Nintendo has partnered with passenger airline Southwest Airlines to bring Wii U Gaming Lounges to Southwest’s busiest airports. In celebration of this news, Nintendo surprised an entire cabin full of passengers on flight 1883 when Mario showed up on board and gave out vouchers, each one redeemable for a brand new Nintendo Wii U completely free of charge.

Nintendo of America gave out 100 of these vouchers to the passengers, none of whom had any idea that this would happen. Mario was on hand to meet and greet customers after the flight, and customers were obviously delighted to receive the console for free.

This is all part of Nintendo’s promotion of its new partnership with Southwest Airlines. Nintendo is setting up Wii U Gaming Lounges in some airports, with each kiosk claiming to support four players simultaneously. Obviously this is a timely promotion with the recent release of the latest Mario platformer, Super Mario 3D World.

What do you think? Would you have liked to have been on that plane? Let us know in the comments below.