Originally Posted by
dr dre
...
As far as I can tell no one seemed to notice or care when Air NZ dropped the small NZ flag from their aircraft when they changed liveries in 2013.
Air New Zealand had been a bit on again, off again when it came to the New Zealand flag being displayed on their aircraft.
The flag was on the tail of the old Tasman Empire Airways Ltd (TEAL) aircraft between 1954 - 1965. They then dropped it in 1965 when they adopted Air New Zealand into the company name and the flag wasn't reinstated to their livery until 1981. The flag was retained with the adoption of the "Pacific Wave" paint scheme in 1996 before being dropped when they adopted the "Silver Fern" livery in 2013.
Of note with regards to the "Silver Fern" livery was that that was adopted on Christopher Luxon's watch as CEO. Luxon was a vocal advocate at that time for changing the New Zealand flag to Kyle Lockwood's blue, white and black silver fern flag.