Airline Goes Pink

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Air New Zealand is moving into the gay and lesbian market with a special themed flight that will feature drag queens, pink cocktails and a cabaret performed by the flight crew.

On their web site, Air New Zealand writes, "We're not in Kansas anymore, my pretties! The Pink Flight is a special Air New Zealand flight, open to anyone who wants to get an early start on the revelry at the 2008 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival in the best company imaginable. Conde Nast listed Sydney Mardi Gras among the 10 most spectacular costume events, right up there with Venice and Rio. The flight will depart on 26 February at 11pm from San Francisco, arrive in Sydney on 28 February at 11am, and the parade is on 1 March."

"We are looking at tailoring the in-seat entertainment and having gay-friendly movies and contests and different music and things like that," said Jodi Williams, an Air New Zealand marketing director.

The flight will be modeled after an Auckland-to-Sydney trip Air New Zealand made this year for the gay Mardi Gras, according to Williams. Before that full flight, the crew put on pink feather boas and sang for the couple of hundred passengers, she said.

Michael Wilke, executive director of gay advertising group Commercial Closet Association, said that while other airline companies have become visible sponsors of gay pride events, none had so far used campy programming to appeal to gay and lesbian travelers.

"They could probably do very well with it," Wilke said. "It really sounds like someone put together the idea of what a gay cruise is and just applied that to the air. And even gay cruises don't feature employees in particular outfits or gay-themed movies."

Williams said the airline still is working out some details of the flight plan, such as what will go inside the goodie bags passengers will get. Since it takes 14 hours to get from San Francisco to Sydney, the airline also plans to schedule some down time during the overnight flight, AP reports.

"We had to think about keeping people entertained while knowing they will want their beauty sleep," she said.