The eye-catching livery of Azul Airlines’ latest Embraer jet represents a collaboration between the … [+] operator, the aircraft maker, paint and coating manufacturers and a Sao Paulo street artist Courtesy of Embraer
Brazil’s top-rated Azul commercial airline has always thought out-of-the-box by providing routes to under-serviced destinations in the country. In fact, Azul was founded by U.S. airline executive David Neeleman, who also founded JetBlue Airways. But a recently unveiled Embraer E195-E2s aircraft with a gorgeous tropical livery shows just how unexpectedly innovative an airline can be.
Designed by São Paulo graffiti artist Luiz Pardal, the E2’s exterior work of art features 58 vibrant paint colors (28 are specially blended) to capture the look of Brazil’s tropical landscape in the air. The airline worked with performance coating maker AzkoNobel and Tintas Coral, a Brazilian paint company, for the project.
A close-up look at artist Luiz Pardal’s exquisite work on the jet. Courtesy of Embraer
The work was completed over 10 days at aircraft manufacturer Embraer’s facility in São José dos Campos, Brazil. The exacting detail gives the impression of being painted by hand, but the process involved masking the aircraft and then applying paint using automated robots over a series of sessions. The paint itself is extremely durable and is designed to withstand the demands of high-volume commercial flight.
Three ararinhas (Spix’s macaws) are depicted on each side of the aircraft, which has been dubbed “Ararinha Azul.” And, for the keen-eyed, look for a sparrow at the back of the fuselage; it’s artist Luiz Pardal’s signature mark as “pardal” is Portuguese for “sparrow.”