Allplane in the media

A bit of blatant self-promotion here, I know, but it is nice to see one's work picked up by industry peers, particularly when we are talking about some heavy-weights of online journalism!

My picture of a Thai Airways' Airbus A380 crew sleeping quarters was re-published on the front cover of popular American technology site Gizmodo.

And my article about Vueling's recent expansion was picked up by online travel magazine Skift.

No need to say readership figures went through the roof with all this extra exposure!

Enjoy the read!

Allplane featured in the media

The Spanish air travel market is one of the favourites of this blog, as so much is going on there at the moment. The effects of the economic crisis are having a deep impact on this sector and, therefore, it does not come as a surprise that the media are often reporting on aviation related issues, and it is in this context that Allplane got featured twice recently...

I would like to thank Companias Low Cost for presenting Allplane to its readership. Companias Low Cost, a highly recommended blog, provides an overview, in Spanish, of the news in the low cost air travel sector. I am also very grateful to David Rodriguez for writing some nice words about Allplane in the Catalan newspaper Ara. If you happen to understand Catalan I recommend reading his regular column on this newspaper about infrastructure and transportation issues!

By the way, and in connection with this latest article, the future of Lleida airport is again under discussion after Vueling and Pyrenair have canceled their routes to Barcelona, Vigo and Madrid. The Catalan government is going to draft a strategic plan with a view to guaranteeing the economic viability of this facility...something worth following up!

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.

Airlines and climate change in the London tube

I recently came across the following advertisement while at the London underground. Quite puzzling to be honest...the colours and theme look the same, but to the left is China Airlines announcing its new London-Taipei service (inaugurated last March), to the right Oxfam dennouncing the dangers of climate change. My first thought: are both ads part of the same marketing campaign? maybe China Airlines contributing to some carbon neutral scheme? I read the small print (unfortunately not readable in the photograph) and I doubt it. Option 2): climate change campaigners mimmicking the theme of airline advertisements and then selecting their ads to be placed next to the airline ones? maybe...

but then I saw this at another tube station:



Another climate change ad next to an airline advertisement, this time the venerable British airline Monarch (letting everyone know that it has now been ferrying holidaymakers to Europe's sunny spots for over four decades, quite remarkable in this industry!).

So, it seems the colour coincidence with China airlines was just that: a coincidence (I wonder what the China Airlines marketing people are thinking, in case they know...), however not too sure about the placement of climate change ads next to airline ads is such a coincidence, I haven't seen them anywhere else, but the sample is just to small to be able to tell...if this is the case, this means that advertising in the tube is not as "dumb" as it looks, you can select the placement to reach your potential customers or to discredit your rivals...In the meantime will keep looking to see whether I find more cases!

From The Times

Quite shocking, to be honest...

British plane-spotters face jail in India