Emirates Airline has given two of its Airbus A380s special liveries to support the charity, United for Wildlife, to raise awareness for fighting illegal wildlife trade.
The first of the specially painted aircraft departed for Heathrow Airport on 2 November and the second will fly to Mauritius on 5 November. The aircraft each have different liveries and Emirates says the decal covers about 40 per cent of the A380s surface area, with the larger design covering 42.5 metres in length and 6.2 metres in width, weighing about 70 kilogrammes. Emirates says the designs took a team of 28 people about two and a half days to apply the decals.
Emirates Airline president, Sir Tim Clark says: “The world is in a global poaching crisis, and everyone has to do their part to stop this, before it is too late. Emirates believes that the global transport industry, including airlines, can play a significant role to break the supply chain of illegal wildlife trade.”
United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce chairman, Lord Hague of Richmond, who was the UK government’s secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs until May 2015, says: “We welcome the efforts and commitment made by Emirates Airline to combat the illegal wildlife trade.”
Emirates says it has been collaborating with international organisations to train and equip ground and cargo staff to detect and deal with illegal wildlife products in transit. It has banned trophy shipments as it says most required paperwork for moving wildlife products is usually forged.
