‘The Force’ is coming to Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) in the form of a new Star Wars branded plane.
The airline is jumping on the Sci-Fi bandwagon, with the announcement dropping on the day the trailer for the seventh installment of the movie series was released.
Side note: how awesome does the movie look?!
The Star Wars livery will be painted to the airline’s 787-9 Dreamliner and will feature everyone’s robot favourite R2-D2.
The airline said the plane marks the beginning of a five-year ANA Star Wars™ Project and agreement with The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd.It’s also the first time a Star Wars character will appear on the exterior of a commercial aircraft.
“We’re proud of the innovative R2-D2 design, and we look forward to witnessing the first-ever flight of a passenger aircraft featuring a Star Wars character. We’re confident that Star Wars fans around the world will absolutely love this design.”
Kayleen Walters, Lucasfilm Ltd. Vice President, Marketing
The flying Star Wars themed-aircraft will be used to enhance the airline’s international presence, particularly services between Japan and the United States.
ANA isn’t the first travel company to hop on to the Star Wars buzz, earlier this year Disney Cruise Lines announced characters from the franchise would head out to sea on special themed sailings.
The eight special Star Wars cruises will be held next year on 9 and 23 January; 6 and 20 February; 5 and 19 March; 2 and 16 April.
They will see Darth Vader, Star Troopers and more join guests for deck parties and exclusive at-sea screenings of the Star Wars films.
Meanwhile, the two-minute Star Wars trailer, which was released late last week has already received over 37 million views and added more than AU$2.57 billion to Disney’s share price.