STARLUX’s new A350-1000 arrives with stunning metallic pair

STARLUX Airlines has taken delivery of the most eye-catching member yet of its rapidly growing long-haul fleet. The Taiwanese carrier’s new Airbus A350-1000, B-58554, arrived at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) at 9:43am on August 16 after its delivery flight from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS).

Named AIRSORAYAMA Gold, the aircraft is the second half of STARLUX’s collaboration with Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama, joinin`g the silver-painted B-58553 that arrived in July. It is also STARLUX’s fourth A350-1000 overall.

AIRSORAYAMA Gold is scheduled to make its commercial debut on August 20 as flight JX800 from Taipei to Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), where STARLUX plans to display it alongside AIRSORAYAMA Silver so that Sorayama can see the finished pair together.

The two aircraft are far more than an unusual diversion from STARLUX’s normal paint scheme. They form part of a three-year art and engineering project, while the A350-1000 beneath that artwork is becoming increasingly central to the airline’s premium long-haul growth strategy.

STARLUX announced its collaboration with Sorayama in January, describing the project as an attempt to combine his hyperrealistic robotic aesthetic with the mechanical form of the A350-1000. Born in 1947, Sorayama is internationally known for images that blur human and machine forms through remarkably realistic chrome and metallic surfaces. Rather than create a single special livery, STARLUX gave him two new A350-1000s as canvases, scheduled to be the third and fourth of the type delivered by Airbus direct to the airline.

Silver was delivered from Toulouse to Taipei on July 4–5 before making its first long-haul commercial appearance at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) on July 15. Gold followed approximately six weeks later.

After its Narita debut on August 20, B-58554 is also scheduled to appear on flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) from August 26. That makes the arrival of Gold the point at which what had previously been a one-aircraft preview becomes the complete AIRSORAYAMA pairing.