Iberia Express update

Just a quick update on my previous post about Iberia Express where I posted a link to what looked like the new airline's livery. Today Will Horton has tweeted the following picture that confirms the simple mainly white livery of the "new" airline.

With this livery Iberia is possibly wishing to highlight the fact Iberia Express is a "lite" version of itself. I must say I am unimpressed by this design, however this approach might make sense if what you are willing to sell is an unexpensive, basic product stripped out of all unnnecessary extras. Finnair recently moved also to a mainly white livery, although for a different set of reasons.

Three airline blogs that stand out

Every social media manual will tell you that having a corporate blog is a must. Opening a blog is actually not that difficult (this blog is proof of this :-)) but doing it in a nice and engaging way is another story, particularly when we are talking about "corporate" blogs...this is why I would like to highlight a few examples I came across of airline blogs that, in my opinion, are really outstanding:

1) KLM

The Dutch carrier has been a pioneer in the use of social media tools and its corporate blog could not be less. KLM's blog has a nice personal touch, presenting stories from all corners of KLM's network, and their Facebook page is also a must for any aviation history enthusiast, capitalizing on the airline's long history as the Dutch flag carrier and a real commercial aviation pioneer (KLM was founded in 1919, which makes it the oldest airline in the World still operating!). You can find some great pictures that will help you imagine how the passenger experience was in those early days of aviation!

2) Air New Zealand

Air NZ has been delighting observers of airline marketing for quite some time, with simple product innovations that have, nevertheless, the potential to improve considerably the passenger experience, funny aircraft safety videos and cute furry mascots...and Air New Zealands blog is up to what you would expect of such as creative airline...The Flying Social Network does not look like one more corporate blog, it's got a clean design, interesting articles and nice visuals...I do not tend to follow corporate accounts, but I made an exception with this one!

3) Finnair

Well, this is a classical one, and the Quality Hunters initiative got already its space in this blog, so I will point you towards my post of 2010: "Finnair, rethinking quality"

Airlines soon to become more like media companies?

We all know what the internet has done to print magazines...is it now the turn of the in-flight magazine?

As in-flight wi-fi becomes commonplace and airlines start to facilitate the use of hardware platforms on-board too, I imagine the days of the paper in-flight magazine are counted...

Airlines can find new ways to monetize the information gateways they open for their passengers, in an extreme case, they would become more like media companies, for example, Finnair is now lending iPads, but I can see Ryanair charging for such a service. Similarly, airlines can develop their own media products tailored to the specific interest of their travelers, for example Lufthansa's CloudStream...after all, they know quite a lot about their frequent fliers, and it opens the door to new monetization opportunities that have more in common with the online media rather than with traditional airlines.

Food provenance, authenticity and airline marketing: providing an in-flight gastronomical experience

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 with wild salmon livery
(photo by Frank Kovalchek, via Wikipedia)

A few days ago I came across a couple an interesting article on Airline Trends (a great blog that I recommend to anyone interested in airline marketing, by the way!) that focused on how food can be a great way for airlines to differentiate their offerings and improve the traveler experience.

This is a topic that deeply interests me and I think airline's initiatives in this direction are very consistent with the ongoing trend towards introducing more doses of authenticity in the consumer experience, something you can see for example if visiting any UK supermarket, where products come with more and more provenance references in their packaging...so I thought about a sharing an article that friend site GourmetOrigins.com has just published about authenticity and provenance in in-flight meals.

Food origins up in the air (via GourmetOrigins.com)

I hope you enjoy the post and please do not hesitate to contact me if you know of any more initiatives of airlines using on-board food provenance and authenticity for marketing purposes!

GourmetOrigins.com is a site to discover and explore the origins and stories of the best European foods, find out where they are made, how and by whom!

Finnair rethinking quality

A few days ago I was checking options for my upcoming trip to Russia and I ended up at Finnair’s website. The first thing that caught my attention is the Twitterish interface that Finnair has come up with.


The central part of the screen has actually been taken over by the "Quality Hunters". This is an initiative Finnair has come up with to highlight its commitment to quality. The “quality hunters” are actually independent professionals from all over the World that have been tasked with traveling the globe during a whole month reporting on their experiences on quality wherever they go, be it the flights, airports or destinations.

The innovation is not that these "quality hunters" will be blogging and communicating their experiences along the way, engaging in open dialog with the public and making extensive use of twitter, but that Finair is giving them the main section of their corporate website. Some of the posts have little to do with the airline itself, but when they do write about Finnair I like the fact that they are sharp and straight to the point, like for example this post by "quality hunter" Christina Lund Sørensen about her less-than-satisfactory eating experience on-board several of Finnair's aircraft. It is a much welcome exercise of transparency on Finnair's side that the bloggers are allowed and even encouraged to post even when they do not have positive things to say.

The quality hunting experience has even its own site, that adds to Finnair's well designed main corporate website and where you can find all sorts of background information about the quality-hunting bloggers and their findings. I would say that overall it is a very good idea, with an even better execution!

The Great Circle Route and why has Finnair become an specialist in Asian routes

The shortest flight route is not always a straight line. We are used to see the Earth represented flat in a two-dimensional map, however this representation ignores that the Earth is round. The curvature of the Earth means that the most direct routes between Europe and North America or between Europe and Asia would normally go across the polar regions, since the distance to be covered is smaller at those places. This is known as the Great Circle Route.

If you want to see what is the most direct route between two points check out this website

For example, for the Lisbon to Tokyo (Narita airport) example enter LIS-NRT and press "Map", you will be surpised by the results! You can do the same with any airport city codes (you can find a list of airport codes here.

Now you can see why Finnair is focusing on marketing its Helsinki hub (HEL) as the gateway to Asia...

The retro wave reaches airlines

Attention: this picture was not taken in the late 60s, it is quite recent!
American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Astrojet
Photo by randomduck, available under a Creative Commons license.

Retro design that were successful in their days are making a comeback, touching the nostalgic side of many. In recent years we have seen the car industry introduce the retro-looking, although newly designed, Chrysler PT Cruiser, the remake of the legendary Fiat 500 and plans have been unveiled to produce a redesigned East German icon, the Trabant.

The airline industry is not immune to this trend, airline retro bags are already a fashion staple, but now is the airlines themselves that are taking on the idea and adding retro livery designs to their own aircraft. My guess is that it might have something to do with the flying experience becoming increasingly unglamourous, with no-frills becoming the standard, congested airports and air travel becoming more of a routine. Retro livery designs take us back to a time where flying meant, above all, glamour and exclusivity, when people dressed up to board a plane as to highlight that they were among the select few, a time when flying was not a hassle (whenever you are in Washington DC I highly recommend visiting the exhibit about the evolution of air travel at the Smithsonian , where the shifting demographics of air travel are thoroughly explained)

It is probably impossible to evaluate the branding benefits of adding retro liveries, but this move will surely delight scores of planespotters wherever these planes fly to.


Foto: Air France A320 in retro livery, Munich Airport
Photo by spotterjohnsen, available under a Creative Commons license.


American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Astrojet
Photo by randomduck, available under a Creative Commons license.


Lufthansa A321
Photo by Chjab, available under a Creative Commons license.


Continental Boeing 737-900ER at Newark (EWR)
Photo by Slasher-Fun, available under a Creative Commons license.


Foto: Finnair A319 in retro livery, Helsinki Vantaa Airport
Photo by Aku from Helsinki, Finland, available under a Creative Commons license.