For the past few months, and for the foreseeable future, facemasks have been and will continue to be an essential part of our daily lives. Some airlines are showing their support for masks in a very ‘big’ way – by painting them on their aircraft. Indonesian carrier Garuda Indonesia is joining the club by painting a mask on to its brand new Airbus A330neo.
Mask livery on Garuda’s A330neo
The full-service flag carrier for Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia, unveiled its new mask livery to the public via Twitter on October 1st. The lucky aircraft to get this new paint job was one of the airline’s (relatively) new Airbus A330-900s.
This particular aircraft had registration PK-GHG, and, according to AIB Family Flights, was delivered to Garuda Indonesia on December 19th last year. Data from FlightRadar24.com notes that the aircraft flew from Jakarta to Medan today and will likely return to Jakarta shortly after.
Ada 60 orang dan 120 jam agar pesawat Neo dapat menggunakan masker! Jadilah bagian dengan selalu berkomitmen menggunakan masker. Tunjukkan kreativitas terbaik Anda dalam mendesain masker untuk 4 livery pesawat lainnya! Cek S&K lengkapnya di bio Instagram GA #AyoPakaiMasker pic.twitter.com/oQnYdvodTZ
— Garuda Indonesia (@IndonesiaGaruda) October 1, 2020
If you enjoy this type of livery, you can expect more from Garuda- four more to be precise. Apart from launching this special livery, the airline is also holding a mask livery design competition with the theme “Fly Your Design Through The Sky” (translated from Indonesian). The carrier says that the four best designs will be painted on to Garuda Indonesia aircraft.
Garuda Indonesia’s A330neos
The A330neo that has been painted is just one of 14 Airbus A330-900s that will join the Garuda Indonesia fleet. So far, Airbus has produced five of these aircraft for the airline. However, not all of these aircraft have joined the Garuda family. In fact, it appears that PK-GHG was the last A330neo to be delivered to the carrier. Two subsequent aircraft, PK-GHH, and PK-GHI were flown directly to storage after being finished by Airbus.
These two aircraft went to Châteauroux-Centre Airport – the location of a significant maintenance and storage facility located near the town of Châteauroux in central France.
Full participation
With the situation so bleak, this is just one way carriers are trying to lighten the mood while demonstrating the importance of this tiny piece of fabric we all need to wear in public. It’s nearly standard across the aviation industry to now wear a mask while passing through the airport and onboard the aircraft. Of course, there have been a few controversial cases with this type of policy, leading to flight delays and passenger removals. Overall, however, the majority of travelers have come to accept it. Recently, some aircraft have been participating too.
A Pobeda 737 in mask and special livery thank healthcare workers for fighting COVID-19 in Krasnodar. https://t.co/LJazyAruJJ © Adimka pic.twitter.com/BdGFHC3oeO
— JetPhotos (@JetPhotos) June 2, 2020
Garuda Indonesia isn’t the first carrier to include a mask in its livery- and our guess is, it won’t be the last. In late August, we reported that Cargolux had painted a mask on to one of its freighters- more specifically, a Boeing 747-8F. Russian budget airline Pobeda has done the same to one of its Boeing 737s, as you can see above.
What do you think of these liveries? Do you like the look? Let us know in the comments.