Editor’s Note: AirlineGeeks is proud to present our ‘Livery of the Week’ series. Every Friday, a team member will share an airline livery, which can be from the past, present, or even a special scheme. Some airline liveries are works of art. The complexity associated with painting around critical flight components and the added weight requires outside-the-box thinking from designers. The average airliner can cost upwards of $200,000 to repaint, creating a separate aircraft repainting industry as a result.
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German-Turkish leisure airline Sun Express has unveiled its latest special livery that is celebrating the release of a new “The Smurf” movie, a live-action animated musical fantasy comedy film based on The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo. The movie is produced by Paramount Pictures and if stars many A-listers of the show business including the singer Rihanna who is also a co-producer
The small blue creatures are displayed on the center and aft sections of the fuselage in their enchanted environment, with the slogan “smurfing the skies” appearing on the front section of the aircraft underneath the “Sun Express” name.
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SunExpress was founded in Antalya, Turkey, in 1989 by the two flag carriers of Germany and Turkey. The two countries are deeply linked, with approximately 3 million Turkish immigrants living in Germany and almost seven million German tourists visiting Turkey every year, making Germany the largest source market for tourism to Turkey.
The carrier subsequently opened three more bases in Dalaman, Izmir, and Ankar,a and it currently flies an all-Boeing 737 fleet of 78 aircraft to 92 destinations.
Former GOL Aircraft
The aircraft painted in this special livery is a Boeing 737-8EH aircraft, registered as TC-SPY, and it was delivered to its original owner, Brazilian low-cost airline GOL Transportes Aereos, on May 28, 2011. It was returned to the lessor DAE Capital in December 2023, and it was re-registered on the Turkish registry on June 7, 2024. It is configured in an all-economy configuration with 186 seats.
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