Every so often we see airlines introduce special liveries, typically to celebrate a partnership, cause, or milestone. Emirates has quite a few aircraft in special liveries, and I love most of them. The Dubai-based carrier has just unveiled its newest one-off livery, and it’s… ummm, unique?
In this post:
Emirates unveils special A380 NBA livery
Emirates is the official global airline partner of the NBA, and the inaugural title partner of the Emirates NBA Cup. The airline has just revealed an Airbus A380 in a special nose-to-tail livery, to celebrate the arrival of the 2024-25 NBA season.
The new livery features a blue gradient across the fuselage, punctuated by the NBA logo. The Emirates lettering was transformed from its unique gold font to red, alongside an illustration of a basketball bouncing between the NBA and Emirates logos. The A380’s engine cowls are also in a red color, with the distinct white calligraphy that makes up the Emirates logo.
The aircraft with this special livery is a 10-year-old jet with the registration code A6-EOD. The plane will be cycled throughout Emirates’ network, though its first flight will be to New York in the coming days. You can track the aircraft here.
This special livery was an in-house project performed by the Emirates Engineering Aircraft Appearance Centre teams, and it took 24 days to execute, including stripping, painting, and graphics application processes.
I mean, this livery is certainly eye-catching and stands out, but otherwise, I can’t say I’m a huge fan. The blue just doesn’t match Emirates’ traditional colors, and it all feels a bit much. Then again, I get that the intent here is probably for the livery to attract attention, rather than getting awards for being the prettiest in the world.
I’ve gotta say, Emirates’ United for Wildlife special A380 livery remains my favorite special livery from the airline to date.
Emirates offering NBA inspired products & services
Emirates isn’t just celebrating its NBA partnership by painting one plane, but rather passengers will also notice some changes on select flights and in a handful of lounges.
Between November 1 and December 17, 2024 (coinciding with the Emirates NBA Cup), customers will experience onboard NBA inspired products and services on flights when traveling to and from 14 points in the United States and Canada.
Passengers in every cabin will see aircraft dressed in co-branded headrests, will receive drinks served on specially designed coasters, and can order from court side themed menus. The airline will also serve sports inspired dishes and drinks across all cabin classes and to passengers socializing in the onboard lounge, on flights operated by the A380.
For those who are interested in basketball, passengers will be able to watch select Emirates NBA Cup games live on Sports24 on Emirates’ inflight entertainment system.
On top of that, passengers can enjoy a limited time NBA themed menu at Emirates’ lounges in Dubai (DXB), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), and Boston (BOS).
Bottom line
Emirates has painted an Airbus A380 in a special NBA livery, to celebrate the carrier being the inaugural title partner of the Emirates NBA Cup. One thing is for sure — this special livery will attract some attention! It’s not just the livery of one jet that’s getting the NBA treatment, as we’ll also see the NBA theme in the cabin of Emirates flights to and from the United States and Canada.
What do you make of Emirates’ special NBA livery?
This is so cool!
With the tail still being in 'regular' Emirates branding, this thing becomes a 'miss' in my eyes. It's a bit chaotic, little consistent and doesn't look like it's been though through that much. I'm pretty sure that they could have done much more with this if they would have given it a bit more effort.
For some reason, I've never been a fan of dark blue & dark red as a color combination. It's not particularly ugly, but it just looks dull in a way. That being said, this is still a fairly good-looking livery (it even looks kind of sleek), and, looks aside, it stands out, which is great.
It also kind of reminds me of the Expo 2020 livery, albeit a bit more lifeless due to the...
For some reason, I've never been a fan of dark blue & dark red as a color combination. It's not particularly ugly, but it just looks dull in a way. That being said, this is still a fairly good-looking livery (it even looks kind of sleek), and, looks aside, it stands out, which is great.
It also kind of reminds me of the Expo 2020 livery, albeit a bit more lifeless due to the color combination I mentioned above.
Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. Again, it's not the most "lively", but it still manages to look good, and distinctiveness is always a plus.
Ironically, this plane wouldn't even fly to the location of NBA Cup.
It's like advertising ICC World Cup on Southwest.
Love it, much more cohesive than most of their other ones. The only one I never really liked was the colourful dot, Expo 2020 livery
Cool !
The blue and Orange GO GATORS U of Florida!!!
Flew on A6-EEQ the same animals slightly different United for Wildlife upfront. Was in 50A right near the hind paws of the tiger :)
https://youtu.be/_N00ozQn2Ck
Seriously looking for the 1:200 scale model of the United for Wildlife, however the version I flew on only exists it's in the 1:400 and 1:144 Revell kit. The actual 1:200 version is of the picture Ben posted
It's an A380. It can't more hideous than that disgusting pile of airborne adipose tissue.
Bold and hideous
Holy Moly, that's SouthWest on steroid~~~~
Yep, my first reaction was the same. Saw the photo first, expected the title to say "Southwest get their first A380". Could be fun - an all economy, free-for-all boarding A380 :)
Wow that’s ugly.
Why did they take these photos backlit by the morning sun? I happen to love that shade of blue but this isn’t doing it for me.
That's the evening sun, the Burj Khalifa is west of DXB.
My mistake, but the overarching question stands. Overall the lighting is poor and it’s hard to tell what the blue really looks like in full sunlight. The setting is beautiful but I find it an odd choice.
Terrible - should have done something like the wildlife plane with a bunch of NBA images on white background
Could have liked this livery if at least the nose area was left white.
Tacky. Like most of Emirates cabins. Over the top and garish.
Hideous!
Yeah this just looks bad on the A380.
Besides, what does an NBA partnership in terms of the soft product even mean? If ‘court side menu’ is anything like regular American stadium/arena food, you get what… relatively basic hotdogs and stuff..? I’d much prefer the Hello Kitty planes EVA does
Jack Nicholson will sit next to you in J and shout!
@Ronnie that response was hilarious, well done
It's very Philadelphia 76ers. I get using red white and blue to reflect the league logo but I feel like most folks who watch pro basketball would get the same impression. A more judicious use of color would have looked better.
I can understand both sides. But it looks great, and it's good to see Dubai embracing basketball.
I personally think it's hideous. I don't think of the colors of the NBA logo, like ever. They should have had Basketballs/Hoops the Logo repeated, 5 key players, anything else. This is awful looking.
It looks all right on single story planes, like when ITA does it. On the A380 though, it just doesn't work for me.
Sorry, single deck maybe sounds better?
Yikes
I agree with Julia.
It could have been a lot better if this livery was ITA blue, IMO.