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.
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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.
--Distributed by AsiaNet ( www.asianetnews.net )--