When are the older planes getting painted?

Hello
I was wondering when the aircraft in the older livery are getting painted into the new colour scheme? Does anyone know when they are scheduled to go and get painted?

Nick

Good question[y]

Unfortunately I don't know the answer but I would assume it would be when they go in for heavy maintenance.

VS.

Aircraft get re-painted every 6 years, i think. Most likely when the go to AMS

Don't know where you get that from, 6 years doesn't ring any bells!!!!! It's a major task/expense & like most airlines VS won't repaint on a whim.

The average long haul aircraft gets heavy maintenance (known as a D Check) around every 6 years and dependant on livery condition it will be repainted. Have been a fair few posts on a.net about this sort of thing as well.

The 744's get all there mx done in Amsterdam and the 340's are done in Zurich. Although the UK does have a number of companies capable of repainting including two based at Filton and Southend.

Taking into account that VS has introduced a new livery/corporate image I would imagine that all aircraft will be repainted during their next D Check. It will take a while- after all it took a long time for the pre silver livery to disapear. I wouldnt be surprised if we see another aicraft in the new livery before the next 343 arrives in Spring/Summer.

ALL the previous paint has been carried out by KLM, unless by maker.

Just having a wild guess, but i'd say VFAB was towards the top of the list for the new c/s as its still in the birthday livery.

Originally posted by hairy114
Just having a wild guess, but i'd say VFAB was towards the top of the list for the new c/s as its still in the birthday livery.

G-VWOW would probably be the 1st LHR 744 to go for a D check and or re-paint. She was delivered in Oct 2001 and will be 6 years old later this year. G-VFAB was only re-painted 3 years back.

As for the non LHR aircraft - The 744's aquired from the cancelled AZ order are 6 years old this April/May time. I would imagine they would be the 1st of the LGW/MAN config's to go for re-paint. VS might wait until 2008 though and complete the repaint and J/W seating changes in one hit on these aircraft....

Originally posted by tallprawn

Originally posted by hairy114
Just having a wild guess, but i'd say VFAB was towards the top of the list for the new c/s as its still in the birthday livery.

As for the non LHR aircraft - The 744's aquired from the cancelled AZ order are 6 years old this April/May time. I would imagine they would be the 1st of the LGW/MAN config's to go for re-paint. VS might wait until 2008 though and complete the repaint and J/W seating changes in one hit on these aircraft....

Not too sure- depends if the re-fits are done at the same place as the painting. I seem to recall seating is done in DUB and painint as Denzil said in AMS.

Not too sure- depends if the re-fits are done at the same place as the painting. I seem to recall seating is done in DUB and painint as Denzil said in AMS.

Apologies - I didn't word that very well.

I was attempting to refer to VS taking the aircraft out of service on just one occasion.

It would probably be more prudent and cheaper to get both jobs done in succession rather than completing them done a few months apart and taking the aircraft out of service twice...[y]

Originally posted by tallprawn
Apologies - I didn't word that very well.

I was attempting to refer to VS taking the aircraft out of service on just one occasion.

It would probably be more prudent and cheaper to get both jobs done in succession rather than completing them done a few months apart and taking the aircraft out of service twice...[y]

I think that's normally the usual procedure with repaints. It would be absurd for airlines to take aircraft out of service to simply repaint them. It's better to repaint aircraft when they're in for a long check (maintenance, seat replacement, etc.) that will have them out of service for an extended period anyway.

Originally posted by VS-EWR

Originally posted by tallprawn
Apologies - I didn't word that very well.

I was attempting to refer to VS taking the aircraft out of service on just one occasion.

It would probably be more prudent and cheaper to get both jobs done in succession rather than completing them done a few months apart and taking the aircraft out of service twice...[y]

I think that's normally the usual procedure with repaints. It would be absurd for airlines to take aircraft out of service to simply repaint them. It's better to repaint aircraft when they're in for a long check (maintenance, seat replacement, etc.) that will have them out of service for an extended period anyway.

Yes I agree but in this case I would imagine with the a/c being in AMS for D Check anyway they will repaint at the same time. I think they can do both along side each other. They will kill two birds with one stone and all that.

I doubt that VS- with a new corporate identity will want to hang around for another 18months waiting to paint the fleet- especially if the new seats are put in somewhere different to the repaint company, which I believe they are.

With the silver livery they did them all at D CHeck- hence why the 343s took so long to be repainted, they had D checks (being amongst the first off the production line in 92/93) just before the livery was brought in.

VXLG was painted into the silver livery at the end of 99 when it was just 1 year old. Unless they have a '1 year service' type check then it seems that was taken out of service for just a paint. Seem to remember VBIG was the last 744 to be painted silver in 2002 so that fits in with the 6 year check.