The main mechanism of degradation of thermal barrier systems is the spallation of the thermally grown oxide (TGO) formed at the ceramic/metallic sub-layer. Present trends are the use of a platinum modified nickel aluminide layer as metallic sub-layer. But the effect of few p.p.m. or few % at. of zirconium on the oxidation of hipped or cast nickel aluminide was also studied for higher temperature applications. It has been shown that the system ZrO2-Y2O3 (8% mass.) EBPVD / cast NiAl(Zr) had at 1200degreesC a life durability three times longer than the classical system ZrO2-Y2O3 (8% mass.) EBPVD/NiAlPt coating/nickel base superalloy. Similar encouraging results were obtained with the system ZrO2-Y2O3 (8% mass.) EBPVD / NiAl(Zr) coating deposited by physical vapour deposition/nickel base superalloy. In this work, a zirconium modified nickel aluminide coating by vapour pack cementation process was developed. The structure of this modified coating is discussed. Cyclic oxidation test results and microscopic investigations are also presented.