Spike and Suzy and Suzy happen in real countries all over the world, with Belgium (their home country) as main focus for many stories. While in the early stories large distances were usually traveled using the fictitious "Gyronef", an experimental helicopter devised by professor Barabas, starting from the 1960s all air travel is provided by the Dutch national airline KLM, making it an early and prominent example of product placement in European comics. Vandersteen chose KLM over the Belgian national airline SABENA because of his friendship with Ron Winderink, PR manager at KLM. Willy Vandersteen created "Suske en Wiske", beginning publication in "De
Mount Cook Airline Mount Cook Airline Mount Cook Airline, a subsidiary of Air New Zealand, is a regional airline based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Formerly part of the Mount Cook Group, it now operates scheduled services throughout the country under the Air New Zealand Link brand. The airline operates the ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircraft, and all its aircraft wear the Air New Zealand livery. Its main base is Christchurch International Airport. The airline was established and started operations in 1920 at Timaru by Rodolph Lysaght Wigley, who in 1906 had driven the first motor car to The Hermitage. Wigley bought five