picture pretty much sums it all up! Enjoy!



4 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice pics in yucky conditions!

Any chance you know or can find out when the 777-300ER is arriving on Wednesday? I do know that the tours (open to frequent flyers only I think) start at 13:00. so I'm guessing a 12:00-12:30 arrival.

Rodney said...

Hi Allister,

Yeah, pretty yucky! Not exactly sure about the arrival time for the B777. Unfortunately I won't be there to see it in any case - something about having to work... darn!

My understanding is that tours are by invitation only, and... ummm... Mr Fyfe, Sir, the postie seems to have lost mine... I might be free in Auckland later in February though! :-)

Cheers,

Rodney

Anonymous said...

I understand the 777 is open from 12pm - 4pm in 1/2 hour slots for Gold and Gold Elite customers - I assume it will arrive about 11am.

I am looking forward to having a look inside anyhow. ;-)

Anonymous said...

It is due to land at 10.45am and will leave about 3.30pm

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4628478/Giant-Boeing-heading-to-Wellington