This Airline Wants to Paint Your Face on One of Its Planes as a Birthday Surprise

To mark its third decade of operations, Ryanair is giving its Facebook fans the chance to fly on the outside of an aircraft.

One of Europe’s most controversial budget carriers is about to turn 30. To mark the occasion, Ryanair is hosting a competition that will give 30 Facebook fans the chance to show their “plane faces” to the world. The lucky winners will see their names and visages plastered onto the livery of 30 of the carrier’s aircraft.

While the winners won’t be announced until September, the competition is open from now through August 31. To enter, participants first need to “like” Ryanair on Facebook. Next, participants can upload a photo and their name via the carrier’s specially designated “Get Your Plane Face On” Facebook app.

This contest isn’t all about looks, though, because lastly – and perhaps most importantly – participants need to tell Ryanair exactly why they deserve to have their faces appear on the side of one of the carrier’s aircraft.

While there’s no money or free flights on offer, in a press statement, Robin Kiely, Ryanair’s head of communications, advised that this contest offers “a prize that money can’t buy”.

The competition also coincides with the official debut of the carrier’s Facebook page and follows the launch of its Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, as well as its YouTube channel and blog. The launch of its Facebook page, however, is part of the carrier’s wider “Always Getting Better” initiative, which, as CEO Michael O’Leary explained to The Independent, means “fixing the things our customers don’t like.”

To further celebrate its 30th birthday, Ryanair released 1 million seats on flights across Europe priced at only €19.85, about $22. Available for travel between September and the end of January 2015, these special birthday seats remind passengers of what Ryanair has done best for all these years: providing no-frills flights on the cheap.

[Photo: Ryanair]