Not terribly uncommon to hear ATC use "THE" preceding airline call-signs, e.g. "Follow THE Lufthansa via E7, THE KLM will be giving way to you" etc.
What I always found strange was the apparently deliberate dropping of "THE" before Concorde, e.g. "I'm flying Concorde to New York tomorrow", or "Concorde has operated it's last flight".
Speedbird, Birdseed, what's in a name?