HNA Aviation Technic subsidiary STTS Hainan Aerospace Painting Company Limited (APC) has freshly completed a complete aircraft livery painting service for a Boeing-777 belonging to Qatar Airways at the one-stop aircraft maintenance industry base of the Hainan Free Trade Port in Haikou City, Hainan Province. This was the first complete aircraft livery painting service for a inbound wide-body aircraft performed in the Hainan Free Trade Port.

 

 

The Boeing-777 belonging to Qatar Airways sent to Hainan for Livery Painting (Photo: HNAT-STTS）

HNAT-STTS and Qatar Airways signed a three-year aircraft livery painting agreement valued at nearly 100 million yuan ($14 million) at the beginning of 2024. In celebration of the conclusion of the 2024/2025 UEFA Championship, Qatar Airways sent the  Boeing-777 wide-body aircraft  to Hainan for livery painting under the Hainan FTP’s favorable policies, which include deposit-free maintenance and duty-free replacement parts.

“The most crucial part of the livery painting process is the positioning of the graphics. Every single graphic, logo, and icon must be placed precisely and accurately”, explained a member of the HNAT-STTS  staff. As there are hundreds of graphics on the body of the aircraft, the company created their own template for identification and positioning in order to ensure success.

The image of a giant 17.5 meter wide football, which had to be placed in matching locations on both sides of the fuselage, was the most challenging element for both making the template and painting the livery. Color gradients, line density, and the large size of the image made it necessary to create the template piece by piece.

This difficult challenge could have derailed the project, but the highly skilled, meticulous operators perfectly blended the UEFA Championship elements into the livery of the Boeing 777.

Established in 2012,  STTS is a joint venture between HNAT and SATYS  CO., Ltd. from France, allowing STTS  to take advantage of resources for improving the aircraft livery service from both, while also optimizing the level of facilities and equipment.

The company relocated to the Hainan one-stop aircraft maintenance industry base in April 2022, expanding from a single narrow hangar before the move to occupy one wide and two narrow hangars afterwards. The company is certified to paint livery for a wide variety of different aircraft including Airbus-330, Airbus-320, Airbus-350, Boeing-737, and Boeing-787.