How to tell the difference between Air New Zealand's planes

Air New Zealand’s aircraft are a favourite among plane-spotters, with their striking black-and-white () paint jobs, and .

The airline has a diverse fleet, ranging in size from the 50-seater to the three-class, 342-seater .

Most of us can easily tell the . But it gets a little harder when it comes to telling the specific models apart.

Air New Zealand has shared some clues that will you help you figure out exactly what aircraft you’re looking at – so you can sound like a real plane spotting pro.

It’s an Airbus A320 or A321. These are the jets you’ll spot the most overhead, with a , like between Auckland and Wellington, and an international type used on trans-Tasman routes as well as to the Pacific Islands.

These aircraft are Air New Zealand’s smallest jets, so you can identify them by their size, or you can look at the edges of their wings – they have fins called “sharklets” (these also feature the koru on them).

Some of the airline’s older A320 aircraft have “triangles” on the edges of the wings, known as “wingtip fences”.

It’s a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This is the middle-sized jet that Air New Zealand flies, and is used on many of its international routes – including its longest, .

It can be hard to tell the difference between a Boeing 787 and a Boeing 777, but the trick is to look at both the wings and tail.

As well as having incredibly flexible, curvy wings, the Boeing 787's tail has a cone-shaped tip. This is covering an engine called an Auxillary Power Unit (APU), which keeps the plane running when the main engines aren't going.

It’s a Boeing 777. This is Air New Zealand’s biggest jet, and the workhorse on popular international routes like Auckland to Los Angeles. .

Apart from its size, this aircraft doesn’t have too many distinctive features – no wing fins, no curves. But if you look at the tail, you’ll notice it has a wedge-shaped tip, which also covers the APU.

It’s a Q300. Air New Zealand has 23 of these turboprops, which service regional ports like Gisborne, Timaru, Whangarei and Hokitika.

Aside from being the smallest aircraft in the fleet, the tell-tale sign you’re looking at a Q300 is that the propellers and landing gear are mounted on the wings.

It’s an . These are slightly larger than the Q300, with capacity for 68 passengers, but fly similar regional routes, such as Auckland to Napier or Christchurch to Dunedin.

What sets it apart from the Q300 is that the landing gear is located in the body of the aircraft, also known as the fuselage. You can see the bulges where it all goes, and when the landing gear is retracted, you can still see the wheels poking out at the bottom.