When JetBlue was named the “Official Airline of Springfield” for the Simpsons Movie

Summary

• JetBlue has partnered with 20th Century Fox for the launch of The Simpsons movie and is flying a specially painted aircraft.
• The partnership aimed to promote JetBlue’s in-flight entertainment system and was helpful during a financially critical period.
• Other airlines have since entered into film partnerships and created iconic liveries, such as ANA’s famous Star Wars fleet.

In 2007, 20th Century Fox released the highly anticipated The Simpsons Movie. It brought the characters from his long-running television series to the big screen and was ultimately a major box office hit, grossing over $500 million worldwide. But did you know JetBlue was also involved in one of the first cases in which an airline entered into a marketing cooperation with the release of a major motion picture?

JetBlue was still a young airline in 2007, but it took the bold step of entering into a brand partnership with 20th Century Fox for the film. While such partnerships are fairly commonplace today, they were big news back then. So let’s take a look back at the JetBlue-Simpsons partnership, what it meant in the context of the airline’s growth in the 2000s, and how other airlines have also entered into successful film partnerships.

Partnership details

For the branding partnership, JetBlue was named the “official airline of Springfield,” the hometown of The Simpsons. It also unveiled the first aircraft with a special livery, dubbed “Woo-Hoo, JetBlue!”, which featured an image of Homer Simpson and a permanent logo of the airline’s new Springfield status. The branding is relatively tame by today’s standards, with entire aircraft being repainted in highly creative designs. Nevertheless, it brought the fledgling airline a lot of media attention at the time, including an introduction featuring characters from The Simpsons Movie.

JetBlue also hosted an exclusive Simpsons-themed sweepstakes for members of TrueBlue, JetBlue’s loyalty program, where they could win a variety of prizes, including unique Simpsons-themed technology items such as Xbox consoles, mobile phones and large TVs, as well as a grand prize of a family trip to Los Angeles for the premiere of The Simpsons Movie in July 2007. In addition, JetBlue received the right to use The Simpsons The company’s websites, billboards and commercials featured characters such as Bart Simpson and Crusty the Clown recommending flights to various destinations.

A big part of JetBlue’s decision to partner with The Simpsons was to promote the advanced (for the time) in-flight entertainment system the company had recently invested in. While most large aircraft in the U.S. did not yet have seatback screens, all JetBlue flights featured free live DIRECTV programming, more than 100 channels of XM Satellite Radio, and a rotating selection of pay-per-view movies. JetBlue’s CEO at the time, Dave Barger, explained:

“Since JetBlue’s inception, The Simpsons have entertained our customers with our unique in-flight entertainment system, which includes 36 free live TV channels. We are thrilled to be the ‘Official Airline of Springfield,’ their hometown, and to celebrate their first movie premiere.”

A crucial turning point for JetBlue

This groundbreaking move came at a critical turning point in JetBlue’s history. After five years of exceptional growth since its founding in 2000, JetBlue ran into trouble in 2005. At a time when other major airlines such as Delta Air Lines, US Airways and Northwest Airlines were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, JetBlue reported annual losses for the first time in late 2005, and these losses worsened through 2006.

These financial challenges were exacerbated by macroeconomic factors. The blizzard of 2007 threw JetBlue’s operations into chaos and it developed significant reliability issues with its Embraer E190 fleet, leading to numerous cancellations. The high-growth darling of U.S. aviation quickly lost its luster, and in a move that would later prove to be a godsend for Azul and Breeze Airways, the board replaced founder David Neeleman with Barger.

Against this background, the cheerful campaign with The Simpsons Movie aimed to re-energize the airline and support JetBlue’s Return to Profitability (RTP) plan to explore new areas of revenue growth. And as history shows, that plan worked. The following year, JetBlue was profitable again, added Orlando as a focus city to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America, and opened its new main hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Terminal 5.

Other Airline Film Partnerships

As with many innovative marketing efforts, JetBlue pioneered the collaboration with a film studio and has since introduced a wide range of special liveries supporting sports teams, science and technology, and the emergency services.

Since then, numerous other airlines have gone a step further and partnered with new movie releases, creating some of the most iconic aircraft liveries over the past two decades. So let’s pause for a moment and remember some of the most striking movie-inspired liveries.

WestJet – Frozen

In 2015, WestJet introduced a special livery featuring characters from Frozen, the animated musical from Walt Disney Pictures. The design used more than 670 liters of paint and took 21 days of 12-hour work, with a permanent crew of six painters working around the clock.

Alaska Airlines – The Incredibles 2

In 2018, Alaska Airlines celebrated the highly anticipated release of Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2. The airline painted Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and the rest of the family on board the plane, alongside the famous smiling Inuit face on the tail of the plane.

Air New Zealand – Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit

After The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, tourists flocked to the country as fans paid homage to the Oscar-winning films. Air New Zealand joined in the action by painting one of its Boeing 747-400s in the LOTR design, and when The Hobbit was released a few years later, it subsequently painted one of its Boeing 777-300ERs in a special new livery.

China Eastern – Toy Story

The characters from Toy history adorn the interior and exterior of a China Eastern Airlines A330-300, which was developed in collaboration with Disney Pixar. The aircraft promotes the films (a new Toy Story 5 scheduled to be released in 2026) and Toy Story Land at Shanghai Disneyland, right next to the airline’s home airport.

Hainan Airlines – Kung Fu Panda

Hainan Airlines went a step further in 2016, instead of painting a single aircraft with a special livery, but painting an entire fleet. In collaboration with DreamWorks Animation and to celebrate the theatrical release of Kung Fu Panda 3, the airline had four of its factory-delivered Boeing 787-9s painted in different liveries, with the design concepts selected in a competition open to the general public.

ANA-Star Wars

Hardly any airline has focused as much on film themes as ANA with its famous Star Wars fleet. This includes a Boeing 787-9 in R2-D2 design, a Boeing 777-200 in C-3PO design and a Boeing 777-300ER in BB-8 design. The airline even supports the fleet with a detailed website and information on flight options with these special aircraft.