Air New Zealand Unveils New ‘Hobbit’ Themed Decal For Plane

Air New Zealand has already released a ‘Hobbit‘ themed instructional video on how to fly safely.

Now, according to NBC News, Air New Zealand will be unveiling their huge ‘Hobbit’ themed decal on the side of one of their planes.

Air New Zealand has transformed a Boeing 777-300ER into a “flying billboard” for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is the first installment in Peter Jackson’s series adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s book and a prequel to the blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Jodi Williams, head of the international marketing for Air New Zealand, said that the massive decal covers the length of the plane and is the largest graphic ever to be applied to an aircraft. It took about six days and 400 man hours to install the decal.

The airline was very secretive about the exact design until they unveiled it on Saturday morning New Zealand time (Friday afternoon U.S. Eastern time). Air New Zealand worked with Jackson’s Weta Workshop to create the decal, which features imagery from the film. The plane is scheduled to land in Los Angeles Saturday afternoon.

The aircraft will fly primarily to L.A. and London.

Air New Zealand hopes that their partnership with the makers ofThe Hobbit will hopefully attract more fliers. Williams said:

“It puts us out there and creates more awareness. And it gives people more of a reason to actually select New Zealand to travel. It’s very challenging for Air New Zealand to get that brand presence and that awareness because we don’t have a significant marketing budget, so by actually working in partnership with a movie that’s shot in New Zealand and shows New Zealand, it makes perfect sense.”

Air New Zealand’s special flight safety video that features different creatures and characters from Middle Earth is already a hit. The flight safety video has grabbed global media attention and more than 9 million views on YouTube since it was released on Halloween.