Kuban's ZK-TLB

ZK-TLB (c/n 26310, l/n 2680), a 737-3Q8 owned by ILFC, is making its way to New Zealand, where it will join the Toll Airwork fleet. It's still wearing the livery of its last lessee, Kuban Airlines [GW/KIL] (Russia). The flight originated from GYR, but not sure if it made a stop in California, before flying to HNL. ZK-TLB is seen above, on Taxiway RT, as it prepares to depart for APW, then AKL.

26310 was originally leased to Continental Airlines as N14381, and delivered in January 1995. Its next lessee was KLM's UK off-shoot, Buzz [UK/UKA] (United Kingdom) as G-BZZE in December 2002. It was transferred to Ryanair [FR/RYR] (Ireland) in April 2003, after Ryanair acquired Buzz, and remained in the Buzz livery. As Ryanair replaced older 737s with 737NGs, G-BZZE was returned to ILFC. In December 2004, the UK's bmibaby [WW/BMI] leased it as G-TOYA until 2010. Russia's Kuban Airlines leased it in May 2010 as VQ-BHB, until the airline ceased operations in February 2012.

 The above photo shows that the Russian Federation seal and flag has yet to be removed.

Photo of the sunflowers on the aft portion of ZK-TLB, as it was parked on the Bradley Pacific Aviation ramp.

Mahalo to team member Lono68 for the close-up photos.