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Putting the ‘Zip’ into ZIPAIR Tokyo’s stride

December 20, 2019

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The inaugural flights of JAL’s new budget carrier will take place in 2020

Japan Airlines’ (JAL) launch last year of its newest low-cost carrier – ZIPAIR Tokyo Inc (ZIPAIR) – gave the specialist coatings team and technicians at AkzoNobel a chance to show off their design and manufacturing skills, ready for the airline’s inaugural flights in 2020.

Officially launched in March 2019 with two Boeing 787-8 aircraft, the new budget carrier worked with a team from AkzoNobel for more than 12 months in developing the design, color and appropriate coatings system for their new livery. The challenge was to develop three specified colors – Trust Green, Japan Black, and Harmony Gray – specified for the new design.

Jemma Lampkin, Asia Regional Sales Director at AkzoNobel said: “We were thrilled to be selected by JAL to work with them to develop the coatings system for their new livery. The result is a subtle, classic design which I’m sure will impress travelers. AkzoNobel’s Aerodur Basecoat Clearcoat was chosen for its proven performance characteristics and we worked closely with the team at ZIPAIR to create the impact and finish they were looking for.”

Experts from AkzoNobel were also on hand to support ZIPAIR & JAL Engineering team and HAECO Xiamen.

The ZIPAIR team said the result is fantastic: “We have a long and established partnership with AkzoNobel and have enjoyed working with them to deliver a coatings solution that not only matches our color design specifications, but also delivers the reliability and sustainability that we are looking for.” ZIPAIR will operate two routes starting in May and July of 2020 to Bangkok and Seoul respectively.

Its plan is to grow the number of 787-8 aircraft in its fleet to 10 within five years. ZIPAIR is 100% owned by JAL and one of two low-cost carriers owned by the airline. The colors were developed at AkzoNobel’s Troy Research and Development (R&D) center in Michigan, USA and manufactured at AkzoNobel’s facility in Waukegan, Illinois.