By Mark Baber
March 27 – Turkish Airlines has announced to the Istanbul Stock Exchange that it intends to add the UEFA Champions League to its list of football sponsorships. The value of the three-year deal has not been revealed, but current Champions League sponsor packages are currently between €55-65 million per season.
Turkey’s national flag carrier issued a statement saying the board “has decided that Turkish Airlines will be the official airline sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, which is considered one of the most prestigious football leagues in the world.”
The sponsorship aims to “contribute to our global brand awareness and brand perception,” according to the statement.
Turkish Airlines already sponsors Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund and is reported to be in negotiations with Chelsea, despite hitting the headlines recently for flying British schoolgirls to Turkey en route to join ISIS in Syria. The airline also employs Lionel Messi and Didier Drogba in its ‘Widen Your World’ campaign.
The airline is in fierce competition with Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways for passengers, aiming to increase its fleet to 450 aircraft by 2023 and hoping to establish Istanbul as the major international hub for the region in preference to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
UEFA has been looking to bring an airline sponsor in board, to add to existing major sponsors Heineken, Gazprom, Nissan, Playstation, Unicredit and Mastercard.
Given its safety record of over 900 deaths since 1959, the timing of Turkish Airlines announcement that they will be spending large sums of money on football sponsorship, may not be ideal, particularly given that Turkish Airlines’ last (fortunately non-fatal) accident was as recently March 3 when the front landing gear collapsed on an Airbus 330 landing at Kathmandu airport..
Contact the writer of this story at mark.baber@insideworldfootball,com