Rugby World Cup Airline round-up

Airlines and the Rugby World Cup - A review

The Rugby World Cup kicked off in Japan on Sept 20th, and as expected a number of airlines have run marketing activity in support of their respective national teams.

We’ve produced a summary of what (at the time of writing) different airlines have been doing.

Air New Zealand - Farewell Haka

Last month we covered the new Air New Zealand safety video, which in addition to featuring the Suits (TV) show actor Rick Hoffman, saw the airline rechristened as ‘Air All Blacks’ in honour of the New Zealand Rugby team.

To send the team off on their journey to Japan, around 60 Air New Zealand employees said goodbye to the All Blacks with a haka on the tarmac at Auckland International Airport.

Fiji Airways - Promotional videos

Fiji Airways has released a promotional video / ad, entitled ‘It’s how you get there, that counts’ (see top of the page for the video), showing ordinary Fijians playing rugby and then cheering on the national team in front of the TV.

Meanwhile on Facebook, the airline has been profiling different national team players via short videos.

Qantas and British Airways - Aircraft liveries

As a Rugby Australia sponsor, Qantas brought the team to Japan in it’s special ‘Go Wallabies’ B-747.

British Airways similarly has an aircraft in a special livery. A 787-Dreamliner has been given the name ‘Sweet Chariot’ (after a famous England team rugby song), which then flew the England team to Tokyo.

Aer Lingus - Irish Rugby anime Cara takeover

As they set off for Japan, Aer Lingus surprised the Irish Rugby team with their own personalised anime Cara (the in-flight magazine) covers.

The airline also uploaded a short social media video about the team leaving Dublin for Tokyo.

Like Qantas for Australia, and British Airways for England, Aer Lingus has a special team aircraft, which is painted in ‘Green Spirit’ livery.

Emirates - Livery and trophy

The official airline of the Rugby World Cup is of course Emirates. The airline transported the trophy to Japan, and painted an A380 with a special Rugby Cup livery.

Like its nearest regional competitors Etihad and Qatar Airways, Emirates is heavily invested in sports sponsorship. As well as its Rugby World Cup involvement, the airline supports the annual Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament (for which it likewise created a special livery).

Other airlines staging some kind of rugby themed activity included Air Namibia, which posted on social media about taking the national team to Japan, and Samoa Airways, which ran competitions to win rugby tickets on its Facebook page.

With the tournament running until November 2nd, we’ll have another round-up in the next edition.