Air New Zealand Hires ‘Sports Illustrated’ Swimsuit Models For Its In-Flight Safety Video

This is not what it looks like on any flights I've been on. (Air New Zealand on YouTube)

This is not what it looks like on any flights I’ve been on. (Air New Zealand on YouTube)

When’s the last time you actually paid attention to an airline’s in-flight safety video? If you’re the type who likes scantily clad swimsuit models cavorting in paradise, you’re paying attention right now. And you might be more inclined to pay attention an Air New Zealand flight, as the airline hired none other than Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue models for its new in-flight safety video.

On the heels of other updated safety videos designed to create a buzz even if you’re not on a plane (like Virgin America’s choreographed dance bonanza), Air Zealand is drumming up interest using perhaps the oldest marketing tactic of them all: Showing some skin.

The airline shipped a bunch of models down to the Cook Islands to demonstrate in-flight safety, although from what we can tell none of them actually filmed on a plane. But aren’t we all imagining ourselves somewhere more idyllic in those cramped cabins, anyway?

The completed video isn’t out yet, but the airline does have a behind-the-scenes featurette you can watch, if you’re into that whole “bikini-clad supermodels gamboling around in pristine waters and lying idly in hammocks” kind of thing. Time to stop typing now because you’re not even reading this, you’ve probably already skipped down to the video. So it goes.

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