Emirates Expo 2020 Dubai
Emirates Expo 2020 Dubai

Emirates Reveals Special Expo 2020 Dubai Livery on A380

Emirates has just revealed a head-turning A380 livery dedicated to the up-coming Expo 2020 Dubai.

Special ‘Dubai Expo’ and ‘Be Part of the Magic’ messages run across both sides of the A380 fuselage. The engine cowls also carry the Expo 2020 Dubai messages and dates of the event.

In addition, the brave Burj Khalifa stuntwoman who appeared in the recent viral Emirates ad, carries an invitation to visit the event on both sides of the aircraft, holding a message board that says: ‘See you there’ and ‘Dubai Expo Oct-Mar 2022’.

Emirates Special Expo 2020 Dubai Livery on A380, A6-EEU.
Emirates Special Expo 2020 Dubai Livery on A380, A6-EEU.

Painting the Special Livery

The new A380 livery was designed, painted, produced and installed in-house by the teams at Emirates Engineering. The livery was not just a decal, but a complete paint project, and is by far the largest one the airline has ever embarked on.

The paint on A6-EEU, the aircraft chosen for the livery, was completely stripped. After that, eleven colours were applied on the aircraft in a careful, methodically sequenced manner. A ‘wild spray method’, electrostatic spray guns and conventional cup guns were used to put on the different colours, using over 2,500 square meters of tracing and masking material. All of the stencils and tracing guides were produced in-house by the airline’s UV printer and graphics workshop, and took numerous hours to fabricate and complete.

Decals were then applied on the engine cowls and, as well as the image of the Emirates Cabin crew holding the message boards adjacent to the aircraft’s exits.

The process of painting the livery design and applying the decals took 16 days and 4,379 man-hours to complete.

The new Expo 2020 Dubai livery will appear on a total of three Emirates A380 aircraft. The special A380 Expo 2020 livery will head to Los Angeles on 29 September.

Photos: Emirates