Football giants Chelsea FC and Turkey’s national airline Turkish Airlines have announced the agreement of a multi-year multi-million pound agreement that will see Chelsea display Turkish Airlines as the main sponsor across their shirts from the beginning of next season, replacing Samsung.
Reportedly worth a staggering £25 million pounds per year, Turkish Airlines are steadily adding to their fleet of international sponsorship deals with some of the worlds most renowned football teams – this deal seeing Chelsea follow in the steps of Barcelona and Manchester United who currently use Turkish Airlines as their official means of
transport for European matches.
The agreement will see some of the football world's biggest stars - Jose Mourinho, Didier Drogba, Eden Hazard, and Diego Costa all coming aboard Turkish Airlines on a weekly basis in the English Premier League.
Turkish Airlines have been making the news lately for their viral advertising campaigns starring Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant in a chase around the world to see who can capture the best photograph – the extraordinary commercials proving to be a hit for the airline, further enhancing their reputation in the sporting world and beyond.
The sponsorship agreement sees two titans unite as one of the best football teams in the world joins forces with one of the world’s best airlines – an agreement which sees the airline commit to their promise of ever expanding and growth that has seen the airline become one of the biggest airlines in Europe over the last 10 years.
Turkish Airlines over the years
It has been quite a decade for Turkish Airlines – a decade of rapid growth and expansion to become Europe’s fourth largest carrier and winner of the best airline in Europe for three years in a row at the 2013 Skytrax World Airline Awards.
Turkish Airlines was a small, somewhat unknown airline as recently as 2003 when the airline had only 65 aircraft within its fleet and flew to 104 destinations around the world. Nowadays the airline boasts an impressive fleet of 233 planes and transports passengers to 197 destinations, including 104 different countries – more than any other airline.
In fact passenger numbers have quadrupled since 2003 to well over 40 million last year alone, the airline expects to reach an impressive 120 million passengers per year by 2023 as the airline continues to take passengers around the world and Turkey continues the upwards trend of becoming the new number one spot for European as well as tourists from Asia and beyond.
This has resulted in
Istanbul starting work on a new third airport to help ease the load of passengers and increase capacity for the airline to expand and reach the potential that is evidently there.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is no stranger to Turkey and the unique potential in the country. Abramovich has regularly been spotted lounging in his megayacht just off the shore to the Bodrum peninsula, where it is rumoured the billionaire owns a
luxury home in the region.
Rumours are already circulating as to how Chelsea’s shirt could look come next season with Turkish Airlines’ logo splashed across the front with several mock up designs already doing the rounds on social media sites. One thing is for sure, with Chelsea and Turkish Airlines new partnership, the sky is well and truly the limit.