Air New Zealand makeover

Air New Zealand has a new livery

To our astonishment, as we were taxiing out of Auckland airport last week, a black and white plane taxied in. There was the familiar koru design, and there was the fernleaf design that the so-called "All Blacks" plane featured during the Rugby World Cup, but the rest (except for the wings) was matte black.

This according to Australian Business Traveller, is the new Air New Zealand livery. Going out is the turquoise and blue blend that reminded historians of the origin of Air New Zealand as TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Limited), and coming in is what is popularly considered to be the iconic color of the country, BLACK.

The new livery will introduced later this year as part of a worldwide NZ$20m (A$16.7m) marketing campaign between Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand.

Most aircraft will be dressed to impress in the airline's standard white livery, which will now feature a dramatic black section sweeping up from the rear of the wings, as seen below in this PR shot showing the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner due for delivery next year (and which will likely launch on the Auckland-Shanghai route).

However, Air New Zealand will paint a select number of aircraft in a distinctive "all black" version of the new design. And that is the plane that we saw...