Barcelona, SPAIN – Clear skies provided the perfect backdrop at El Prat Airport as FC Barcelona welcomed the Qatar Airways Boeing 777, featuring their club’s livery, as it touched down in Barcelona for the first time on Wednesday.

The First Team players, along with FC Barcelona President, Mr. Josep Maria Bartomeu, Vice President Economic and Strategic Area, Mr. Javier Faus, and the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Antoni Rossich, happily posed for pictures in front of the Boeing 777 which has been designed to showcase the partnership between the two organisations which officially commenced in July 2013.

The aircraft, which features a stunning design incorporating the colourful Barça flag and club emblem draped across the tail-end of the Boeing 777, also features the tagline, ‘a team that unites the world’, which was first introduced in the popular TV spot created to support the partnership.

“We are thrilled to see our Boeing 777 with the custom-designed FCB livery touch down in Barcelona, the home of our partners FC Barcelona,” said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, His Excellency, Mr. Akbar Al Baker. “The arrival of the aircraft for the first time to this beautiful city was made all the more special by the attendance of the players, Mr. Bartomeu, Mr. Faus and Mr. Rossich. This beautiful aircraft representing both our airline and our friends at FC Barcelona further demonstrates how strongly and genuinely we believe in this partnership. We wish the team all the very best of luck for their final game on Saturday and look forward to continuing our successful relationship with FC Barcelona.”

Mr. Bartomeu added: “It is thrilling to see this amazing aircraft, the Qatar Airways Boeing 777 with the FC Barcelona colours and badge, up close. It’s the first time that our partner’s Boeing 777 with the FCB livery lands in our city and we are delighted to welcome it. This plane symbolises the aliance between FCB and Qatar Airways, as well as our universal and global approach to bringing our colours to the skies while operating international flights around the world.”

The FC Barcelona livery, alongside the Qatar Airways Oryx logo, was crafted in Dublin, Ireland, where a team hand-painted the design with a shading effect to create the illusion of the Barça flag moving as the aircraft takes to the skies.

The vivid scarlet and blue colors painted on the fuselage of the aircraft stood out clearly in the bright sunshine as the players lined up in front of the aircraft in their famous kit. Qatar Airways Captains and crew flying back to Doha on the departing flight also had the opportunity to stand side-by-side with the players further highlighting the strong partnership between the two organisations.

In the nine months since the partnership took effect, Qatar Airways has launched a hugely successful partnership campaign including the Land of FCB TV commercial that has garnered more than eight million views from fans all over the world; officially sponsored the FC Barcelona Asia Tour, and introduced unique tour and match packages for fans looking to visit Barcelona through Qatar Airways Holidays division.

The Boeing 777 featuring the livery currently flies to a number of destinations throughout the airline’s global network, including Bangkok, Singapore and Mumbai.

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operation, to the point where today it operates a modern fleet of 134 aircraft to 139 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

Over the next few months, the network will grow further with new routes to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Turkey (May 22, 2014), Edinburgh, Scotland (May 28, 2014), Miami, USA (June 10, 2014), Haneda, Japan (June 18, 2014), Dallas/Fort Worth, USA (July 1, 2014) and Djibouti (July 27, 2014).