One day offer, Air France-KLM-Delta offers "almost free" fares for children this Christmas

by Devesh Agarwal

Air France-KLM and their joint venture partner Delta Air Lines have a one-day “Santa Surprise" offer for all children travelling to Europe, with their family on the three airlines.

All children up to the age of 11 years and 11 months will have to pay only 1% of the adult fare. This “Santa Offer” is valid for booking and ticketing only on 24th December 2013 for outbound travel on or before March 31, 2014. This offer is only valid for India.

To avail the offer, call the Air France - KLM sales and service center or contact your travel agent.

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Jet Airways to lease three A330-200s to Turkish Airlines

by Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara

In a December 12th filing with the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange (BIST), national carrier Turkish Airlines has said it will lease three Airbus A330-200 aircraft from India's Jet Airways for a period of six years. The financial details of the proposed lease were not made available. The middle-eastern giant will lease another five A330s from Dutch lessor AerCap for a period of eight years.

Bulk of Jet's A330s sitting on the ground. Photo copyright 2012 Devesh Agarwal.

Turkish Airlines (THY) has been leasing aircraft from Jet Airways since 2008 and once again in 2013, as the Indian carrier found it difficult to fill most of its international wide-body fleet. At one point 70% of Jet's Boeing 777-300ER fleet was leased out, with four aircraft leased to Turkish Airlines and three to Thai Airways. Jet even sold one of its Boeing 777s, strangely a money spinner for most of the world's airlines, but not for Jet.

Till recently, much of Jet's A330-200 fleet was grounded at Indian airports thanks to aggressive route rationalisation by the airline. In the second quarter of this fiscal year, Jet lost a whopping Rs.123 crores, just on the costs of keeping its aircraft on the ground.

Five of the ten grounded A330-200 aircraft have been leased by Jet, though on a short term basis, to 24% stake-holder, Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways PJSC. The deal with Turkish was expected, after a deal to sell the remaining five A330s to Kuwait Airways fell through last month.

Repeated requests to Jet Airways for comments on this story were not answered.

It is an economically sensible deal for Jet Airways. In one stroke it is addressing a major cash drain, and ensuring long term dollar denominated revenue for itself. While a sale which would have brought in one-time income which would have reduced long-term lower cost debt, a lease will give Jet a long term hedge against potential rupee devaluations and the ability to pay off its $400 million high interest rate debt. Jet is reeling under a total debt load of about $1.9 billion.

As Jet Airways continues to turn over its long haul operations to Etihad and Abu Dhabi via the Jetihad partnership, look for the carrier to continue to seek out incremental opportunities to earn rent on its under-utilised assets.

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Cathay Pacific become first Asia Pacific airline to order Boeing 777-9X

by Devesh Agarwal

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER in special livery.

Long time Boeing customer, Cathay Pacific Airways become the first Asia-Pacific airline to order the new 777-9X. The Hong Kong based carrier has placed an order for 21 of the mini-jumbo long haul aircraft valued at $7 million at list prices. The 777X program created waves in the industry last month, when it garnered a whopping 259 orders and commitments valued at over $95 billion at the Dubai air show.

Hong Kong's flag carrier operates 55 777s, including 38 777-300ERs and an all-Boeing freighter fleet that includes 13 747-8F Freighters. Like the 777-300ER, there is only the General Electric GE9X engine option for the 777-9X.

The GE9X engine for Boeing's 777X family will be in the 100,000-pound thrust class with a 10 percent improvement in fuel burn over today's GE90-115B. Key features of the new engine include, the industry’s largest front fan, composite fan case and fourth-generation composite fan blades, highest pressure ratio compressor for any large GE engine, third-generation TAPS (twin annular pre-swirl) combustor for greater efficiency and low emissions, and ceramic matrix composite (CMC) material in the combustor and turbine.

Image courtesy Cathay Pacific Airways

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Photos: First flight of Asiana Airlines' first A380

by Devesh Agarwal

Korea's Asiana Airlines’ first A380 has successfully completed its maiden flight. The A380 flew from Airbus’ facilities in Toulouse, France to the aircraft manufacturer’s site in Hamburg, Germany, where it will undergo painting and cabin furnishing.

Asiana Airlines will become the twelfth operator of the A380 when it takes delivery of its first aircraft in the second quarter of 2014. The airline has firm orders for six A380s and will operate the aircraft on its primary routes from Seoul to the United States.

Below are two high resolution photos from Airbus which you can right click and download.

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Jet Airways' new services to middle-east via Abu Dhabi scissor hub

by Devesh Agarwal

From January 15, 2014, Jet Airways is adding two new daily flights to Dammam, Saudi Arabia. A non-stop from Kochi, and from Chennai with a stop in Abu Dhabi. Jet is also re-timing its existing Kochi Abu Dhabi Kuwait flight to offer passengers an evening connection to Dammam on the Chennai Abu Dhabi Dammam flight.

All flights will be operated by Boeing 737-800s in a two class configuration either 16 seats in business and 138 in economy or 8 seats in business and 162 in economy.

9W 570 will depart Kochi at 06:20 arrive Dammam at 09:20.
9W 569 will depart Dammam at 10:20 arrive Kochi at 17:20.
9W 526 will depart Chennai at 20:15 arrive Abu Dhabi at 23:25. Depart Abu Dhabi 01:45 the next morning arrive Dammam at 02:10.
9W 525 will depart Dammam at 06:50 arrive Abu Dhabi at 09:15. Depart at Abu Dhabi at 10:45 arrive Chennai 16:15.

Using Abu Dhabi as a scissor hub, Jet Airways is rescheduling 9W 576, its evening Kochi Kuwait City flight via Abu Dhabi, to synchronise with the Chennai Abu Dhabi Dammam flight. This should give Chennai passengers a connection to Kuwait City should Jet Airways so choose and Kochi passengers connection to Dammam.

Map courtesy GCMap.com.

9W 576 will depart Kochi at 20:40 arrive Abu Dhabi at 23:30. Depart Abu Dhabi at 01:45 the next morning arriving Kuwait City at 02:55.
9W 575 will depart Kuwait City at 06:35 arrive Abu Dhabi at 09:15. Depart Abu Dhabi at 10:40 arrive Kochi at 16:00

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Air India optimistic of joining the Star alliance

by Devesh Agarwal

Unlike news reports which indicate Air India will re-commence the joining process with Star Alliance, and therefore leave a possibility of a negative outcome, a press release by the national carrier exudes confidence that the carrier will surely join the alliance.

Air India set to join Star Alliance

The National Carrier is set to join Star Alliance, the leading global alliance of 28 top international carriers. In a major decision today in Vienna, Star Alliance has unanimously decided to lift the earlier suspension of the process for Air India entry into the Alliance. With this decision, final process for eventual entry of Air India has begun. Once the airline becomes a member, Air India passengers will enjoy enormous benefits, including seamless transfers while travelling across the world, more frequent flyer mileage points, code sharing leading to a wider choice of flights and access to facilities at over 1000 lounges worldwide. The Star Alliance network offers 21,900 daily flights to 1328 airports in 195 countries.

Established in 1997, Star Alliance today is the biggest alliance of airlines which offers its customers convenient worldwide reach and a smoother travel experience. In order to become a member, an airline is required to meet and comply with the highest standards of customer service, security and technical infrastructure in the industry.

The present list of members include Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines , Croatia Airlines , EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAM Airlines, TAP Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways.

The Alliance offers passengers a choice of Silver or Gold Status benefits across the alliance relevant to the passengers frequent flyer tier level. The traveller’s status is recognised around the world through out the Star Alliance network at all member airlines. Passengers automatically get the alliance benefits on travelling on the member airline also ensuring more mileage points at the same time.

Whenever a member of the frequent flyer programme travels on any of the Star Alliance member airlines and flies with another member airline he can earn and redeem miles or points on one frequent flyer programme.

What are your thoughts on the airline joining the carrier? Will the second time be the charm? Share your thoughts via a comment.

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Etihad to commence Abu Dhabi to Jaipur flights

by Devesh Agarwal

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will launch a daily service from Abu Dhabi to Jaipur commencing on April 1, 2014. With Jaipur, Etihad will serve ten destinations in India Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai, New Delhi and Trivandrum.

Etihad will operate the service with an Airbus A320 aircraft in a two-class configuration, 16 Pearl Business Class seats and 120 Coral Economy Class seats.

Flight EY208 will depart Abu Dhabi at 23:00 arrive Jaipur 03:45 next morning
Flight EY207 will depart Jaipur at 04:45 arrive Abu Dhabi 06:45

The schedule is targeted to carry passengers onwards to African, European and North American destinations.

Post its 24% stake purchase in Jet Airways, which was coincidentally at the same time the Indian UAE (Abu Dhabi) bilateral air services agreement increased seat allocation by 300%, Etihad has been aggressively expanding to new destinations in India, and increasing the frequency and aircraft on its existing services to the country. It has already tripled the number of seats on the prime Abu Dhabi – Mumbai and Abu Dhabi – New Delhi routes.

The gulf carrier also intends to codeshare on a wide range of Jet Airways flights operated within India, and between India and Abu Dhabi, subject to regulatory approval.

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SpiceJet and TigerAir collaborate via interline agreement

by Devesh Agarwal

Two budget carriers, India's SpiceJet and Singapore's Tiger Airways, have signed a three-year interline agreement to carry passengers on each other's networks through Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi airport (RGIA).

From January 6, 2014, SpiceJet customers from 14 Indian cities Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Indore, Mangalore, Madurai, Pune, Tirupati, and Visakhapatnam, can connect to TigerAir's Singapore flights from Hyderabad. From January 12, 2014, TigerAir passengers can connect to destinations on SpiceJet's domestic network.

RGIA, operated by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) will be the first Indian airport to facilitate the connecting flights between SpiceJet and Tigerair. The airport will provide a free porter service to facilitate the collection and transfer of checked-in baggage for passengers travelling on connecting flights between the two airlines.

SpiceJet is the first Indian budget carrier to establish such an arrangement with a foreign airline. SpiceJet is offering an introductory promotional fare, starting from Rs 4,699 one way and return starting from Rs 9,998 both all inclusive.

The agreement was concluded by SpiceJet's new Chief Operating Officer, Sanjiv Kapoor, with TigerAir Group Chief Commercial Officer of Alexander Knigge, in the presence of SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL

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KLM improves its business class

By BA Staff

KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline has upgraded its business class and now provides fully flat beds on its daily 747 flights from New Delhi to Amsterdam.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Yeshwant Pawar, General Manager South Asia said

“KLM continues to invest in customer comfort across the world as this has been our top most priority. The guiding principle to introduce fully flat beds is a step towards enhancing customer comfort and privacy as befits KLM. The new full-flat seat also plays an important role in helping to strengthen our position as a preferred airline in the Indian market.”

The new 180 degree horizontally reclining seats in the World Business Class are longer with 2.07 meters in length, wider with 63 inches in pitch. Every seat has an integrated 17 inch video monitor for in-flight entertainment. There is in-seat power and also storage compartments in the seat behind the passenger as well as under the television screen.

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KLM launches quiz contest to promote Business Class

By BA Staff

KLM has launched a quiz contest on their KLM India Facebook page that would give one winner a chance to win an all inclusive ticket to Amsterdam in their Business Class. The quiz contest is about answering five questions on the new KLM World Business Class.

KLM launched its fully flat beds on its international long-haul destination flights served by Boeing 747-400. The seat can be horizontally reclined at 180 degrees providing more legroom and no middle seat. Every seat is installed with a 17 inch screen video monitor for in-flight entertainment and storage compartments.

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Video of Asiana crash shows plane cart-wheeling after impact

by Devesh Agarwal

A dramatic video recently released by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), of the crash of Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 HL7742 performing flight OZ-214 at San Francisco airport shows the plane cart-wheeling after it impacted the sea-wall of the runway.

Update December 13, 2013

Another video of the incident.

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AirAsia to use Bangalore as its India hub?

by Devesh Agarwal

AirAsia is close to signing an agreement to use Bangalore as its hub for India operations, Bhaskar Bodapati, Senior Director of the Bengaluru Airport International Limited (BIAL) revealed in Saturday's Deccan Herald.

This will be a coup for the company, especially after the loss of the financially defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Historically, Bangalore has been ignored by India's domestic airlines for their international operations, who chose to go to Chennai, thus leaving the field wide open for foreign carriers like Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and Air France from the HAL airport days, and DragonAir, Qatar Airways, Etihad and others since 2008 when the new international airport opened.

Air India operates just one flight to Dubai, via Goa, and SpiceJet has just commenced a flight to Bangkok from the city. Jet Airways briefly operated a flight to Brussels which is its scissor hub for flights on to the east coast of north America, but it was shut within months.

Both BIAL and AirAsia have not commented on this story.

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American Airlines to buy up to 70 CRJ900 NextGen regional jets

by Devesh Agarwal

CGI of CRJ900 NextGen in American Eagle livery.

Bombardier Aerospace of Canada and American Airlines Group Inc., of Fort Worth, Texas have signed a firm purchase agreement to acquire 30 CRJ900 NextGen aircraft along with options on an additional 40 aircraft.

Based on the list price for the CRJ900 NextGen aircraft, the firm order contract is valued at approximately US$1.42 billion and could increase to approximately US$3.38 billion if the 40 options are converted into firm orders.

American Airlines becomes the first customer to acquire the newest version of regional jet which has an improved fuel burn of four per cent with the “NextGen” package enhancements. Improvement to the aircraft’s engines and ongoing weight reduction initiatives, which include upgraded avionics, will offer a further reduction of up to 1.5 per cent.

Including the American Airlines order announced today, Bombardier has recorded firm orders for 1,812 CRJ Series aircraft, including 339 CRJ900 and CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. Worldwide, CRJ Series aircraft are in service with more than 60 airlines and more than 30 customers operate corporate variants of the aircraft.

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Air Canada signs agreement to buy up to 109 Boeing 737 MAXs

by Devesh Agarwal

Boeing 737 MAX 9 final concept CGI rendering. Boeing image.

National carrier Air Canada has agreed to buy up to 109 Boeing 737 MAX single aisle narrow body aircraft as part of its fleet renewal plan. Boeing has wrested back an existing Airbus narrow-body customer as the MAXs will replace Air Canada's existing mainline fleet of Airbus A320 family.

The agreement with Boeing, which is subject to completion of final documentation and other conditions, includes firm orders for 33 737 MAX 8 (equivalent to A320) and 28 737 MAX 9 (equivalent to A321) aircraft with substitution rights between them as well as for the 737 MAX 7 (equivalent to A319) aircraft. It also provides for options for 18 aircraft and rights to purchase an additional 30. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2017 with 2 aircraft, 16 aircraft in 2018, 18 aircraft in 2019, 16 aircraft in 2020 and 9 aircraft in 2021, subject to deferral and acceleration rights.

With regards to the existing regional jets fleet, the airline said

Air Canada continues to evaluate the potential replacement of its Embraer E190 fleet with more cost efficient, larger narrowbody aircraft that are better suited to its current and future network strategy. Consistent with this strategy, the agreement with Boeing provides for Boeing to purchase up to 20 of the 45 Embraer E190 aircraft currently in Air Canada's fleet. The E190 aircraft exiting the fleet will be initially replaced with larger narrowbody leased aircraft until the airline takes delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The company will be reviewing various options over the next six months for the remaining 25 Embraer E190 aircraft including continuing to operate them or replacing them with a yet to be determined number of aircraft in the 100 to 150 seat range.

Air Canada's plan is for its total fleet including Air Canada rouge™, but excluding aircraft flown by its contracted regional carriers, to grow from the existing 192 aircraft to approximately 214 aircraft by the end of 2019. Air Canada has 13 options and rights to purchase 10 Boeing 787 aircraft, rights to purchase 13 Boeing 777 aircraft as well as the 18 options and 30 purchase rights for Boeing MAX aircraft.

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Philippine Airlines and Airbus coordinate fourth humanitarian flight for typhoon Haiyan victims

By BA Staff

One month after Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded, struck the Philippines, thousands of people are still left homeless and without food or water.

Since the disaster happened in early November this year, Airbus’ Corporate Foundation has coordinated three relief and goodwill flights, with either Airbus Flight Test aircraft or newly delivered customer aircraft.

This week-end, a fourth flight to the Philippines was coordinated by the Airbus Corporate Foundation and its partners, Philippine Airlines (PAL), Action Contre la Faim, Aviation Sans Frontières and Humedica.

A PAL A330, with four doctors and one nurse on board, loaded with 5.6 tonnes of medical supplies, food and water sanitation equipment, took off on Friday 6th December from Toulouse and landed in Manila, Philippines on Saturday 7th December early morning. This is the third flight using a PAL aircraft since the typhoon struck the country.


Share your thoughts on the corporate social responsibility of these companies and organisations via a comment.

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DragonAir takes advantage of expanded Bangalore airport terminal capacity to improve flight schedules

by Devesh Agarwal

The new expanded terminal at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) will be inaugurated this Saturday, December 14th. At the same time the airport will be re-named in honour of the founder of Bangalore, as Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB).

Aerial view of the expanded terminal at Bangalore airport. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal. All rights reserved.

With the addition of four international gates on the east pier (in the picture above, only the first gate is visible on pier on the left of the photo), airlines have improved access during the prime desired time from 11pm to 1am.

Cathay Pacific's subsidiary DragonAir, which operates a daily A330 service between the city and Hong Kong is one of the first airlines that will take advantage of the expanded capacity of the new terminal.

Its existing poor time slot departs Bangalore at 02:40 and arrives in Hong Kong around 11:00 causing many passengers to miss the morning connections to many onward destinations.

From the Summer 2014 schedule DragonAir will pull forward its schedule. As per Rakesh Raicar, Sales and Marketing Manager - South Asia for the airline group,

“We have already revised our timings from Bengaluru and effective 30 March 2014, Dragonair will depart at 0130 from Bengaluru to Hong Kong. This decision to revise the timings was taken to offer our passengers an early arrival into Hong Kong and greater access to our extensive network. With a departure time of 0130, we will be able to offer better connections to the various cities we operate to, in China, Japan, Korea, North America and Australia.“

With this departure, arrival will be at 10:00. Better than the current 11:00, but still not ideal. In our opinion, DragonAir should try to advance their departure another hour, depart by 00:30 and arrive into Hong Kong by 09:00. To achieve this, the airline will have to advance their Hong Kong departure from the current very late 22:40 to around 20:30, which is still a very good time for both business and trade passengers.

Which other airlines, if any, do you feel should change their schedule at Bangalore? Share your thoughts via a comment.

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Vote for Rotary in United Airline's charity miles give away

As a Rotarian, I seek your help. It will take only about two minutes of your time.

As an annual charity event, United Airlines donates 10 million airline miles to various non-profit charities. Each participating nonprofit partner is guaranteed to receive a minimum of 25,000 miles. The remaining portion of the 10 million total miles will be distributed to all participating nonprofit partners based on the percentage of total votes that each partner received during the voting period.

Please visit the United's 10 Million Charity Miles website and vote at least once a day for Rotary International. You do not have to be a member of Mileage Plus, United's frequent flier program.

Rotary is a global network of volunteers made up of business, professional, and community leaders who meet regularly to plan and carry out civic and humanitarian service activities.

Rotary’s number-one goal is global polio eradication. With partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary has eradicated the disease in all but three countries worldwide.

More than 1.2 million Rotarians in over 200 countries and geographical areas belong to 34,000 Rotary clubs.

Charity Miles help Rotary greatly expand its humanitarian reach. Charity Miles provide airfare for volunteers leading polio eradication efforts in Africa, and send U.S. Gift of Life surgical teams to perform life-saving surgeries in Central America. Charity Miles also help students from disadvantaged families participate in Rotary’s international exchange program.

Thank you.

Devesh Agarwal

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Kuwait Airways signs agreement to buy A350 and A320neo

By BA Staff

Kuwait Airways Airbus A350-900 CGI

European airframer, Airbus has signed an agreement with national carrier Kuwait Airways to buy 10 A350-900s and 15 A320neos.

A little over two weeks ago, Kuwait Airways had suspended its Chairman for publicly stating an intent to buy five A330-200s from India's Jet Airways.

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Emirates commences flights to Kabul

Photo courtesy Emirates

Dubai based Emirates airline commenced flights to Kabul, Afghanistan, its 138th destination and 78th country.

The route is operated by an Airbus A340-500 configured in a three class cabin configuration, offering 12 first, 42 business and 204 economy class seats.

EK 640 will depart Dubai daily at 09:55 and arrive in Kabul at 13:15. EK 641 will leave Kabul at 15:30 hours and arrive back in Dubai at 18:00.

The inaugural flight carried a VIP delegation of diplomats and senior airline staff, and was met by a high level delegation from the Afghan government.

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Cathay Pacific unveils third "Spirit of Hong" special livery Boeing 777-300ER

Cathay Pacific Airways unveiled the third edition of the airline’s “Spirit of Hong Kong” livery painted on one its Boeing 777-300ER B-KPB.

Time lapse video at the end of the article.

The livery design carries the silhouettes of the 110 “The Spirit of Hong Kong” campaign winners.
“The Spirit of Hong Kong” campaign called for entries that best represented the spirit of Hong Kong in terms of the relevance of the message, the ability to inspire, creativity and presentation quality. 200 weekly winners were selected by public voting, then a judging panel selected 100 Top Winners and 10 Champions.

Cathay Pacific began highlighting the spirit of its home city in 1997, when the airline created a special livery for one of its aircraft that showcased the Hong Kong skyline in celebration of the transfer of sovereignty. In 2000, the airline unveiled its second “Spirit of Hong Kong” aircraft, created through a livery design competition, that highlighted the resilience of Hong Kong and urged people to come together to overcome the challenges the city faced.

Time lapse video on the painting of the livery

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