A virtual plane will be racing across the Atlantic tomorrow in a special competition powered by social media.
The competition invites members of the public to tweet a message to @british_airways using #racetheplane, which fuels the plane on its journey. The more tweets, the faster it goes. Each tweet counts as an entry in the competition, with the opportunity to win flights to Toronto and Los Angeles.
The online race pits the virtual ‘tweetliner’ against BA’s new aircraft, first taking on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Toronto on Thursday, September 19. The race will cover 3,570 miles, departing Heathrow at 12:15pm (UK time). The virtual plane will race BA093 and the 787 is due to land Toronto at 2.55pm (local time).
The second race to Los Angeles will take place on September 24, when twitter users will be able to race BA’s A380 inaugural flight to LAX. They will be trying to beat flight BA269, due to depart Heathrow at 4.15pm (UK time) and land in Los Angeles at 7.15 (local time). The race will cover 5,454 miles.
The race to Toronto is open to UK twitter users, while the Los Angeles race will be promoted in the UK and US.
The pre-race site racetheplane.ba.com offers a share function that helps spread the word on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.