AirAsia has become the official airline of Formula 1 Grand Prix racing team AT&T Williams for three years with effect from this year’s world championship.
The deal sees the Malaysian’s low fare carrier’s logo appearing on the nose of the team’s FW29 car from this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix and on the drivers’ helmets.
“This is a very exciting development for AirAsia in terms of strengthening our presence across a different market segment,” says Tony Fernandes AirAsia group chief executive.
Alongside Fernandes at today’s press conference in Kuala Lumpur was Patrick Head, co-owner of Williams, and AT&T Williams driver Nico Rosberg.
Fernandes says that the Williams tie-up will help AirAsia “spread the word” about the airline beyond Asia. The Kuala Lumpur-based carrier is already a sponsor of the UK premiership football team Mancheter United, and joins Etihad Airways and Kingfisher Airlines as an airline currently sponsoring a Formula 1 team. Emirates also sponsored McLaren-Mercedes last year under a one year deal. (Read the story here...)