Airlink, Southern Africa’s premier airline, has revealed its latest bespoke-liveried aircraft, an Embraer E190, in a fresh green look.
Airlink E190 Aircraft Dressed in Green
The newly-painted aircraft, registration ZS-YAE, sporting a fresh green hue is in fact associated with sport. It will indeed carry rugby teams around the country.
“The aircraft is one of three sporting our Airlink Skybucks customer loyalty programme paint schemes. Its unveiling coincides with Airlink being named the Official Domestic Airline for the forthcoming Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry 2026 Tournament where we will fly the New Zealand and South African teams and personnel between their matches,” said de Villiers Engelbrecht, Airlink CEO.
The rugby tournament’s official logo is also displayed on both sides of the aircraft and will also soon appear on its black sistership, ZS-YDE.
The E190 made its debut flight from Polokwane to O.R. Tambo International Airport on 30 June. Moreover, from 1 July the aircraft will operate on Airlink’s main domestic as well as its regional services throughout Southern and East Africa.
Locally-done Paintwork
A team of six specially-qualified technicians using electrostatic equipment painted the aircraft at Airlink’s new maintenance base at Polokwane’s Gateway International Airport in Limpopo Province.
The base incorporates a dedicated 96m x 46m aircraft paint-shop, which has the capacity to paint up to 13 aircraft a year.
The paint is indeed certified for aircraft use and was imported from AERO Technique in the Netherlands.
Paint by numbers
| Aircraft fuselage area painted: | 36.24m long with a 3.01m diameter and a 10.57m tail height |
| Coats: | 1 x primer and 2 x green coats |
| Paint consumed: | approx. 60 litres |
| Weight of each coat: | approx. 35kg, excluding hardener and thinners |
| Thickness of each coat: | 55 – 75 microns, i.e. less than the thickness of a human hair |
| Drying time: | about 2 hours between coats |
| Time to complete: | 29 days from start to finish, including stripping and disposing of the previous paint-scheme and preparing the aircraft for re-painting |
| How often Airlink repaints an aircraft: | every 5 – 7 years |
Airlink’s current fleet comprises over 70 Embraer-manufactured aircraft, and together, they carry over four million passengers a year on about 250 flights every day.
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