In the age of TikTok, have airline celebrity endorsements lost their appeal?

Frank Sinatra’s timeless classic ‘Come Fly with Me’ (1958) and his jet set lifestyle meant the prominent crooner, famous for his big band ballads, would forever be forged with the airline industry. 

Posters of Sinatra landing in swinging London and his Come Fly with Me album art undoubtably helped propel the jet age, while promoting the freedom of travel. 

With the influence of celebrity endorsement clear to see, it was perhaps no surprise that in 1968, a United Airlines commercial featured a reworked version of Come Fly with Me. 

In the 1990s Sinatra would go on to link up with ANA Airlines and Australia-based Ansett Airlines. Both airlines used his songs in their adverts, and Sinatra even made an appearance in the ANA commercial. 

And if you thought Come Fly with Me’s influence was fading any time soon, in 2022, United Airlines and Emirates combined to celebrate their new partnership in an advert overlaid with Sinatra singing his famous song. 

The ‘Come fly with Me’ brand, and indeed Sinatra himself, became the travel industry’s calling card to the world, and represented the first real peak into the strength of celebrity endorsement within commercial aviation. 

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it 

Wikimedia CommonsIn the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, airline celebrity endorsements became a mainstay of the advertising and aviation world.  

Rather than posters and billboards, advertising pivoted towards television commercials where companies could access millions of potential flyers while relaxing in their own living room.  

An advert campaign in 1968 for Braniff International Airways featured artist Andy Warhol, boxer Sonny Liston and even Salvidor Dali – all incredibly famous people at the time.  

The campaigns tag line “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” resonated with an American society that were increasingly keen to fly and flaunt their wealth, 

According to the US National Space and Museum, the price of flying in the 1970s began to fall “undermining the exclusivity of jet travel”. 

Passenger numbers between 1955 and 1972 had quadrupled and by 1972 half of Americans had flown, although the majority were still business travelers.  

During the 1970s, the actor and comedian Peter Sellers featured in a series of adverts for TWA to encourage transatlantic travel to Europe.  

TWA also employed the services of Wilt ‘The Stilt’ Chamberlain, a 7-foot 1-inch basketball player, to promote its roomy business class section on Boeing 747s to Europe. 

In the 1980s, movie-legend Gene Kelly and dancer Fred Astaire appeared together in a Western Airlines advert, as did Star Trek superstars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.  

A shift in focus 

easyJetThe airline industry’s approach to advertising in the late 1980s and 1990s shifted away from celebrity endorsements as several new factors came into play.  

The 1990s brought hyper-globalization in which borders between countries, particularly in trade and finance, became more opaque.  

The advent of the internet allowed people to peer into the lives of others in distant lands and gather vast amounts of information while sitting at their home computer.  

Airlines began selling an experience where brand identity could build trust and loyalty among the public.  

More people were travelling and low-cost airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair were in their ascendancy with the price of a flight becoming a key selling point.  

Airlines’ adverts told stories about connecting the world and sharing experiences with family and friends when you travel rather than focusing on individuals.  

The starting gun was fired by British Airways with its ‘Face’ advertisement in 1989 in which people were brought front and center in an aspirational campaign to link nations. 

While British Airways forged ahead in the 1990s with “The World’s Favorite Airline” slogan other carriers became their own storytellers. 

In 1994, Delta Air Lines launched the ‘Adiemus’ campaign in Europe and American Airlines continued its ‘Something special in the air’ advert series.  

The surge in celebrity endorsements 

Emirates In the mid-2000s there was a significant surge in the number of airlines that employed the services of global superstars and celebrities to feature on their television commercials.  

As flying became increasingly global and airline competitiveness grew more acute, the need to draw on the talents of world-recognized figures seemed like an obvious step. 

In an article from 2023 for Hollywood Branded, Stacy Jones wrote: “International stars began endorsing brands across borders, expanding their reach and influence. An endorsement by a Hollywood actor or a globally recognized athlete could now resonate with audiences on multiple continents. The image and appeal of international celebrities provided a universal language that transcended cultural and linguistic barriers.” 

And airlines had the power and finance to pull in some of the world’s biggest stars with lucrative contracts on offer.  

Some of the most famous included the deceased star of The Sopranos, James Gandolfini, in 2005 for American Airlines, Kevin Costner for Turkish Airlines in 2009 and a much-discussed advert for Emirates in 2015 with former Friends actress Jennifer Aniston.  

EtihadMore recently in the last five years, global superstars such as Penelope Cruz appeared in an Emirates advert and in 2024 Novak Djokovic linked up with Qatar Airways. 

Here are some of the celebrity airline endorsements from the last 20 years that AeroTime found through its own research: 

(2005) James Gandolfini – American Airlines 

(2009) Kevin Costner – Turkish Airlines 

(2009) Kevin Spacy – American Airlines 

(2013) Kobe Bryant/Lionel Messi – Turkish Airlines 

(2014) Pele/Cristiano Ronaldo – Emirates 

(2015) Jennifer Aniston – Emirates 

(2015) Nicole Kidman – Etihad 

(2017) Jackie Chan – Hong Kong Airlines 

(2023) Tom Cruise – Etihad  

(2023) Tom Brady – Delta  

(2023) Penelope Cruz – Emirates  

(2023) Katrina Kaif – Etihad  

(2024) Novak Djokovic – Qatar Airways 

(2025) Deepika Padukone – Qatar Airways 
A clear, common trend among many of the airlines that use celebrity endorsements is that they operate extensive international networks, the very companies that could benefit from a universally recognized face.  

Have airline celebrity endorsements lost their appeal? 

In 2015, Emirates reportedly paid Jennifer Aniston around $5 million to be the face of its global advertising campaign – a tidy sum if you can get the work.  

However, with social media presenting new opportunities to airlines and companies more generally it is worth asking if paying a celebrity big bucks to endorse a carrier still represents value for money.  

In October 2025, an article by The Guardian posed the question, ‘why are Hollywood A-listers flopping at the box office?’. 

This came off the back of actors such as Margot Robbie, Dwayne Johnson, Julia Roberts and Keanu Reeves starring in recent movies with underwhelming showing figures. 

“None of the aforementioned stars are expected to perform with the superhuman consistency of Tom Cruise between 1986 and 2006 or Will Smith between 1996 and 2016. But there used to be a certain number of dramas and comedies that would make $50m or more in the US every year as a matter of course, the ones with stars tending to have an advantage in that respect,” wrote US-journalist Jesse Hassenger.  

While the article mostly discussed the movie industry, there are perhaps lessons to be learned about whether using celebrity endorsement is as effective as it once was. 

Social media and TikTok power 

Sam Chui / AeroTimeWhile celebrities may have once dominated the endorsement world, they are now having to share the platform with a new generation of social media influencers and content creators. 

Marketing campaigns involving influencers and content creators are relatively cheaper, can provide more reach and often resonate better with passengers. 

Highly watchable reels involving commercial airline travel are shared widely on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram with many aviation influencers racking up millions of views and thousands of likes.  

The new frontier of advertising is also multi-tiered with airlines able to link up with influencers themselves, or they simply feature in a video as part of a content creator’s own output.  

A passenger traveling on a flight that shares a video of their journey and tags the airline is also highly prized with the carrier able to repost and share the content.  

According to Lefty, an influencer marketing platform, airlines are increasingly embracing the use of influencers each year and putting more resources into social media.  

Earned Media Value (EMV) calculates the estimated monetary value that a brand receives through unpaid publicity. In 2023 Emirates led the way followed by Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, according to Lefty.  

Livepool FCHowever, while influencers are becoming more influential, celebrity endorsements through social media channels are still incredibly powerful with many stars having millions of followers.  

But perhaps the holy grail for airline marketing is neither influencers nor celebrities, but sports teams, especially football clubs.  

As AeroTime reported earlier this year, data published in December 2024, by Research and Markets said that, across 296 airline partnership agreements currently in place, an estimated $1.2 billion was tied into the sports industry through sponsorships. 

The airlines currently most active within the sports industry are Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Riyadh Air, according to Research and Markets. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Turkish Airlines have also invested heavily in sport partnerships.  

“In 2023, Emirates’ social media strategy focused heavily on partnerships with athletes and sports teams. Football clubs sponsored by Emirates were particularly impactful, contributing 63% of the airline’s EMV that year. The most lucrative collaboration was with Real Madrid, which featured 70 in-feed posts about the airline throughout 2023,” wrote Lefty in 2024.  

While it’s unlikely that airlines will ever completely cut their ties with celebrities, the age of glossy television adverts starring the Hollywood elite may begin to decline. No longer able to compete with influencers or the unstoppable power of world football. 

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