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Air New Zealand Paints Their Itty-Bittiest Plane All Black

January 10, 2012 at 1:16 PM | by | Comment (1)

YES—another all-black plane has taken to the skies. For the third time, Air New Zealand is honoring the country's rugby team—the All Blacks—with an aircraft painted in the team colors, which would be all black (plus a little white and gray to form the fern of the team logo).

The first AirNZ plane to get the treatment was a Airbus A320, then they upgraded to repainting a Boeing 777. This time, however, AirNZ has chosen the smallest of their fleet—a Beech 1900D, newly completed.

Keep a look out for the tiny black plane (and two more upcoming) buzzing its propellers on AirNZ's shorter domestic routes, such as between Blenheim and Christchurch.

[Photo: Air New Zealand]

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Ninja Plane? This Air New Zealand 777 Gets Painted Jet Black

December 19, 2011 at 8:40 AM | by | Comments (0)

If a black airplane lands at night, do you even see it land at all? Okay that was kinda stupid, but all words pale in comparison to the awesomeness of the newest Boeing 777-300ER to be delivered to fun-loving Air New Zealand. It's the All Blacks-edition jet, the second plane in AirNZ's fleet to be outfitted in the black livery that's an ode to the rugby team All Blacks. One could even say the color is jet black.

The 777 is fresh off the Boeing assembly line in Everett, WA and lucky to start its life as the pimpest-looking plane in the sky. It's actually the largest plane painted noir, as the old Playboy DC-9 is long gone and AirNZ's other black metal is the smaller Airbus A320, confined to domestic itineraries. But this baby—this one with its three classes (four if you count the Skycouch)—this one is also flying further, like to LAX and London from Auckland.

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Air New Zealand Kills Off Their Viral Video Puppet. Literally.

December 5, 2011 at 2:04 PM | by | Comment (1)

Air New Zealand's new viral media campaign asks fans and followers to solve the murder of Rico, their obnoxious creepster of a puppet, by playing an online game.

The rat-like character, you'll remember, had been slowly making the transition merely sleazy to borderline rapey over a series of videos. Apparently the airline's creatives ran out of ideas, so they killed him.

The game is a Clue knockoff in which players are asked to determine which celebrity killed Rico where with what etc etc. The story is that Rico was killed at a Hollywood house-warming party, and so many of his former interviewees apparently make appearances. There's also some kind of prize which includes economy airfare to LA, a hotel stay, Universal Studios and Disney vouchers, and some other stuff. We're unsure whether "not playing the game at all" because "you really don't care" makes you eligible, but the rules and conditions spell everything out.

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Gotta Get Away? Air New Zealand Now Lets You 'Grabaseat' for Cheap

November 29, 2011 at 8:45 AM | by | Comments (0)

Take a pinch of premium airline and a dash of low-cost carrier and the end product will be low airfares with a whole lot of confusion. This week, Air New Zealand launched a new fare on domestic services by using a little of this recipe. They're calling it grabaseat™ and, by the looks of it, ANZ is attempting innovation by offering cheap prices so long as you're willing to abide by tighter rules.

grabaseat™ is ANZ's solution to budget carriers, but isn't offered on all flights. The fare is so basic it only allows for 7kg (15 lbs.) of carry-on baggage; anything over that will be a further charge. Since most of these fares are offered on flights that don't even have overhead compartments—in the case of their Beechcraft—the 7 kilo limit might make boarding a bit easier. If flying with nothing but a camera isn't your idea of fun, then you will have to cough up about $10 US to check a bag.

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The Who, What, Where, and Why of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards

November 16, 2011 at 10:46 AM | by | Comments (0)

Harvest may be over in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but south of the equator they’re headed into spring, and in New Zealand, that means it’s time for the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, the biggest, most prestigious wine competition on the country. And yes, it’s sponsored by an airline.

6.5 MILLION GLASSES OF WINE

We’ve already explained just what makes Air New Zealand’s wine program so unique—including the fact that the airline takes its role as an ambassador of all things New Zealand very seriously, leading its top brass back in 2004-2005 to make the decision to serve only New Zealand wines (except Champagne and Port) on its planes, and that it serves over 6.5 million glasses of NZ wine a year, making it the largest single server of New Zealand wines in the world.

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A History of Air New Zealand's Crazy Celebrity Videos, Now Including the 'Playboy' Twins

October 10, 2011 at 1:51 PM | by | Comments (0)

They call it "Cuddle Class," but we affectionately think of it as "Economy Kama Sutra." That's right, we're talking about the infamous Air New Zealand Skycouch.

It's an unconventional seating idea—selling three economy seats with extra room as a kind of convertible bed for two passengers—and AirNZ has been going about marketing it in unconventional ways. But then, when have they ever been conventional? They have a pitch-black plane and body-painted crew for goshsakes!

Lately, however, Air New Zealand has taken the celebrity route to pitch the seats, involving such unlikely names as Richard Simmons, David Hasselhoff, Snoop Dogg and now...the scandalous Playboy twin ex-girlfriends of Hugh Hefner. Watch above as they flirt with AirNZ's latest mascots.

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Flying 14 Hours in Air New Zealand's Snazzy New White 'Spaceseat'

October 4, 2011 at 4:34 PM | by | Comment (1)

And now a dispatch from DJ Max Graham, who's somewhere off in the world...

I spent 36 hours with Air New Zealand recently; that's 14 hours in the infamous Skycouch on the way to Auckland from LA, many hours in assorted airport lounges, and 14 hours back, where I was lucky enough to be upgraded to Business the new Premium Economy called "Spaceseats." This is my review of that second leg.

First off, Air NZ gets it. Not only are they pushing the boundaries of the in-flight experience with completely innovative and unique products, but their staff are simply excellent. The small country has a pride you can feel in the flagship airline’s staff, and smiles were all around.

I was extremly excited to try the “Spaceseat” on the new Boeing 777-300ER and ended up with a bulkhead window and no one beside me. Right away I felt as if I was accidentally in business class, hoping nobody catches me. There’s no way this is just an economy product! But it is. Bottled Water, pillow and blanket greeted me as I entered my pod.

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Air New Zealand Will Air 'Top Gun' During an 80s Movie Fest in London

August 18, 2011 at 10:40 AM | by | Comments (0)


Lovely as London is, it’s just not been very summery this summer, so we don’t blame Londoners dreaming of somewhere sunny...like California.

Which is where Air New Zealand and the California Tourist Board come in. They’ve teamed up with Future Cinema, which turns a trip to the movies into a full-on live experience, to convert a “secret location on the Thames” into '80s California for two nights, September 3-4.

On the Saturday, they’ll screen The Lost Boys. On the Sunday, Top Gun.

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Lindsay Lohan Stars Opposite Air New Zealand's Creepy Puppet Rico. Hilarity Ensues.

August 2, 2011 at 11:30 AM | by | Comments (3)

By our count this is the third or fourth round of viral Air New Zealand ads with their overtly sexual spokespuppet Rico, and the second time we're posting about him. The first time around we dubbed him a creepster, awarded him no points, and asked God to have mercy not only on his soul, but also on the souls of the creatives who did the ads and the focus group participants who found the videos funny.

The overarching concept is that Rico keeps talking about how awesome New Zealand is, except he explains himself by saying dirty things like "I love her bush—it's amazing," "I can feel her wind—she's blowing you," and "you can lick the crack." Get it? Because he's a felt hand puppet with fangs, but he says things that are sexual. How could this idea get any better, you might wonder. By having Lindsay Lohan guest star opposite Rico. Obviously.

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Chile's Puyehue Volcano Eruption Grounding Flights Across Australia and New Zealand

June 13, 2011 at 8:49 AM | by | Comments (0)

Well this is getting kind of tired. In March Big Ash Problems caused by erupting volcanoes grounding flights throughout Japan. Then in May it was Europe's turn, with the ash cloud from Iceland's Grimsvotn eruption disrupting air travel first in Scotland and then in other parts of the continent.

Now the Puyehue volcano in Chile has blown its top. First the ash cloud first wrecked havoc on Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Then over the weekend it traveled across the Pacific and shut down airports from Melbourne to New Zealand. With some flights still grounded indefinitely, 2011 is shaping up to be even worse than 2010, the year of vengeful air travel volcano gods.

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JetBlue, Lufthansa and United Round Out This Week's New Routes

May 27, 2011 at 9:13 AM | by | Comments (0)

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· JetBlue:
At this point JetBlue could probably just change their name to Caribbean Airways, as they’ve got so many flights to and from different slices of paradise every day of the week. This week the airline is adding a fifth destinations to the Dominican Republic—La Romana to be specific—from New York’s JFK Airport. The flights won’t start up until just before Thanksgiving, but once they do, they'll run on Wednesdays and Saturdays—perfect for a long weekend.

· United:
We knew that United Airlines was planning to add some airplanes between Los Angeles and Shanghai, and last week was when the route officially kicked off. They have around 11 flights or so to China from all of their various hubs across the United States, and this new one will do its thing thanks to a little assistance from some Boeing 777s. Expect them to leave at 1:30pm from California and arrive over in China at like 6:00pm—that’s a long flight for sure, so let’s hope they’ve got a good in-flight movie or two.

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Richard Simmons and Snoop Dogg: Coming to an Air New Zealand Flight Near You

March 28, 2011 at 9:01 AM | by | Comments (0)

If there is one video you watch today, please let it be this one. Introducing the newest in-flight safety video from Air New Zealand, a short film in its own right, which continues what's becoming a tradition of AirNZ viral videos.

Mashable went so far as to call it the "best in-flight safety video ever." It's great and got us bopping a bit in our seats, sure, but if you're a frequent AirNZ flyer, then we can imagine several Simmons' peppy workouts a week equals annoyance. It's not the best thing ever; their bodypaint in-flight safety vid really started them on this roll, so that should get some credit:

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