Air New Zealand All Blacks RWC 1999 Boeing 747-400

Air New Zealand has done a few special liveries for the national rugby team of New Zealand/Aotearoa, the All Blacks.

They had ZK-NQC wear a decal (may have been painted, Idk) for a little bit, sponsoring the Rugby World Cup 1999. It is very similar to the one worn on ZK-NBW (the aircraft depicted above) actually.

ZK-OAB and ZK-MVA are probably the most famous ones to wear a livery dedicated to the All Blacks. OAB even featured 'Crazy About Rugby' titles on it. Both have since been turned into "regular" all black liveries (I say with quotation marks as they are the only one in their respective fleet type to wear the all black livery). Though I have said this before, all types of aircraft in the Air New Zealand fleet presently have one aircraft painted in the full black livery, except for the A320neo, strangely enough. perhaps they are waiting for the domestic A320neo to roll in over the next few years. (Side note the domestic A321neo, and therefore likely the domestic A320neo, will bear the registration pattern ZK-OY_. Figured it was worth mentioning).

Air New Zealand in recent years have not been as keen of an All Blacks sponsor as they have been in the past. The last time I can think they did something on note was during the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan where they did the Air All Blacks safety video. That was the safety video where they 'rebranded' as Air All Blacks to 'show their support for rugby'.

But maybe they will get back into sponsoring and collaborating with the All Blacks in the upcoming years. The 2023 Rugby World Cup, which is scheduled to be hosted in France, is coming up next year, and with this year going past as fast as it has been, and with international travel opening up and growing more and more, I wouldn't be surprised to see more AB/Air NZ collaborations coming around the corner.

ZK-NBW: 1999 Boeing 747-419 | Air New Zealand | Currently: With Asiana Airlines as a converted cargo plane as HL7620, converted to freighter in 2011/2012.