Air Canada Partners With Professional Women’s Hockey League
Deal sees Air Canada become Inaugural Premier Partner of PWHL and Official Airline to teams
Posted On: January 3, 2024 By :The Professional Women’s Hockey League, with six teams in two countries and two highly-anticipated games already in the books, also scored a victory off the ice before the inaugural game with Air Canada becoming an inaugural Premier Partner of the PWHL and official airline for the league’s first six teams.
Air Canada is granted intellectual property rights for teams in Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto, the PWHL itself and official jersey branding rights for Montreal’s team. Air Canada will also provide travel support for the league and its players.
“To partner with the PWHL and be part of this historic moment in hockey history is incredibly exciting and meaningful to all of us at Air Canada,” said Andy Shibata, vice president, brand at Air Canada. “As Canada’s national carrier and a longstanding supporter of Canadian sports, this partnership reflects the love we share with our customers for hockey, as well as our work in championing gender equality in the aviation industry.”
Kristen Campbell stopped 24 shots for Toronto in front of a sellout crowd of 2,537 at Mattamy Athletic Centre, the former home of the NHL’s Maple Leafs, to beat New York 4-0 in the league’s inaugural game on New Year’s Day. Tennis great and PWHL board member Billie Jean King performed the ceremonial puck drop alongside PWHL senior vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford.
The second night of action saw Montreal beat Ottawa 3-2 at TD Place in front of a 8,318, a North American attendance record for professional women’s hockey. The PWHL bought out the Premier Hockey Federation in June, a league which previously had teams in Montreal, Toronto, Boston, the Minneapolis—St. Paul region and New York City regions. While the PHF also had teams in Hartford, Connecticut, and Buffalo, New York, the PWHL instead added a third Canadian team in Ottawa to split the six-team league equally between teams in Canadian and American markets.
The airline is also celebrating the partnership with a new ad campaign, entitled “We All Fly,” featuring a cadre of young PWHL hopefuls alongside Canadian hockey legend Mélodie Daoust. The PWHL deal also builds on Air Canada’s prior partnerships in professional women’s hockey and in women’s sports including with the WNBA. Air Canada also is the official airline to all seven Canadian NHL teams, the Toronto Raptors and Team Canada.
“We’re delighted to team up with Canada’s national carrier as an inaugural Premier Partner and Official Airline to the PWHL,” said Amy Scheer, senior vice president of business operations, PWHL. “We feel privileged to fly with Air Canada, a connection that reflects our shared values and the enormous potential for the league, its players and our future stars, as we take the sport to new heights.”
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