Livery Details
The Martinair livery for the A320-200
Optional: Image or Link to Reference
Taken just prior to repainting into TACA livery (Just over a month later it would be written off after overunning a runway),
Why should this livery be added?
2 aircraft were leased by Martinair from LACSA of Costa Rica, at the time becoming part of TACA and then part of Avianca as part of TACA’s acquisition. The first, N464TA, was painted into the full Martinair scheme in October 2005, flying in the colours until between March and June 2007 when it was painted into TACA colours. The second, EI-TAF, leased from May 2007 and wearing the livery until March 2008 when it was returned (Being written off in an accident 2 months later). The aircraft, at least according to Google Gemini which is useless unless you hold its hand and guide it through what you need (How people rely on Ai is beyond me, it’s complete rubbish), were supposedly used on routes in Europe from AMS to help the airline with the increased capacity, but I cannot find any photos of them being operated in Europe, but plenty of them flying from Costa Rica to Miami and Orlando for LASCA. Martinair operated 3 other A320s from 2003 til 2007 and leased another 2 between 2006 and 2007 for European support, all painted in the old livery, yet these 2 were in the new livery and no photos of them in Europe exist, at least as far as I can see but it adds up that that’s where they’d be operated.
After writing all this, I bullied gemini for a bit and finally it provided evidence to explain that the aircraft were operated for Martinair’s feeder network, so flights arriving from AMS via the B763 and the MD-11 (When converted for pax use), could switch at Miami and Orlando to a Martinair branded aircraft and continue onwards to Costa Rica so there was no interruption to the brand experience for the carrier’s passengers.
Anyway, it would give Martinair a short haul aircraft for player European airports, and a fantastically snazzy livery to have in a line up. In addition to this regarding what I’ve eventually found, if not added as an integral part of Martinair’s short haul fleet in Europe, it could be a cool special livery for playable airports in the Americas, though I’d personally prefer to have it as a normal contract at my European airports.