MEDIA RELEASE PR32151
Zichen Hao Takes to the Skies; After Following the Beijing Games, Air China
Continues to Add Visual Sparkle to its Fleet to Emphasize its Association with
the High-end Travel Sector
BEIJING, Oct. 8 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Zichen Hao (Capital Pavilion Liner), a name given to a painted A330-200 named
after Air China's high-end product Capital Pavilion Business Class, made its
first appearance by flying from Beijing to Shanghai on September 19.
Zichen Hao is the first painted airliner launched by Air China to promote its
brand after the Beijing Games. It's inspired by the Company's high-end products
-- Forbidden Pavilion First Class and Capital Pavilion Business Class. Over the
years, Air China has demonstrated its firm commitment to branding. From 2005
onwards, the Company has shelled out RMB688 million to revamp the luxury cabins
onboard its jumbo jets. The Forbidden Pavilion First Class offers enough privacy
and personalized service to make customers feel privileged, and the Capital
Pavilion Business Class emphasizes comfort and convenience.
Three years of hard work to improve both hardware and service has paid off,
with first-rate facilities and personalized, attention-to-detail services now a
highlight. The two luxury cabins are available on most of the Company's flights
to and from the United States and Europe. The launch of the painted airliner is
another effort to seek heightened awareness of the Company's high-end products.
The A330-200 is equipped with spacious and comfy seats that can recline to
170 degrees, AVOD that allows passengers to enjoy views outside the aircraft,
play games and watch movies on LED screens, and power sockets.
The fuselage of the airliner features a piece of artwork depicting a blue
peony and a phoenix -- the legendary bird, which is Air China's corporate logo,
is ingeniously finessed from the twigs and offshoots on the flower's left side.
Peony is China's national flower. It has taken a lot of work to arrive at the
desired visual effects -- technicians have carefully worked out a process to deal
with different aspects of the painting job, including drying time for layers,
intervals and thicknesses.
According to Air China's spokesperson Zhang Chunzhi, Air China began painting
its airliners after it was named the Olympics Airliner Partner -- its fleet of
Olympics-themed airliners included Olympics Liner, Fuwa Liner and Sacred Flame
Liner. To continue that tradition, Air China will continue to roll out painted
airliners, and the Zichen Hao was the first attempt to identify, by the visual
image on the fuselage, the two luxury cabins with Air China.
In October, Zichen Hao will be joined by its cousin, Zijin Hao (Forbidden
Pavilion Liner). Zichen Hao will be put into service on flights from Beijing to
Vancouver, Madrid, Rome, Paris, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Passengers flying
between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao also have the chance to fly with
Zichen Hao.
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