Global Southern Airlines’ A380 is finally a thing of the past
It’s been a slow and painful process, but the Airbus A380 9H-GLOBL has finally shed its past as a China Southern Airlines aircraft.
The double-decker aircraft acquired by British newcomer Global Airlines has finally gotten its own livery.
James Asquith, the airline’s founder, took to social media to vent. In a “letter” to China Southern, he thanked the airline for the memories of the "forced marriage and hybrid livery".
“The endless sleepless nights seeing blue stripes in my dreams, and overcoming the challenges that (although I wish they were easy) aren’t as simple as whacking out a paintbrush on the largest aircraft in the world,” he wrote.
According to Asquith, the task of repainting the world’s largest commercial aircraft is not easy, since there are no paint shops for the A380 and the wait can take two years.
“Global Southern Airlines”
After displaying another A380 with the Global Airlines branding, the businessman registered the first aircraft of the type just over a year ago.
The aircraft that flew for China Southern Airlines was stored in the California desert and then underwent a gradual reactivation.
First, the A380 flew to Scotland still displaying the Chinese livery but with the name “Global Airlines” applied to the fuselage. Then the aircraft flew to Germany, where after an overhaul it received the logo on the tail.
Finally, in Portugal, the 9H-GLOBL jet lost the blue stripes that so tormented Asquith.
“Blue stripes will forever live in my mind, and well, the internet did itself proud, where endless speculation occurs, but today…’Global Southern Airlines’ is no more,” he breathed a sigh of relief.
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Ricardo Meier
Creator of the website that started in 1996 as a magazine. He also writes on Brazilian websites AUTOO, MOTOO and MetrôCPTM.
