Originally Posted by
Cat Techie
Because the rudder on a lot of aircraft is balanced, similar to elevators and ailerons. Repaint can seriously alter the characteristics of the control surface, especially to flutter. Sometimes surfaces come off during a paint input but requires engineers and equipment. Bigger aircraft would need an input to a type specific MRO for rudder removal, repaint and fitting. Certaily the likes of Boeings and Airbus.
The tail on the ATR doesn't get removed when painting. Significant scaffolding is needed though. Most likely there wasn't a slot to get painted at the various companies that worked for Eastern. There is a fair lead time at present for slots, probably due to lots of factors not just the number of planes needing to be painted. Also consider that eastern dont really have a uniform colour scheme at present with the current ATRs just using the hybrid eastern / Bristow scheme.
Whilst its nice having a plane painted, the average customer won't notice or care. They will take more notice of the cabin as they spend more time there but even that will only form part of the overall product experience.