34 workers spent 6,000 hours repainting Emirates Airbus A380

This incredible time-lapse video shows 34 people putting in 6,000 hours of work across 15 days to repaint an Emirates Airbus A380. 

The Emirates Aircraft Appearance Centre is a state-of-the-art painting facility in Dubai, where its planes can be given a fresh lick of paint to keep them looking slick. 

As well as ensuring its planes are in tip-top technical condition, Emirates prides itself on every detail of its fleet’s appearance meeting the same high standards. 

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Emirates carried out a mammoth round of plane maintenance

Airplane maintenance is an important – and costly – business. 

One young pilot revealed the jaw-dropping amount he spends to keep his 1968 Cessna 150 in good condition; while on a much larger scale, the cost of taking care of Concorde was said to run into millions. 

On a similar large scale, is the ongoing upkeep of the Emirates fleet, with the airline completing 33 aircraft makeovers in 12 months back in 2016.

That’s the equivalent of 13 percent of its fleet undergoing the full makeovers, which included being completely stripped and repainted. 

In total, three Airbus A380s and 22 Boeing 777s were given a fresh coat of paint, as well as eight aircraft that were due to be retired. 

A time-lapse clip shared by the airline showed the amazing amount of manpower that goes into giving an A380 – the world’s largest commercial aircraft – a repaint. 

It’s a lengthy process from start to finish

“The process for repainting an A380 involves four different stages starting from: preparing and masking the aircraft to protect sensitive components from paint application; chemical stripping of existing paint; sanding of external surfaces followed by the actual phase of repainting which comprises of pre-treatment, painting of the aircraft with various coats, marking of signs and finally, the application of a clear coat for gloss retention,” Emirates explained.

Once the painting is all done, the plane has an ‘exhaustive inspection’ and is quality-checked before it can go back into service. 

A team of 34 professionals clocked up almost 6,000 man-hours to complete the repainting of the plane – known as Echo Delta Delta. 

The mammoth ‘strip and repaint’ makeover was completed in 15 days, which set a new company record. 

In total, seven coats of paint – weighing 1,100 kilograms – were applied on Echo Delta Delta, with the painting process taking seven days. 

And it’s incredibly satisfying to watch.