Gay Weddings Planned on SAS Scandinavian Airlines in December
Scandinavian airline SAS plans to host the first-ever in-flight gay wedding in December, and is searching for a suitable couple to walk down the airplane aisle.
“It will be a very traditional wedding,” SAS spokesman Anders Lindstroem told AFP. “There will be wedding cake and dancing in the aisles.”
SAS has 100 gay couples in the running, with the winning entry will be chosen by an online vote . The ceremony itself would need to take place in Swedish airspace, where gay marriage is legal.
As part of SAS Airlines’ big new social media contest campaign titled “Love is in the Air” on December 6, the winning gay or lesbian European-based couple get flown via SAS from Stockholm to New York, and on the way they’ll take over an entire business class cabin and have their same-sex nuptials performing in-flight by the plane’s captain.
Once they land, the newlyweds will enjoy a glam U.S. honeymoon, staying two nights at one of NYC’s finer W Hotels and then jetting off to L.A. for three nights at the hip new Andaz West Hollywood hotel.
But Americans can get in on the wedding-tastic prize package , too! On December 7th, a flight will transport a winning U.S. based same-sex couple from New York City to Stockholm (in SAS Business Class), and then on to Kiruna way up in northern Sweden, where the pair will be wed at the stylish and otherworldly IceHotel. They’ll stay there for two swank nights, and then head down to Stockholm for three nights at the brilliant Hotel Skeppsholmen, smack dab in the center of the city. Plus, the newlyweds will receive a VIP package from Stockholm Visitors’ Board, full of perks.
Linstroem said SAS was playing catch-up to US airlines, who have spent years courting gay, lesbian and bisexuals in the United States with targeted marketing and sponsorship campaigns.
The wedding couple and their guests would have the entire business class section closed off, in part to avoid offending any other customers who might not approve of the mile-high matrimony.
“We don’t want to offend anyone. We hope we won’t offend anyone. It is the year 2010 after all,” Lindstroem said.
Gay Lesbian Travel Guide