According to GlobalData, the airline sector accounts for an estimated annual spend of over $1.2 billion in sport sponsorship for 2024.
Airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines have the financial power to associate themselves with some of the biggest sport teams or clubs on the planet.
The biggest leagues such as the English Premier League, Italian Serie A (pronounced Ah not Ay) and UEFA Champions League generate huge viewing figures worldwide. As a result, football (or soccer as it’s called in the US) has secured the most airlines partnerships among all the other sports.
These sponsorship deals involve the airlines being named official airline partners, official jersey partners, and even having stadiums named after the airlines. These matches are screened around the world, commanding a high level of visibility and bringing further recognition for the brands. Usually, these airlines would also paint a new livery or decal on their aircraft to celebrate the partnerships.
In this Part 3 on our series on aircraft livery, we feature liveries that are themed around the beautiful game of football. Here are some of the significant sponsorships and their striking liveries.
Turkish Airlines – UEFA Champions League
In Sep 2022, UEFA announced Turkish Airlines as an official partner of the UEFA Champions League. This partnership carries particular importance as the 2023 League final took place in Istanbul. Turkish Airlines also became the first airline to partner with the UEFA Champions League. The airline also unveiled a new livery on its aircraft to celebrate the partnership.
Fly with Champions in the Sky – Turkish Airlines
Etihad & Manchester City
Etihad Airways, the UAE’s national airline, flew the 2023 Champions League winning team Manchester City, home on a unique Club-liveried Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from Istanbul to Manchester. This was also the first time a European champion has flown home on their own branded aircraft.
The aircraft design honours the airline’s 14-year partnership with the Club and features Manchester City’s hallmark blue colour and club branding.
Emirates – Real Madrid, Arsenal, AC Milan & Benfica
Emirates must be the airline that has sponsored the most football club champions such as Real Madrid, Arsenal, AC Milan and Benfica, and celebrated the partnerships with special aircraft livery featuring players and club liveries. However, none of Emirates’ aircraft now carry these liveries but here are some notable mentions. Hopefully there will be more to come in future!
Emirates has been the Official Main Sponsor of Real Madrid since 2011 and the sponsorship has been extended to 2026. In 2017, a new livery featuring Christiano Ronaldo and other players such as Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema and Marcelo, was unveiled. In 2023, Emirates again unveiled new livery featuring top players.
In 2018, Emirates and Arsenal announced a sponsorship deal, which saw the Emirates name on the Arsenal jersey until the end of the 2023-24 season. As part of the deal, Emirates Stadium in London will be named as such until 2028. Emirates also painted an Airbus A380 with a livery featuring players such as Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexandre Lacazette. However, this livery has been repainted over after only several months.
Watch the Emirates-Arsenal plane livery come to life here.
Emirates also sponsor other famous football such as AC Milan, which has the second most Champions League titles behind only Real Madrid. This partnership started in 2007 and has been extended to 2028. Another club that Emirates has sponsored is Portuguese champions Benfica and previously featured the club’s livery on one of its Boeing 777-300ER.
Qatar Airways – Paris Saint-Germain (PSG)
Qatar Airways in Oct 2023 showcased new livery on one of its Boeing 777 to mark another year of partnership with PSG as the club’s official airline partner and official jersey partner.
Global fans will be able to fly with the airline to see the 11-time French champions compete at Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris.
Brussels Airlines – Trident
Brussels Airlines launched its new Trident livery on an Airbus 320 that celebrates the men’s national football team The Red Devils as well as the women’s team The Red Flames. The trident blends into a flame that has a significant meaning of ‘We are not complete until we are together’, and promoting gender equality. Isn’t that wonderful!
Brussels Airlines: Belgian Icons video:
FIFA World Cup
Here’s a look at some of the FIFA World Cup 2022 aircraft liveries. There are too many to feature so we have selected some of the best.
In 2017, Qatar Airways announced its partnership with FIFA as the Official Airline. A specially-branded Boeing 777 aircraft painted in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 livery was unveiled before the tournament. FIFA and Qatar Airways have solidified their partnership until 2030.
Argentina’s national flag carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas, launched its World Cup livery on its Airbus A330-200 and on its tail, it has images of three members of the football team including its all-time goal scorer, Lionel Messi. Messi was also featured on the livery of flydubai’s two new Boeing 737 Max aircraft (as featured in the main photo) that provides shuttle service to Doha.
Aerolineas Argentinas launches World Cup livery:
Lufthansa flew Germany’s men’s soccer team to their training camp in Muscat, Oman on a specially-painted Airbus A330 aircraft with the theme ‘Diversity Wins’ that feature images of people of various genders and ethnicities arm-in-arm. Lufthansa also changed the name on eight of its aircraft from Lufthansa for Fanhansa to celebrate the World Cup.
And to end, here is a bit of nostalgia, Manchester United was the first football club in the world to own its very own aircraft livery called the AirAsia Red Devil Airbus back in 2006 when Sir Alex Ferguson was still the manager. AirAsia was Man U’s official low cost airline.
You may also like these articles on cartoon-themed aircraft and colourful aircraft in our series of aircraft liveries.
