Emirates' first repainted Boeing 777 has taken to the skies. A6-ENV is on its way to Amsterdam Schiphol at the time of publishing, making it the first destination to see this repainted 777. Emirates announced a livery refresh after 24 years in the sky and already has one Airbus A380 carrying the colors. Here's more.

Second in the fleet

The Dubai-based super connector is one of the most recognizable international airlines thanks to its sprawling network. Now, the airline is showing off its new colors for only the third time. The first twin-engine aircraft to get the livery is A6-ENV, a Boeing 777-300ER that was first delivered to the carrier in October 2014, 8.6 years ago.

Data shows that A6-ENV was pulled from service on April 20th and towed to the airline's hangar to be repainted. Exactly two weeks later, the 777 is back in commercial service. On May 4th, it is flying as EK149 from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), scheduled to land at 20:05 local time. The carrier shared the news over Twitter and invited fans to track the flight on FlightRadar24.com.

Photo: FlightRadar24.com

At the time of writing, the plane is roughly 80 miles west of Budapest, Hungary, entering the last 90 minutes of the journey. EK149 left Dubai almost 45 minutes late but made up the time during the flight, only landing a few minutes behind schedule now. Here's the old livery to jog your memory again.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

What's changed?

At its core, the Emirates livery retains the same DNA. The UAE flag adorns the tail, while the airline's name is on both sides of the fuselage in massive gold letters. However, the livery looks far more modern. The most striking difference is the tail, which has a "dynamic and flowing 3D effect artwork," per the carrier.

The wingtips have been refreshed too, with the inside (passenger-facing carrying the same dynamic UAE flag artwork and the outside featuring the Arabic calligraphy of Emirates, now on a red background. Finally, the bold Emirates text on the fuselage is 32.5% larger, the Arabic name has been retained next to the English one, and the emirates.com link has been removed from below the text.

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The carrier plans to repaint the entire fleet, starting with seven A380s and seventeen 777s by the end of 2023. Two are now completed and expect to see more coming out of the hangar soon. So, how long does the process take?

Not done lightly

Airlines tend to be conservative with their livery refreshes, sticking to changes only every few decades and gradually rolling them out to the existing fleet. The reason is simple: repainting takes a long time. Emirates' first 777 was out of service for 14 days while applying the new livery, which needs several layers of paint. Similarly, the first A380 was out for 17 days while the crew worked on it.

Airlines slowly roll out their repainting schedules to reduce network disruption and minimize the cost of multi-million dollar jets not flying. It will be years before Emirates finishes its fleet repaint, but with much of its A380 fleet preparing to undergo a reconfiguration to include premium economy, it is a great time to paint the fresh livery as well.

What do you think about Emirates' new livery? Let us know in the comments!