Plane spotting photos: AirAsia Airbus A320 in Formula 1 Team Lotus livery

On 30th October I took an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bangalore. Was rather disappointed that the ground crews at the airline actively discouraged spotting, especially keeping in mind how PR savvy the airline is.

Rather dejected I was walking to board my flight when I saw the AirAsia Airbus A320 9M-AFY in the Formula 1 Team Lotus livery. To heck with the naysayers. Took out my camera and snapped the picture. (For the full story on this livery read here.)

Click on image for a larger view.

May be I offended the AirAsia gods. A week after taking this photo I fell ill with a severe throat infection and have just got up out of bed after nine days.

Incidentally AirAsia has just announced a second flight between Kuala Lumpur and Chennai starting January 21, 2011, taking their weekly tally of India flights to a whopping 114. The schedule in the announcement though appears incorrect and I have sought clarification from the airline.

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AirAsia unveils Airbus A320 in Formula 1 team Lotus livery

On the eve of the Singapore F1 grand prix, Tony Fernandes promoted Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia unveiled a re-painted Airbus A320-216 from its fleet in the livery of Formula 1 Team Lotus of which Dr. Fernandes is also the principal.

Click on the image for a high-resolution view.

The aircraft registration 9M-AFY has been flying since early August, and one can only wonder why it took the consummate marketer, Dr. Fernandes so long to cross leverage his two interests, but then better late than never.

Additional pictures can be found here and here.

May be Dr. Vijay Mallya should consider a similar cross-branding exercise by painting some of his Kingfisher Airlines aircraft in the livery of his Formula One team, Force India.

Picture courtesy AirAsia.

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