TGIF: Thank-Goodness It’s Flyday Week-End Wrap Up: World Cup Aviation Edition

by Vinay Bhaskara / Published June 6, 2014

Thank-goodness it’s Flyday…err Friday, everyone! In this week’s edition, we’ve got a list of World Cup charters and liveries, a tear-jerking ad from WestJet, and more…

Turkish Airlines to code share with Singapore Airlines: Turkish Airlines has applied with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin code sharing with Singapore Airlines on several of Turkish Airlines’ flights between the United States and Istanbul. Turkish and Singapore already code share on both carriers’ flights between Istanbul and Singapore. The carriers propose to place Singapore’s *SQ* code on the following routes:

Istanbul – Washington Dulles
Istanbul – New York JFK
Istanbul – Chicago O’Hare
Istanbul – Houston Bush

DOT Clears China Southern to Launch JFK: The DOT has approved an application by China Southern Airlines, Asia’s largest airline by passengers carried, to launch services between its largest hub at Guangzhou-Baiyun International Airport and New York JFK. The route will be operated four times per week by China Southern’s new Boeing 777-300ERs, which seat 309 passengers in a 4-class configuration ( 4F / 34J / 44Y+ / 227Y ).

SriLankan and American to code share: The recently minted oneworld partners are planning a code share agreement. American’s *AA* code will be placed on flights within Sri Lanka, and between Sri Lanka and “third countries” (which will be revealed at a later date). The first set of routes to receive the *AA* code would be Colombo to Paris Charles de Gaulle/Frankfurt.

Lufthansa resumes Miami-Munich: At least for this upcoming winter, Lufthansa will be resuming its Miami-Munich services, with five flights per week utilizing the Airbus A330-300 between December 2nd, 2014 and April 30th, 2015. Schedules for the flights are as follow:

LH460 –> MUC – MIA –> D: 1145 A: 1715 –> 333 –> x15
LH461 –> MIA – MUC –> D: 1855 A: 1025+1 –> 333 –> x15

WestJet airs a tear-jerker: If this beautiful father’s day ad from WestJet doesn’t make you reach for a hanky immediately, then you’re heartless. Or an android like Tim Duncan

United comes out with a nice new ad: This ad definitely does a great job of highlighting United’s massive global network reach. Of course it doesn’t include the part where you get stuffed into an E145 for 3 hours at the end of the journey, but….

World Cup Special – Charters and Liveries: In case you just woke up from cryogenic sleep (even people living under rocks know about it), the ~~football~~ soccer World Cup is all set to kick off next Friday in Brazil. National teams from around the world are currently playing in world cup tuneup matches (many here in the US), but next week will be descending into Brazil for the quadrennial extravaganza. Given that I plan to spend a minimum of 9 hours per day in front of the TV watching matches and analysis, I figured now would be the time to go over all of the aviation action surrounding La Copa Mundial (That’s Spanish for “how hard is it to use Google Translate”). Regardless here’s the aviation summary for the upcoming World Cup.

Lufthansa Becomes Fanhansa

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Image Credit: Lufthansa

German national carrier Lufthansa repainted five of its aircraft with the Fanhansa titles, including an Airbus A321-200, two other short haul aircraft, and five long haul aircraft including the pictured 747-8i. The German national team will be flying a Lufthansa flight with Fanhansa titles to Sao Paulo.

Iberia carries the defending champs

Spanish national carrier Iberia repainted one of its A330s with the following special livery. It carried the defending champs to Baltimore last week, and will bring them down to Curitiba in Brazil once Spain finishes World Cup prep. Reports are that Fernando Torres tripped before he could sit down in an empty seat.

Brussels Airlines commemorates the Red Devils

The darkhorse Belgian national team will be flying over in a specially pained Brussels Airlines A330s but Belgium’s largest carrier has had a special livery commemorating the Belgian team at the World Cup since the team qualified last October. We can’t confirm reports that that Adnan Januzzaj had a ticket on Virgin Atlantic before switching to Brussels at the 11th hour.

Brits flying unmarked jet

The English national team is using a private 767 owned by Aeronexus. Here’s a picture. I think that livery still has more flair than England’s soccer team (Daniel Sturridge excluded).

Gol is the official carrier of the Selcao

Brazil’s largest airline is TAM of course, but low cost carrier Gol is the team’s official carrier, and it released this fantastic “Graffiti” 737 to honor that status.

Italy flies Alitalia

While there’s a threat of the aircraft being de-registered during the tournament, for the moment the Azzuri are planning to use an Alitalia A330-200 registered as EI-EJO. Though with Mario Balotelli on board, it may have made more sense to opt for the JetBlue A320 that once housed Steven Slater.

JAL and the 777/787

Japan’s underrated national side came over to Tampa in a 787 evoking Masahiro Tanaka, though the Dreamliner was promptly damaged by a water cannon truck. And somehow that 787 managed to keep its shape better than the US back line.

Aerolineas Argentinas

A struggling nation looks to rally around Messi. And a struggling airline looks to rally around this livery? #VamosArgentina indeed (my pick to win it all and rip out Neymar’s heart at the Maracana – though it would be ironic if Uruguay won it all on a Suarez goal [or more fittingly a Suarez game-saving handball on the goal line]).

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