It's Finally Here: ANA Shows off Its Epic Flying Honu A380 Livery
One of the most anticipated aircraft deliveries is getting closer and closer to reality. Today, Airbus unveiled its ANA's first A380 complete with its special Flying Honu turtle livery.
After spending 21 days in Airbus' Hamburg paint shop, the aircraft manufacturer revealed what will become ANA's largest aircraft. The A380's livery is quite unlike ANA's traditional and more conservative color scheme and Airbus says its the most elaborate livery its every painted on the superjumbo. Airbus used 16 different shades of color to paint the A380's 3,600m2 surface.
The Flying Honu design was picked by the public and is supposed to resemble a Hawaiian green sea turtle. ANA will receive two other A380s over the next year with similar designs but with different color schemes featuring green and orange.
ANA will take delivery of the double-decker aircraft in March 2019 with the first flight scheduled to depart from Tokyo-Narita (NRT) to Honolulu (HNL) in May.
This A380, which sports four Rolls-Royce Trent 970 engines. will now undergo cabin installation and complete its final rounds of ground and flight tests before its handed over to the airline.
Featuring four cabins, the A380 will seat 520 people total with eight first-class seats, 56 in business, 73 in premium economy and 383 in economy. ANA's rolling out all the stops for its A380 service: Passengers will find rainbow mood-lighting (inspired by Hawaii, The Rainbow State), special amenity kits, food and drinks — this is all in addition to the A380 Honolulu lounge the airline is building.
Since ANA is a Star Alliance member, you can use United miles (Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner) or Avianca Lifemiles (Citi ThankYou and Amex Membership Rewards transfer partner) on the Honolulu - Tokyo route. It also partners with Virgin Atlantic (transfer partners will Citi, Chase and Amex), and the award rates are one of the best deals in the points and miles game — it would only cost 70,000 Virgin miles round-trip in business or 90,000 in first class.
United's rates are bit higher: 27,500 miles for a one-way economy award, 45,000 miles for business class and 55,000 miles in first.
See the full reveal ceremony here:
And to see how the Flying Honu was painted, watch here:
All images courtesy of ANA / Airbus.
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