Air Belgium, the recently born Belgian long-haul airline connecting Charleroi-Brussels South airport to Hong-Kong selected BCO Aviation, the leading provider of innovative aircraft livery and branding solutions, for the decoration of two of their A340-300 aircraft.
Luxembourg, March 2018
In early 2018, the new airline company Air Belgium has negotiated the purchase of four Airbus A340-300 which had previously flown the Finnish flag with the national airline, Finnair. These aircraft had been sold fully white by Airbus Company and they needed to be repainted into the new Belgian airline colours in order to start operating its route to Hong-Kong.
From the receiving of their two first Airbus aircraft, Air Belgium had to respect a very tight schedule to be ready for its first flight. Moreover, the airline wanted to avoid flying with a white aircraft but was unable to find paint facilities capable to meet their requirements in such a short notice.
“Time is highly critical for airlines launching new operations. Painting has a significant impact on aircraft downtime due to multiple factors: painting slots availability, paint-shop location requiring ferry-flights, and painting process itself lasting several days.” said Thierry Naert, Technical Services Manager at Air Belgium.
As a result, Air Belgium looked for alternatives and was offered the possibility to perform this nose to tail aircraft decoration by using ultra-high performing micro-perforated adhesive film. The vinyl is processed with special coating and varnish treatment, enabling it to meet the most extreme conditions even for long term operations, while guaranteeing the best visual rendering. “BCO Aviation branding solution has proven to be a real alternative meeting our requirements for high quality livery finishing and short turnaround time from production to installation.” concluded Thierry Naert.
Besides the aviation film production, BCO Aviation’s team delivered the new airline with a total decoration care program, including design with the development of 2D/3D production drawings, engineering and Part 21J certification support, as well as an ultra-fast turnaround time installation of the decals in Brussels’ Airport facilities.
“We have developed a unique expertise on different aviation films, and we developed cutting-edge production and installation processes to meet the most demanding airlines decoration and branding needs. We are proud to prove everyday our new customers such as Air Belgium, our solutions exceed their expectations.” emphasized Marc Hallaert, Managing Director at BCO Aviation.
In less than 30 hours, the A340-300 aircraft wrapping was completed by BCO Aviation teams in maintenance facilities in Brussels, ready to start operations.
The new Belgian airline finally started operations in June 2018 after receiving its AOC, with four flights per week to Hong Kong, and will expand its activities to the same destination by 2018.
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