Malta Air livery revealed!

The first Boeing 737MAX bound for Ryanair’s subsidiary Malta Air has revealed its livery. 9H-VUA was spotted leaving the production line in Renton (WA). The aircraft form part of the Ryanair Group’s firm orders for 210 737MAX aircraft due to be delivered to the low-cost carrier over the coming years.

Two aircraft have been identified, being line numbers 8003 and 8019. However, the tie-up and construction numbers are not yet known.

You may be wondering who Malta Air is, or why Ryanair is going to the trouble of apply its livery to planes. Malta Air is a subsidiary of Ryanair, within the Ryanair Group. The airline operates out of several EU bases including the likes of Cologne and Frankfurt with aircraft registered on the 9H Maltese aircraft registry. Malta Air’s existing Boeing 737s have all come from parent company Ryanair, where they were delivered in the LCC’s livery. Because the Ryanair Group operates on the low-cost model, it doesn’t make sense to pay to repaint aircraft from a financial point of view unless absolutely necessary. After all, it is an unnecessary expense.

However, an opportunity has been created with the delivery of new aircraft. These planes have to be painted anyway, so cost wise it makes no difference to Ryanair and its subsidiaries what paint scheme is applied.

Hence, a very nice red colourscheme has been applied, with a light grey cheatline, a subtle hint of (Ryanair?) yellow on the split-scimitar winglets (dubbed the 737 MAX AT winglet) and a red Maltese cross in the tail, with triangles of various shades of grey. Quite a departure from the well-known dark blue/yellow Ryanair colours.

Only one roadblock remains before Ryanair takes delivery of its first MAX. The -8200 ordered by Ryanair has separate certification requirements due to an additional emergency exit. Once this hurdle is cleared, the Irish low cost carrier is expected to rapidly deploy its new MAX aircraft across its route network.

Photos provided by Malta Aviation Outlook