Emirates has helped Arsenal travel to Singapore in style as the English Premier League club embarks on its pre-season summer tour.
The London side headed east on a specially-customised Arsenal Boeing 777-200LR, featuring the crest on the fuselage.
Images of star players Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere adorn one side of the aircraft, while Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud have been included on the other. Menus and headrests on board have also been given an Arsenal theme.
Ramsey was particularly impressed to see himself on the design, tweeting: “Bit surreal but very cool to see myself on the side of an @emirates plane.”
Arsenal face a Singapore Select XI on Wednesday and then either Everton or Stoke City at the weekend in the Barclays Asia Trophy 2015 at the National Stadium in Singapore.
While the team are in action, the aircraft will be used to service some of the Dubai carrier’s other routes before picking the team up at the end of the week, a spokesperson for Emirates said.
Arsenal, who qualified for the forthcoming season’s Uefa Champions League competition after finishing third in the EPL, are planning to use the aircraft for this tour only at the moment, the spokesperson added.
Emirates’ sponsorship of Arsenal started in 2004, with its shirt sponsorship expanded in 2006 to include naming rights to the club’s stadium.
Last summer, Emirates introduced a "Pele-ane" to coincide with the Fifa World Cup tournament in Brazil. The Boeing 777-300ER had the signature of the Emirates global ambassador and football legend emblazoned across the fuselage.
In May, the airline confirmed a three-year deal to sponsor the FA Cup, which Arsenal won for the second consecutive year.
Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi carrier, has also gone down the branded plane route. In March it unveiled a Fast and Furious customised Boeing 777 to coincide with the release of the blockbuster film. The capital was a key location during production of the movie, with a number of scenes filmed in the city last year.
It also has a plane with a Manchester City livery, the EPL club it sponsors.
ioxborrow@thenational.ae
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