PHOTO: Aeroflot introduces livery to celebrate its 95th anniversary

The aircraft’s aft fuselage and tail is decorated in white and blue tones, in a style based on a traditional Russian motif (Aeroflot)

Russia’s Aeroflot, one of the world’s oldest air carriers, has presented an aircraft adorned in the company’s 95th anniversary celebration livery. The Airbus A321 was decorated according to a design developed by the winner of a public competition.

The livery, decorated in white and blue tones, is stylized in traditional Gzhel patterns, a Russian method of painting ceramics, which takes its name from the village and surrounding area where it has been produced since 1802.

Aeroflot, the national airline of the Russian Federation, insists its birthdate was on March 17, 1923, when Dobrolet, the “Russian company of voluntary air fleet” was created, and which later became the forerunner of Soviet and now Russian Aeroflot.

As for the painted aircraft, the two-year old Airbus A321-200 (msn 6726, registration number VP-BEE) was originally briefly operated by Aeroflot’s domestic arch-rival Transaero Airlines. After only one month’s operation, on lease from China’s ICBC Leasing, the aircraft was returned to the lessor in October 2015, shortly before Transaero’s collapse.