OREANDA-NEWS. June 4, 2012. From 4 to 20 May the biggest annual winter sport event in the world – IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships took place where Estonian Air was the National Partner and Partner Airline in Helsinki.

Approximately 650 million people in 120 countries watched the Ice Hockey World Championships organized by International Ice Hockey Federation. The event had a total attendance of more than 450,000 spectators – an average of about 7,040 fans in each of the 64 games.

“We had a chance to use our logo on the sides of ice hockey rink during the first 28 matches and a 30 second video clip of Estonian Air was played on arena’s JumboTron. We were honored to fly world champion ice hockey team and design one of our SAAB SF340 aircraft with the logos of World Championships,“ said Gunnar Magi, the Head of Marketing and Development Department at Estonian Air.

“Taking part of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship organizing team has a significant importance for Estonian Air and we are grateful that we could introduce our company to millions of people,” added Magi.

In addition, in March and April, Estonian Air took part of ice hockey road show in Finland and Estonia to promote the sport and tournament. During this time, the Hockey Tour passed through 19 cities including Tallinn.

A family hockey day in Tallinn brought approximately 2000 people together where activities included a mini roller hockey tournament for Estonian hockey juniors; different hockey actions to test one’s accuracy, speed and skill; and entertainment for children provided by the Championships’ official mascot Hockey Bird. In addition, all participants had the chance to win a visit for four people to the final game of the World Championships (tickets to the final plus flights).

The overview of the day can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKlnlKtmdjc&feature=youtu.be

Estonian Air had also its own tent in Hartwall Arena in Helsinki where the matches took place. Different games directed to the spectators were arranged and after each match, one flight ticket was drawn.

Several other draws were arranged supported by Estonian Air Facebook fan page and news portal Delfi. In addition, on the day of the finals, 2x2 tickets to see the final match were drawn.

Estonian Air, Estonian flag carrier, flies to 24 destinations in CIS, Scandinavia and Europe. The airline has recently added eight new destinations to its flight network, such as Helsinki, Riga, Jyvaskyla, Hannover, Vienna, Venice, Joensuu, Kajaani and Tbilisi.

On June 9th, Estonian Air opens a new route between Tallinn and Venice