Who lives in an airplane and travels abroad? SpongeBob SquarePants! Until the end of April, all Singapore Airlines flights (with the exception of the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route) will give kid passengers under the age of 12 one of seven exclusively created SpongeBob SquarePants in-flight toys. The premiums will be personally presented to kids by the airline’s flight attendents just as the lights go down for the start of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie on SIA’s KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system.

The airline’s toy supplier, Hong Kong’s Maxx Productions, obtained a license from Nick Asia Pacific to distribute the giveaways, which include 35mm cameras, wallets, activity books, pillows, slippers and guitar-playing and jellyfish-riding SpongeBob plush toys.

The initiative kicked off last year when Nick Asia Pacific participated in Singapore Airline’s open-door e-sourcing process, whereby licensors and specialized premium providers are invited to submit pitches for promotions to the airline. SIA has participated in a very similar giveaway effort involving premiums based on the Peanuts brand since 2001.

Wei-Peng Lim, SIA’s spokesperson, says the airline hasn’t ruled out selling the SpongeBob toys after the promotion is over, but in the meantime, the airline will be marketing the promotion and its two-month showing of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie to potential passengers in overseas markets.

As far as future initiatives are concerned, Lim says the airline is always open to proposals from new promotional partners, but there’s nothing in the pipeline just yet.

Nick’s marketing team first took to the skies in a November 2004 partnership with Cayman Airways. As part of the cross-promotional effort, a plane decked out with images of the absorbent, yellow and porous one charted the maiden flight of a new direct route from Boston to the Cayman Islands.