CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY
Air New Zealand Flight NZ7 - San Francisco to Auckland, 24 December 2024
The BRIEF
When the New Zealand agency, Bastion Shine, came to us with this idea, the first thing we did was smile — and then immediately start working through why it was going to be genuinely difficult to pull off.
The concept was beautifully simple: passengers on Flight NZ7 departing San Francisco on Christmas Eve would cross the International Date Line and land in Auckland on 26 December, skipping Christmas Day entirely. Air New Zealand wanted to bring Christmas to them mid-air, at 30,000 feet, aboard a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The centrepiece of that experience would be a dynamic projection show running the full length of each cabin — a narrative journey from a snowy Northern Hemisphere Christmas to a warm, golden New Zealand summer. Working alongside animation studio Storybox, who developed the custom content, we were brought in to make that vision a physical reality inside a commercial aircraft.
The CHALLENGE
There is no standard playbook for projecting inside a flying aircraft. The environment presents a set of constraints that simply do not exist in any venue or event space we have worked in before.
Surface Geometry
The interior of a 787 cabin is not a flat canvas. Overhead bins are curved and interrupted by service panels, lighting, and air vents. To achieve clean, visually coherent imagery across these surfaces, every projector position required content warped to account for the geometry.
Ambient light.
The 787 Dreamliner is known for its large electrochromic windows, which dim rather than block light entirely. Projecting in a space where even low ambient light can wash out an image meant we had to work carefully with both the content team and the airline's cabin crew to manage the lighting environment throughout the show. The projection system had to deliver sufficient brightness without creating glare or discomfort at close range — passengers are seated directly beneath and beside the projection surfaces, not at a distance.
Power and installation constraints.
An operating commercial aircraft is not a space you can cable up freely. Every piece of equipment had to comply with aviation safety requirements, with all the equipment battery powered. The installation was temporary by nature — rigged for a single flight, with no permanent modifications to the aircraft. Everything had to go in, perform without fault, and come back out.
One shot.
There is no technical rehearsal on an active commercial flight. We had one opportunity to get this right, in front of a full cabin of passengers who had no idea it was coming. Multiple pre-flight testing in the training aircraft on the ground at Air New Zealand's training facility ensured we were completely confident before the doors closed. Once NZ7 was wheels-up, whatever happened in that cabin was the show.
Coordination in a live operational environment. Working within Air New Zealand's operational framework meant close collaboration with the crew, ground teams, and the airline's brand and experience leads. The projection moment was choreographed to land at a specific point in the flight — crew movements, meal service, cabin lighting states, and the timing of the reveal all had to be sequenced together precisely.
The SOLUTION
Our approach was methodical. We mapped the 787's interior geometry in advance and built the projection setup around that data, calibrating each unit to the specific curvature and finish of the surfaces it would cover. The content from Storybox was exceptional - a fluid, narrative-driven animation that moved from a snowy Northern Hemisphere Christmas scene through to a bright New Zealand summer beach, ending with a sense of arrival home. Our job was to ensure that content landed with the same quality and intention in the air as it had on screen in pre-production.
Equipment selection prioritised compact form factor, low heat output, and the output brightness needed to cut through the cabin environment. Every detail was documented and approved through the appropriate aviation channels. The setup was designed to be fast to install and fast to remove, with no trace left on the aircraft.
The show itself ran seamlessly. Grace Blewitt, Air New Zealand's Head of Brand, described watching passengers take in the moment: "When we started and the light show began, they were taking it all in and having a look around and you could just see the surprise and delight on their faces. It was truly magical."
THE RESULT
Over 200 passengers who would otherwise have missed Christmas entirely experienced something genuinely unexpected and moving. The event received international coverage, with outlets including Runway Girl Network noting the broader significance of what had been achieved technically - highlighting it as a demonstration of the emerging potential of cabin projection for passenger experience.
Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran put it simply: "Every detail was designed to bring the magic of Christmas to life, even at 30,000 feet."
For Streamliner, this project represents exactly the kind of work we exist to do - technically demanding, creatively driven, and executed in an environment where there is no margin for error. It was a first for Air New Zealand, and a genuinely proud moment for our team.
