Skift Take

Despite the popularity of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue among a certain set of readers, it's difficult to imagine how a handful of women in bikinis will be able to upset Betty White's position as queen of in-flight safety videos.

It’s an understatement to say that Air New Zealand isn’t afraid to experiment with instructional safety videos.

The airline churns out new videos at a pace unmatched by its aviation-industry peers. Over the last year alone we’ve seen cast members of the latest Hobbit film, TV legend Betty White, and outdoor celebrity Bear Grylls tell flyers how to put on their oxygen mask and exit the plane safely in case of an emergency.

It’s latest video, which will appear on aircraft seat backs beginning Tuesday, February 11, turns to the exotic: models from Sports Illustrated‘s annual swimsuit issue and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.

SI swimsuit models Chrissy Teigen, Ariel Meredith, Hannah Davis, and Jessica Gomes are appearing in the video alongside supermodel legend Christie Brinkley, who appeared on three consecutive SI swimsuit covers beginning in 1979.

The promo Air New Zealand released about the safety video does not reveal much about the gimmick behind the video — the actual script has to conform to FAA guidelines — but we are hopeful it avoids the double entendres of the airline’s series of Rico videos from 2012.

The behind-the-scenes video is here:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL6R2yq7R8M]

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Tags: air new zealand, in-flight

Photo credit: Still from a behind-the-scenes video of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit in-flight video for Air New Zealand. Air New Zealand

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