Ryanair will put flyers' faces on the side of their planes

(AFP) To mark its 30th birthday, low-cost carrier Ryanair has launched a new publicity stunt that involves emblazoning the faces of 30 flyers on the fuselage of the company's Boeing 737 aircraft.

The tagline sums up the idea in two tidy sentences: “Your face on a plane. It’s a dream you never knew you had until now.”

Because aside from Hello Kitty, Tintin, hobbits and dwarves, few others can boast bragging rights to having had their face blown up to aircraft proportions and flown 35,000 feet in the air.

To enter, participants must write a short blurb explaining why they should be chosen to grace one of 30 Boeing 737s in 500 characters.

Winners will see a decal of their face, name and signature plastered on a plane for up to six months.

Along with Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic is also no slouch when it comes to staging outlandish publicity stunts.

Perhaps one of their best to date? Stealing headlines from British Airways in the 1990s when the carrier intended to make a splash in a sponsored event with the London Eye. When construction crews had trouble erecting the wheel, Branson quickly commissioned a blimp to fly over the site with a message reading, “BA can’t get it up.”

Meanwhile, the Ryanair contest closes August 31. Winners will be announced September 1. Images will be applied before January 31, 2016.