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Airlines

Denver and Seattle Airports Talk Trash on Twitter Before Super Bowl Sunday

Samantha Shankman
January 29th, 2014 at 2:00 PM EST

Skift Take

Denver and Seattle's playful fight is setting a new precedent for airports looking to engage with their flyers and support their cities.

Thousands of Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos fans are heading to their local airports this week to fly to New York City and root on their teams at the Super Bowl this Sunday.

A combination of winter weather and crowds could delay the flights, but flyers that turn to social media for help will be more entertained than informed.

Seattle-Tacoma Airport and Denver International are in the midst of a Twitter joust that pushes each airport to tout their cities and teams as better than the other.

Sea-Tac kickstarted the smalk talk on Sunday when it tweeted a photo of the Seahawks boarding their flight to New York City and mentioned Denver Airport.

Denver responded the next day with a tweet that insulted the height of Seattle's tallest tower and the height of Seahawk's quarterback Russell Wilson. This was also the first of many of Denver Airport's tweets to include the hashtag #UnitedinOrange.

Sea-Tac then took the Twitter trash talking offline and proposed the loser of the Super Bowl must fly the flag of the opposing team in public for 24 hours.

A spokesperson from each airport confirmed that the airport managers have agreed to the bet. And that the airport that loses the wager will post a photo of the winning team’s flag on display on Facebook.

This is actually the third time that Sea-Tac's managing direction Mark Reis has wagered bets with transportation directors in other cities. San Francisco Airport's director John Martin had to wear a Seahawks jersey and send Ghirardelli chocolates after the 49ers lost to the Seahawks earlier this season.

The smack talk picked up yesterday and into today winning the Twitter accounts new followers and very happy flyers.

"We are engaging in some good-natured airport smack talk in the days leading to the big game," says a Denver Airport spokesperson.

"The team in Global Communications and Marketing is taking on the task of making sure we are one-upping our Seattle competition at every turn, and engaging our fans and customers along the way."

Denver Airport is also adding extra emphasis to Omaha when it appears on flight information and baggage display screens. Flyers headed there this week will see "Omaha!" instead.

This is another boost for the real city of Omaha, which received an unexpected wave of attention after Peyton Manning yelled the city's name 44 times during a playoff game.

Samantha Shankman
January 29th, 2014 at 2:00 PM EST

Tags: social media, super bowl, twitter

Photo Credit: This tweet resulted in the losing airport agreeing to fly their rival's flag for 24 hours.  Twitter

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