KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — Garuda Indonesia has become the latest airline to introduce a new "masked” aircraft livery in keeping with the times.

The national flag carrier painted a special mask design on one of its Airbus A330-900 Neo in support of the Indonesian government’s "Let’s Wear Masks” campaign which aims to curb the spread of the Covid-19 infection.

In a Twitter post, the airline posted a behind-the-scenes video of the painting works.

It noted that it took 60 people and 120 hours to put the blue surgical mask onto the nose of the aircraft.

Ada 60 orang dan 120 jam agar pesawat Neo dapat menggunakan masker! Jadilah bagian dengan selalu berkomitmen menggunakan masker. Tunjukkan kreativitas terbaik Anda dalam mendesain masker untuk 4 livery pesawat lainnya! Cek S&K lengkapnya di bio Instagram GA #AyoPakaiMasker pic.twitter.com/oQnYdvodTZ

Garuda also announced that at least four more aircraft will be sporting face masks designed by the public through an online contest dubbed "Fly Your Design through the Sky.”

Local news portal The Jakarta Post, quoted the airline’s president and chief executive officer Irfan Setiaputra saying the initiative was to support the government’s effort to curb the spread of the Covid-19 disease.

"One way we do that is by encouraging people to wear masks.”

The newly-painted aircraft will mainly serve domestic routes as well as limited international flights to Singapore and Japan.

In August, President Joko Widodo called for intensified efforts to encourage the public to wear face masks following a surge in the number of daily Covid-19 cases in the country.

Other international airlines that unveiled face mask livery include Luxembourg-based cargo airline Cargolux and Russia’s budget carrier Pobeda Airlines.