Sky high Christmas: How airlines celebrate Christmas Day

Travelling in the lead-up to Christmas and in particular – on Christmas Day – is generally avoided at all costs as people imagine long queues, lengthy delays and all-out chaos at airports throughout the silly season. However, it seems this year Christmas Day might just be the very best day to book your travel as airlines all over the world plan to delight their passengers with fun and festive surprises in the lead up to December 25th. 30,000 mince pies served at 38,000 feet, free gift wrapping, complimentary glasses of champagne and the chance to meet Santa before your flight are just some of the treats in store. Warning: Spoiler alert if you’ve booked with JetBlue, British Airways, Finnair, SAS or Southwest!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at British Airways…

190 British Airways flights will take to the skies on December 25th, and the airline is determined to make sure the 35,000 passengers its pilots are flying across the globe have a very merry Christmas. There will be 3,500 cabin crew working on Christmas Day, serving a traditional Christmas dinner, 30,000 mince pies and 600 Christmas puddings to their lucky passengers. After dinner, British Airways guests can sit back, relax and enjoy some classic Christmas entertainment with a selection of favourite films carefully selected to get them in the festive mood. The airline will be showing Love Actually, Four Christmases and Elf.  

Get festive with Finnair and Helsinki Airport…

Finnair has long been hailed as Santa Claus’ Official Airline, and this December the airline has released a video that gives a fantastic behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it’s like to work with Santa Claus. Narrated by Chief Executive Elf, Stachard Linley, the history of Finnair’s association with Santa’s Official Gateway, Helsinki Airport, is explained. Together, Finnair and Helsinki airport claim responsibility for sorting and distributing the presents for over 1.9 billion children across the world on behalf of Santa Claus. More videos set to reveal Santa’s secrets are to be released in the coming weeks, including Reindeer Employment which documents what happened with all the jobless reindeer at Helsinki Airport, and The Lost Christmas Presents, which tracks what happened when Santa’s elves accidentally dropped presents onto Stockholm. Finnair and Helsinki Airport have come together to spread happiness throughout the festive season. Families travelling with children can meet Santa at the airport between 2-6pm from 23-25 December, and travellers can take advantage of free gift-wrapping at the airport from Monday – Saturday, from 1 pm until 8 pm.

Have a holly, jolly Christmas with jetBlue…

jetBlue will be tantalizing the taste buds of its customers by offering complimentary treats with a festive touch from 18th-25th December, including Snyder’s Sweet and Salty Cinnamon Sugar pretzels in Core class. Those seated up the pointy end travelling from JFK to Aruba and Barbados from December 19th -January 4th will enjoy a complimentary glass of crisp, chilled Cristal champagne. An added bonus, JetBlue has launched Amazon Prime live streaming partnership which will enable passengers to stream   Amazon content for free – just in time for holiday travel.       jetBlue will be tantalizing the taste buds of its customers by offering complimentary treats with a festive touch from 18th-25th December, including Snyder’s Sweet and Salty Cinnamon Sugar pretzels in Core class. Those seated up the pointy end travelling from JFK to Aruba and Barbados from December 19th -January 4th will enjoy a complimentary glass of crisp, chilled Cristal champagne. An added bonus, JetBlue has launched Amazon Prime live streaming partnership which will enable passengers to stream   Amazon content for free – just in time for holiday travel.

Celebrating the silly season with Southwest…

Southwest Airlines Employees are always looking for ways to connect with the hearts of their customers – and they’ll be spreading Christmas cheer both on the ground and in the air. During the holiday season, Southwest keeps things merry and bright by decorating its gate areas, while ground staff and cabin crew don holiday accessories throughout the month of December. Onboard, some seasonal specialties are in store. Southwest’s seasonal Leinenkugel’s beer will be a Cranberry Ginger Shandy, and passengers will have the chance to stir some Christmas cheer into their coffee with delicious hazelnut-flavoured Coffeemate creamer. The witty announcements and onboard banter Southwest cabin crew are famous for will definitely be attuned to the silly season, as they spruce up their typical announcements with holiday wording, and sometimes throwing in a few fun songs and jokes.

SAS shares plane-loads of presents

Each year SAS employees spread Christmas joy by collecting donations of food, clothing, shoes and presents that are then flown to some of the most disadvantaged people in Europe. Entitled ‘The Christmas Flight’, the project was started by ex-SAS Captain, Karsten Midtun, in 1985, with the simple aim of spreading Christmas cheer and helping those in need. This year, the SAS crew collected more donations than a single aircraft can hold. As a result, trucks will also assist in delivering the essential goods and presents to poor families and orphanages in Tallinn. SAS crew and technical staff donate their time and fly for free to transport the donations and presents to those less fortunate.