Picture this: you’re at the gate, waiting for your flight on boring old XYZ airline and something pulls up that doesn’t look like anything you’ve seen before. In fact it looks like something from a far away galaxy that helps fight evil. I don’t like specially painted planes, I love them and what better way to lift off from the ground than with a plane where the force is strong. As you may have seen, Al Nippon Airways (ANA) has a plane which has been painted into an R2D2 Star Wars livery. It looks awesome. How do you square awesome? Allowing your pilots of said plane to carry Lightsabers… 

a robot standing next to a jet

In what has to be the best viral marketing of ALL TIME, pilots of the ANA showed up for a recent flight aboard the 787 Dreamliner at the gate carrying Lightsabers. I’ll tell you what, nothing is stopping that plane. There is just so much to love abut it all. Huge kudos to Al Nippon AIrways for creating such a beautiful plane and allowing passengers to share in the experience at the most boring point in travel, the gate area, by having the pilots walk past (surely gazing) passengers. 

a couple of men in uniform with red lightsabers

I’ll be in Asia in February and needless to say my new mission is to track down this plane, try to get my own lightsaber past security and join the force. ANA has a site devoted just to this, and the next soon to come Star Wars jet including route information. The plane flew from Tokyo to Vancouver yesterday and will soon begin regular service between Tokyo and San Jose, California before moving onto Sydney, Beijing and more. May the force be with you!

As Always, Get in Touch: GodSaveThePoints@gmail.com

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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