The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) has partnered with SimpliFlying to launch a new program for global airlines called APEX Greener powered by SimpliFlying. The program aims to reduce aviation industry’s carbon footprint and alleviate the impact of air travel on the environment, while helping airlines choose greener products without adding costs.

This program is offered by APEX for free to both APEX and IFSA (International Flight Services Association) airline members and provides a shared airline industry database of in-flight airline products and their APEX Greener rating. Every in-flight airline product is examined across its complete lifecycle: sustainable sourcing, production emissions, benefits of any weight reduction, the amount of recycled material used, recyclability, and end-of-life disposal. Technology developed by Finch, which uses a scoring system powered by top scientific research and unique insights, allows this program to assess and certify sustainable products with a degree of accuracy and effectiveness that has never been done in the aviation industry.

“Aviation is not green, but we all have a responsibility to make it greener,” APEX/IFSA CEO Dr. Joe Leader stated. “APEX Greener powered by SimpliFlying is a step in the right direction by focusing our airlines on in-flight products that are better for both our industry and our world.  APEX Greener eliminates redundant airline sustainability verification expenses by fully leveraging our ability to openly share information as a trade association.”

“Airlines seeking to build trust with customers conscious about sustainability will benefit from this program by choosing products that enhance the passenger experience through greener in-flight products,” added SimpliFlying CEO, Shashank Nigam.

APEX Greener powered by SimpliFlying is designed to meet the latest EU standards for green certification labelling, with in-depth details behind every unique QR product code. In addition, all certified products are highlighted to airlines in the APEX Aircraft Interiors Database powered by CAPA-Centre of Aviation, which is the world’s most trusted source of market intelligence for the aviation and travel industry, ultimately helping airlines decide which greener products to use and promote to their passengers.

For more information on APEX Greener powered by SimpliFlying, please visit https://apex.aero/apex-greener/.

About the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX)

As a global non-profit and one of the world’s largest international airline associations, APEX advances passenger experience with the backing of nearly every major airline and valued supplier over the past 42 years.  In conjunction with both the International Flight Services Association (IFSA) and Future Travel Experience (FTE), APEX serves the full spectrum of the end-to-end travel experience. APEX reinvests all its resources to serving its members, strengthening the worldwide airline industry, advancing thought-leadership, fostering business opportunities via events, developing global initiatives, setting key airline standards, and highlighting well-deserved recognition across our industry.

For more information, please visit apex.aero, sign up for the APEX Daily Experience e-newsletter, or follow APEX on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About SimpliFlying

SimpliFlying is one of the world’s most experienced aviation strategy consultancy firms, having worked with over 100 aviation clients on airline branding, customer experience, digital marketing, crisis communications, and sustainability strategy since 2008. SimpliFlying has launched a sustainability practice post-pandemic and has become a market leader in advising airlines on their sustainability roadmaps. SimpliFlying CEO hosts the leading podcast on sustainable aviation, Sustainability In The Air, conducting weekly interviews with top aviation and technology executives. SimpliFlying’s analysis and insights have been featured in leading international media outlets such as BBC, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. The SimpliFlying team comprises of consultants across four continents. For more information, please visit www.simpliflying.com and follow SimpliFlying on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Finch

Finch decodes products’ environmental impacts, encourages consumers to make better purchasing decisions, and helps businesses with their sustainability goals. The Finch scoring system is built to decode and simplify sustainability and is powered by top scientific research and unique insights. The Finch algorithm is supported by peer-reviewed scientific literature from academia, white papers by business leaders, government reports, quantitative insights, and qualitative information. Each of these pieces of data are applied to well-established environmental footprint assessment techniques, weighting schemes, and frameworks. For more information, please visit www.choosefinch.com and follow Finch on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About CAPA – Centre for Aviation

CAPA -Centre for Aviation is the world’s most trusted and comprehensive source of market intelligence for the aviation and travel industry. Its combined Fleet and Aircraft Interiors Database contains over 43,000 aircraft listings for over 600 airlines worldwide. It encompasses the most extensive global commercial fleet interiors records, adding access to rich and unrivalled insights. The Aircraft Interiors database includes a.o. seat models, dimensions and manufacturers, in-flight entertainment (IFE), wireless in-flight entertainment (W-IFE) and in-flight connectivity (IFC). For more information, please visit www.centreforaviation.com.

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I spoke with Oscar recently about his new book documenting his journey at United Airlines, and he shared a story that touched a chord.

Within five years, United was flying high, achieving top-tier reliability and profits, winning back customer loyalty and earning the praise of each of its major union leaders.

Most importantly, frontline employees were finally flying together as a team, after the turmoil of a merger that finally was ratified eight years to the day after it was begun. Today, Oscar remains beloved by the rank-and-file of United Airlines for his authenticity, faith in his employees, and for turning the company around by creating a New Spirit of United.

Oscar took the helm of a United that was flying through very turbulent skies, and was anything but United.

A stalled merger, dismal operational and financial performance, tortured labor relations and rock-bottom customer satisfaction and employee morale meant United was in freefall.

Within five years, United was flying high, achieving top-tier reliability and profits, winning back customer loyalty and earning the praise of each of its major union leaders. Most importantly, frontline employees were finally flying together as a team, after the turmoil of a merger that finally was ratified eight years to the day after it was begun.

Oscar credits his employees for pulling off the airline comeback story of all time, and it began with a Wall Street-defying strategy to put employees first, as the foundation of rebuilding.

Lessons learned from a PR Crisis

He was bold enough to share the three lessons he learned from the Dr Dao incident United Airlines faced.

Long-time followers of SimpliFlying would recall that we became one of the first companies to ban travel on United following the unfortunate handling of a passenger. We all watched Oscar’s response closely as an industry at that time. It has been quite the turnaround at United – and it started with Oscar. It was good to hear him speak about how he took the incident in his stride, took personal responsibility and led from the front.

Behind the scenes, another personal drama was unfolding. On Day 37 of his tenure, he suffered a massive heart attack. He woke from a coma only to fight for his job, fend off a proxy battle from activist investors, manage PR crises, all while learning the three-dimensional chess game that is required to obtain a heart transplant. As CEO, then Chairman, he also led negotiations for the CARES Act, and helped marshal the airline sector response to Covid.

Getting an early start in sustainability

Several United Airlines’ sustainability initiatives have become industry-leading today – from its investment in eVTOL startup Archer to its appointment of a “Chief Trash Officer”.

“Do you believe there’s something going on regarding climate change on our planet?”

Oscar Munoz

Listeners on my podcast would remember my interview with current CEO Scott Kirby about sustainability. Oscar shed some light on how it all got started.

While many may think that Oscar’s best legacy was hiring Scott Kirby as his successor at United Airlines, there’s a lot more to the story. In his book, Turnaround Time, Oscar Munoz dives deep into each of the issues we discussed and more.

In fact, my full interview with Oscar with a much more detailed conversation will debut on on opening episode of Season 4 of my podcast, Sustainability In The Air.

Today, Oscar remains beloved by the rank-and-file of United Airlines for his authenticity, faith in his employees, and for turning the company around by creating a New Spirit of United.

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The SimpliFlying research team spent the last weekend tracking most of the April Fool’s Day worldwide. We have done a roundup of the best airline advertising campaigns, and we announce the winner of the SimpliFools Award – the airline with the most innovative prank at the end.

For those interested, here are some of the best April Fool’s airline advertising campaigns in the past decade – 2022, 2016, 2014 and 2013!

The JetBlue Snack Mask

JetBlue launched a “snack mask”, a whiteboard where you could state your meal preferences. I found the humour to be slapstick, but hey – it was April Fool’s Day!

Never miss another tomato juice, ginger ale or salty snack again. Introducing: The JetBlue Snack Mask. Guaranteed to satisfy all your snacking needs. pic.twitter.com/gFvJOugY4l

— JetBlue (@JetBlue) April 1, 2023

SWOOP allows free emotional baggage

SWOOP is an ultra-low-cost airline in Canada that charge for bags. They ran a campaign that highlighted their bag fee, while declaring that “emotional baggage” is free!

And it’s a good thing – because don’t we all have a bit more of that coming out of the pandemic? Especially while travelling, where we’re all a bit out of practice, it can be stressful at the best times, and air travel seems more emotionally charged than ever.

We know everyone has a lot of feels when travelling. and while checked and carry-on still come at a fee, your emotional baggage is always free. Learn more at https://t.co/tyZesKAiwl pic.twitter.com/JjwACnb3G6

— FlySwoop (@FlySwoop) April 1, 2023

Sail the Emirates Sealine

Emirates launched its first cruise – the Emirates Sealine – an ultra-luxurious cruise liner from the Dubai airline. The very creative press release from the airline quoted Captain Jack Shallow, the newly appointed Chief Maritime Officer at the helm of Emirates Sealine,

“Technology, AI and innovation in developing our future-generation cruise ships mean we can mirror the city’s pace and sail at more than 50 knots per hour – nearly double the speed of the fastest ones today.”

Emirates Sealine’s liners will dock at major cruise ports – charting a course from the US to New Zealand – supported by the airline’s colossal network. Perhaps feed will be provided by the Emirates A380s? Bookings open soon for its maiden voyage to Karachi on 1 April 2024.

KLM’s Seat Recline Alert

Isn’t one of the most annoying aspects of flying when someone reclines a seat on you without warning? KLM has a creative solution – a seat that makes a sound when someone is reclining. Nice prank!

Virgin Australia’s Fly Cleaning service

Who likes to do laundry upon returning home from a vacation? Nobody! So Virgin Australia introduced a cleaning service for its flyers. Fun video!

Introducing ‘Virgin Australia Fly Cleaning’. Say goodbye to the post-holiday laundry marathon #FlyCleaning pic.twitter.com/pSduLzaZbe

— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) March 31, 2023

Skyteam Alliance’s Dog Spa

Who has a dog who likes to travel? Skyteam decided to take care of dogs while you travelled!

We’re delighted to unveil our new dog spa at the SkyTeam Lounge in Santiago. Starting next month, passengers traveling with dogs can give their furry friends a little pre-flight relaxation before their flight pic.twitter.com/Hir0BsJsoK

— SkyTeam (@skyteam) April 1, 2023

Geneva Airport allows ski-in-ski-out access

Geneva is close to a few popular ski resorts. So in the winter, they have a lot of tourists who go through the airport to ski. Why not make it easy for them to get to-and-from the slopes?

Special Mention – ixigo’s BhAI

While it’s not an airline or airport, Indian OTA ixigo releases a nifty April Fool’s joke every year and this year they’ve jumped on the ChatGPT bandwagon to introduce BhAI, which translates as “brother” from Hindi. You’ll need to know Hindi to appreciate the gag truly.

The winner of the SimpliFools Award

Our favourite airline advertising campaign on April Fools’ Day 2023 is….Emirates Sealine! The airline did something on-brand and took it up a notch. It’s not very unfathomable to imagine a luxury airline launching a luxury cruise liner like Virgin has. Their press release was very well written and worth reading for all marketing and communications professionals. The complementing video and graphics were very believable as well.

The missing airline…

Canadian airline WestJet did not release an April Fools’ Day joke for the first time in over a decade. That was truly missed after classics like KargoKids and TimeTravel. WestJet had created a brand differentiation and an X-Factor around its April Fools Day advertising campaigns. But not this year. Instead, the airline is facing a strike action from its pilots and released a note that this day is “no joke“. The page went on to detail how the airline is making flying more efficient. Perhaps the airline was in a lose-lose situation. But their jokes were truly missed this year.

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A lot has changed in the last 15 years in the world of aviation. Airline brands have weathered various storms – from regional conflicts to the pandemic. The new realities require a new framework for airlines to build lasting brands in the age of growing concerns about sustainability. We believe an ideal airline brand model would account for the new realities of business and the unique nature of the industry. It is time to update the 6X airline brand model.

Introducing the 6x+S Airline Brand Model

Despite unique features of airline brand engagement, most airline marketers apply the same generic marketing principles that are used for other consumer products. Our 6X+S model helps guide an airline’s branding approach by focusing on six key levers, with sustainability as an overarching consideration for each.

In addition to the six stages of an airline’s brand development, we have included relevant case studies in our new whitepaper, featuring United Airlines, Air France, SAUDIA, Royal Schiphol Group, Etihad, and Air New Zealand.

So go ahead and download the whitepaper and share your feedback. Meanwhile, here’s a video in which I give an overview of the six key factors to build a lasting airline brand.

Why sustainability matters to the airline brand

In a recent conversation I had on my sustainability podcast with former Etihad boss Tony Douglas, he asserted that,

“The commercial viability of airlines would soon depend on their sustainability efforts.”

Yet, very few airlines are taking the big steps and communicating them well among stakeholders in the right manner. 

Post-pandemic, as travel bounced back, airline CEOs need not just to build their sustainability roadmap for the next fifty years; they also need to communicate these efforts effectively. Marketing and Communications teams must think differently about how they talk about an airline’s sustainability efforts while applying the 6X model. They must communicate to multiple stakeholders like global media, employees and investors, not just customers.

The old mantras of keeping copywriting short and simple need to be ditched in favour of authentic storytelling. CCOs and CMOs must think about long-form podcasts and videos rather than six-word statements that communicate little. A strong focus on storytelling coupled with radical transparency should be the priority if airlines are the build trust in an era where sustainability becomes increasingly important for investors, customers and the media.

An airline that does not get sustainability communication right may be accused of greenwashing, or worse still, maybe cornered into greenhushing, failing to share anything about the efforts it is making toward a greener future.

This is why, 15 years after launching the 6X model, I am revising it in 2023 to include sustainability as a critical component of building a resilient brand. Airline brands require a bespoke approach to creating a bond with customers and inspiring employees. The 6X+S airline brand model provides a framework to help airline marketers do just that.  You can download the whitepaper here.

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As India’s national carrier, I believe Air India’s vision is to be a beacon of Indian culture, but the kits reflect none of that.

Why Air India needs to re-think amenity kits

In the heyday of Jet Airways, the airline served “aam panna” to its premium customers as the pre-departure drink. It’s a uniquely Indian drink I remember having as a child in Delhi and Jaipur, but never outside. That drink was such a cult favourite that a few years later, Emirates introduced lime & mint on its flights to India – this is “nimbu paani”, another popular drink in India.

Even Lufthsana and British Airways pride themselves in being very Indian on their flights to India. I’m surprised Air India went ahead with a vanilla off-the-shelf amenity kit stocked with many single-use items in an age where airlines take care to include sustainable materials. Air India’s nimble competitor Indigo has done a fabulous job of introducing “indian-ness” in its ancillary items.

It will be a pity if Air India goes with the TUMI kits for the long term. So, we re-did them! What if Air India worked with homegrown brands? What if Air India could bring out the richness of Indian culture (and colours and fragrances) through its amenity kits?

Re-thinking Air India’s amenity kits

For the First Class kits, we introduced products from homegrown Indian brands with a character. These include kit bags, socks and eye masks from Chumbak. And premium skincare products from the Himalayan luxury brand JiViSa, which was started by someone who used to work in aviation previously!

Specifically, the amenity kit contents would include:

1. An amenity kit bag that can be re-used as a laptop cover from Chumbak
2. Socks and eye masks you’d actually want to wear outside the flight
3. JiViSa’s Hydrating Himalayan Facial Cleanser With Kumkumadi & Jatamansi
4. JiViSa’s Body Milk Moisturiser With Jatamansi, Bitter Orange & Cinnamon
5. We left out the disposable plastic toothbrush and Colgate toothpaste since these products can be provided on-demand or stashed in the lavatories like Singapore Airlines.

If Air India wants to work with established Indian brands that are known globally, we made it very easy. We imagined a kit in partnership with Forest Essentials, a globally respected Ayurvedic brand. Ironically, Vistara, Air India’s newly acquired premium carrier, uses this brand in its amenity kits.

While we have just created mockups of what these “desi-kits” would look like, we hope the message is clear. As Air India re-invents itself as a carrier of global standards, it needs to embrace its heritage and not just find the easy way out. Airlines like Saudia have done a good job of preserving their heritage while still appearing modern and progressive. I believe Air India can too.

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Air Canada – Together for the holidays

Air Canada is celebrating the holiday season with a new, short film with a message of togetherness.

Launched on December 5th across Canada, the animated spot stars a baby loon who gets separated from its family on the annual journey south for the winter.  A strong gust of wind pushes the protagonist out of its parents’ path. However, landing in a Canadian winter cabin, the baby loon eats Christmas cake and makes a new friend – a wooden bird toy.

Santa then comes and takes both the bird and its toy friend south to be reunited with the rest of the family.

The spot features music from two Canadian artists: Where You Are by Tenille Townes, one of Canada’s most critically acclaimed country singers and Les échardes by Charlotte Cardin, a four-time 2022 Juno Award winner. Their emotive songs and lyrics add the soundtrack to our story.

“It’s been a tradition for us to use magic and wonder in our storytelling when it comes to our holiday ads, as it is one of the most celebrated and heartfelt times of the year,” said Andy Shibata, Vice President, Brand, Air Canada.

“Air Canada takes great pride in being the airline that plays a role in uniting family and friends to help them celebrate these special times.”

“Together for the Holidays”, developed with FCB Canada launched in multiple forms. 

A combination of 90-second and 60-second versions will be shown in cinema, 60-second and 30-second versions on televisions across Canada, and 30-second and 15-second versions on social media and digital platforms.

easyJet Jolly Trolley

easyJet has launched a Christmas delivery service to retirement homes and villages across the UK.

The airline says that its ‘Jolly Trolley’ service will deliver mince pies, mulled wine and Christmas carol singing to retirement homes – all served by local easyJet cabin crew. The service will be rolled out in Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow in December, following an initial trial in the Luton area (near easyJet’s HQ at London Luton Airport).

In the first trip of the UK Tour of the ‘Jolly Trolley’, easyJet cabin crew made a surprise trip to residents at Wixams Retirement Village in Bedfordshire.

Delivering mulled wine and mince pies to apartments and communal areas at the village, the crew also sang carols, which even saw some residents joining in and sharing their own talents.

Michael Brown, Director of Cabin Services at easyJet, said: “Our fantastic cabin crew are big part of the community in the cities we fly from all across the UK, from Luton to Liverpool, Gatwick to Glasgow, Bristol to Belfast and so many cities in between. 

“So, this Christmas, we wanted to take the opportunity to give back to communities we serve and bring the warm welcome and fabulous service our cabin crew are famous for directly to their doors, to share some extra special festive cheer.”

Heathrow “Little Here To Helpers”

London’s Heathrow Airport  has enlisted hundreds of ‘Little Here to Helpers’ to kick off the festive season for passengers by giving away 10,000 Christmas gifts. The presents will be given out across all four terminals in the run up to the new year.

All gifts will be from the airport’s shops, bars and restaurants and include free flights and lounge access, with other Christmas presents including Chanel perfumes, Pret breakfasts and designer makeup from World Duty Free.

This comes as London Heathrow Airport says that this will be the biggest Christmas getaway in three years. Over three million passengers are expected to travel through Heathrow in the last two weeks of the month  – double that of the same period last year.

Heathrow has also launched an advent calendar on its website and app, containing offers for those travelling through the airport until 25th December. Behind the windows lie discounts from Heathrow shops, bonus points from Heathrow Rewards, exclusive World Duty Free promotions and deals on festive-inspired food and beverage menus.

Heathrow’s Little Here to Helpers are staffed from the airport’s Here to Help programme, which is now in its twelfth year.

Over 750 Heathrow colleagues from non-operational and office-based roles took to the airport this summer to contribute 10,000 hours’ worth of additional customer support and help manage the pressures in the airport.

The Little Here To Helpers will be easily recognisable, donning purple Santa hats and located near one of the 25 Christmas trees spread across the terminals.

SWISS – Air Deer

The centrepiece of the SWISS Christmas campaign is an A320 neo, which has been given a red nose, in the style of Rudolph.  The airline is calling the aircraft “Air Deer.”

Every flight taken with this aircraft in turn results in the airline staging a Christmas ‘surprise.’

For example, on December 2nd passengers on a flight from Nice had a group of Christmas carol singers waiting for them at baggage claim in Zurich.

SWISS is encouraging people to go to a dedicated microsite to guess which flight will be next in line for a SWISS surprise.  If you get the answer right, you could win a CHF 200 (US $213) flight voucher.

SWISS has also put up videos of its previous Christmas campaigns online.  This included special flights to Lapland from 2017-2019.

Finally, SWISS is encouraging people at airports to take pictures of the special A320 and post it using the hashtag #LXAirDeer.  SWISS is then reposting the best images on its own social media channels.

WestJet – Christmas miracle

(SimpliFying CEO Shashank Nigam writes:)

WestJet’s #ChristmasMiracle is out! This time, the airline launched Miracle Miles – surprising passengers on a flight by giving them $1 to donate to their favourite charity for every mile flown.

On this flight from Winnipeg to Calgary, the airline gave out over $90,000 to a multitude of charities. In total, across multiple flights, the airline gave an additional $150,000 to charities. The video would make most people emotional, and kudos to WestJet for running this campaign.

I’ve often said that it’s hard for brands to “own” something in the lives of their customers. WestJet “owns” Christmas thanks to the repetition of its emotionally loaded campaigns every year.

Having said that, I felt the creative spark was missing in this year’s campaign compared to the previous years. Last year, they creatively united families kept apart by the pandemic. The year before, the airline’s Blue Santa travelled coast-to-coast in a single day (starting in Halifax, ending in Vancouver). We all know about the surprise gifts appearing on the belt back in 2013.

This year, the Miracle Miles giveaway seemed like something any other airline could have done. Or perhaps, I’ve just come to expect more out of WestJet. What do you think?

For those interested, here’s a statistical analysis of WestJet’s famous from 2013.

The post A selection of this year’s Christmas campaigns appeared first on SimpliFlying - Making Airlines Remarkable.

With most post–pandemic travel restrictions coming to an end in 2022, airline marketing was back.  Over the past year we’ve seen some great campaigns where airlines have been reintroducing themselves to the travelling public.

Here are ten of our favourites from 2022.

Air France – Elegance is a journey

In May, Air France released a new ad showcasing the best of France and Paris for a global audience.

The video tells the story of a woman in a red dress climbing the Eiffel Tower, the iconic symbol of France. As the heroine ascends the metal structure, there is a sequence of scenes meant to convey different Air France attributes and features such as the cuisine, and the attention given to younger travellers on flights.

At the top of the tower, she crosses an imaginary and enchanting sea of clouds.

The video ends by revealing the company’s new brand strapline – “Elegance is a journey. Air France.” This is meant to embody “the values of Air France, its style, as well as its attention to others and to the planet.”

Alaska Airlines – Care Coalition

Alaska Airlines’ Care Coalition is a feel good campaign that seeks to put positive vibes back into travelling by air.

The coalition consists of a series of entertainment and social media personalities, known for their sunny demeanours. It’s fronted by Tan France of TV Show “Queer Eye”, and also includes Tik Tok Star Nik Cho (@YourKoreanDad), the ‘Care Bear’ and ‘Mother Nature.’

In the initial sixty second spot, which was shown at the Superbowl, France chairs the coalition while they debate on whether to add Alaska Airlines.

The campaign was then followed up with a series of 30 second slots with the ‘Care Coalition’ delving into exactly why the airline is caring.

British Airways – A British Original

A British Original revolved around the question travellers are often asked when they land in a new country, “what is the purpose of your visit.”

But instead of the usual boxes you see on an immigration form of ‘business’ or ‘leisure’, the ads reflected a range of answers linking back to the very real and human reasons people travel.  Over 500 different variations were created.  (We’ve featured this campaign in the current issue of AMR)

Brussels Airlines – Safety Video

While other airlines have used celebrities in the past in their safety videos (notably Air New Zealand), the execution normally involves celebrity voice overs interspersed with cabin crew demonstrating the safety features.

The brand new Brussels Airlines safety video, released on August 1st, instead takes the form of a music video, where Hooverphonic lead singer Geike Armaert sings her way through the complete safety demonstration.

As she sings, other band members demonstrate the safety features, with the backdrop featuring slightly surreal Magritte-style imagery.

As a safety video treatment it’s different, but imparting information by way of a song is (according to academic research) proven to work, and Hooverphonic gives the airline a certain amount of PR value, while of course being (like the airline) Belgian.

Delta – The Delta Runway Collection

https://youtu.be/G7-8rROTg7Q

Delta teamed up with actress Issa Rae to showcase a team of six boutique designers, who created a travel themed fashion range to coincide with LA Fashion Week. This is our cover story this month, we’ve written about it in more detail in AMR Magazine.

Qantas – Still call Australia home

https://youtu.be/Kwfuo8ESa5E

In 1987, Qantas started using the song ‘Still Call Australia Home’ in its marketing.  In 1994, a new TV ad featuring the song was launched to coincide with the Commonwealth Games, while the “Qantas Choir” featured in a 1998 version of the ad.

Still Call Australia Home has since been in different Qantas ads throughout the years, here for example is a 2009 version of the ad with a singing children’s choir.  

In 2022, Australia brought the song back in a post pandemic campaign, as Australia reopened for (vaccinated) visitors.

Ryanair on TikTok

@ryanair No time for a slowmo scene we only have 25 minutes! #sigma #zoolander ♬ Yotube AstroCapella – AstroCapella

Over the past year, Ryanair has delivered a masterclass on how to use the youth focused social network TikTok as a communications and marketing tool.

The style of the content and the tone have all resulted in Ryanair becoming the biggest airline brand on the social network (it was the cover story in the May issue of the magazine, click here to read more).

The SkyTeam Sustainable Flight Challenge

Though not strictly speaking an airline marketing campaign, the Sustainable Flight Challenge gave all SkyTeam airlines a chance to highlight their sustainability credentials.

The challenge involved each airline taking one flight, and trying to make it as sustainable as possible.  For example, see the work we did with SAUDIA, where the airline staged an in-flight sustainability lab on a Jeddah – Madrid flight.

SkyTeam, and the different member airlines, now have an excellent platform that they can build on in future years.

United – Good Leads the Way

https://youtu.be/NtMrA0yy2eM

This is United’s new brand campaign launched in May 2022.

The centre-piece of the campaign is a feel-good, optimistic video ad.  According to the airline, the idea behind the ad is – “Connecting People. Uniting the World.” Every day, we help unite the world by connecting people to the moments that matter most. This shared purpose drives us to be the best airline for our employees, customers and everyone we serve.”

Sustainability, and the airline’s commitment to SAF comes through early with the narrator saying “it’s a sci-fi story about a trash that fuels a plane”.

The campaign has been amplified in lots of different ways, such as staging a special ‘Juneteenth flight.’ We like it as it both reinforces that aviation is a force for good, and shows how United is making progress in sustainability.  (Read more in the July issue of the magazine).

Vistara – The Soundtrack of Travel

To welcome passengers back after the pandemic, Vistara released  a mix of sounds that you generally associate with being on an aircraft.  It includes cabin crew announcements, but also the sound of the overhead bins closing.  

There are also the sounds of seatbelts clicking, the beep of security scanners and drinks being poured.  It then ends with the sound of an aircraft getting ready for takeoff.

A social media competition, amplifying the video, asks people to count the number of beeps they hear for the chance to win a Vistara Ticket.

Vistara says it intends to build on “sound” as a property and channel it can own in the future.

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The Winter edition of Airline Marketing Review (AMR) looks at a selection of airline marketing campaigns from the past quarter. We’ve also got a round-up of our ten favourite campaigns of the year, as well as features on Christmas and the FIFA World Cup. Read and download it here.

Since 2012, when we started this publication, we’ve showcased 1500+ different airline and airport marketing campaigns.

This month our lead campaign was Delta’s “Runway Collection” at LA Fashion Week, where the airline teamed up with six teams of up-and-coming designers to create limited-edition fashion items that each met a different travel need.

We’ve also featured British Airways’ A British Original’, which answered the question of why we travel in 500 different ways, as well as Virgin Australia’s Middle Seat Lottery.

Finally, with the FIFA World Cup still going on in Qatar, we’ve looked at several airline football campaigns.

Read the magazine for free here.

This magazine is just one part of SimpliFlying’s growing content portfolio. In particular, we’ve focused a lot on the biggest issue the industry has to face over the next three decades – the race to net zero.

As a result, SimpliFlying’s CEO Shashank Nigam has just wrapped up season two of the ‘Sustainability in the Air’ podcast, which includes interviews with a range of industry leaders, while we’ve published white papers on everything from carbon capture to greenwashing. You can access all this and more on our green hub.

Our next issue will be out in the Spring to coincide with the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

In the meantime, do you have any campaigns we should know about? Email them to us at editor [at] simpliflying [dot] com

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With Twitter having such a crucial role in most airlines and airports’ communications and customer service functions, what should you be doing now?

Bearing in mind that the situation is changing every day, we’ll first of all summarise things as they stand at time of writing (November 18th).  We’ll then provide some guidelines that we think airlines and airports active on Twitter should be following.

Most Twitter employees have been fired or have left

Soon after taking over, Elon Musk let around 50% of Twitter staff go.  Some departments saw huge cuts, for example the communications team was cut from 80+ right down to two people.  This matters, Twitter is as much a communications business with a lot of PR-related content issues worldwide as it is a technology business.

As a result, Twitter will no longer be able to effectively reply to media queries.  As an aside, this mirrors Musk’s approach at Tesla, which also has no PR department and generally does not respond to press queries.

Following that, there were a series of high profile resignations, including Twitter head of safety Yoel Roth, along with chief privacy officer Damien Kieran and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty.

Musk then sent an email to all remaining staff, telling them to commit to “hardcore” work by 5pm PST on Thursday 17 November, or take three months severance pay.  It appears most chose the latter route, and many staff who did agree, were ones on work visas, who are of course tied to their employer.  Following that, Twitter closed its offices for the day.

That inevitably led to a lot of speculation that the network, now missing most of its staff including in critical areas, might go down.  This comes as the New York Times reported tonight that some core teams are down to zero.

We agree with commentators who say that’s unlikely, and that a more realistic scenario is that we start seeing failures here and there.  It’s like having a car, but no one to repair it.  It will run for a while, before things start failing and breaking.

The latest that we’ve heard is that Musk sent out an email on Friday morning (PST), saying  “Anyone who can actually write software, please report to the 10th floor at 2pm today. Before doing so, please email me a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months”. This was followed up by another enail, encouraging staff to fly to San Francisco.

Journalist Zoe Schiffer who broke the news, remarked, “I am having a difficult time believing this is real and I am looking at the emails.” 

The key thing to look out for is the World Cup, which starts on Sunday. This will be one of the most active days on Twitter, will anything go wrong?  Almost certainly there will be minimal to no content moderation due to the lack of staff.  The traffic Twitter will get will also apparently “test every system.”  Who will be there to fix things?

The blue tick fiasco – a lesson for airlines

Soon after taking over, Musk decided to revamp the blue tick verification system, saying that this created a ‘lords and peasants’ type regime. Instead he wanted this replaced by an $8 monthly subscription charge, basically an extension of the existing Twitter blue system.  Of course, verification is important to airline customer services departments as the consumer knows they are talking to a real brand.

Following that, there were reports that fake airline accounts were being set up, asking passengers to DM their booking information. This is a recipe for fraud and could very much hurt airline brand reputations.  Musk has temporarily withdrawn his $8 plan, with a view to relauncing it later, but the damage was done.

It’s also worth noting that a fake, but ‘verified’ Eli Lilly account tweeted out that insulin would now be free. Shortly afterwards the stock price of the pharmaceutical giant dropped.  As a result, the potential for harm to your reputation is high, with possible financial consequences.

In the New York Times, the recently departed head of safety Yoel Roth questioned whether Musk’s plan even involved keeping brands happy –“His ability to make decisions unilaterally about the site’s future is constrained by a marketing industry he neither controls nor has managed to win over.”

What should you be doing?  Five steps for aviation brands to take

With all this in mind, this is what we think aviation brands should now be doing:

1 – If you haven’t already done so, pause all Twitter advertising

As it is questionable whether very much of the moderation team is left, your promoted tweet could be running under inflamatory content.  With all the changes and disruption that has been going on, we recommend for now diverting your online spend to other networks

2 – Keep your Twitter feeds going, but pin a safety tweet to your feed

People are still tuning in, in fact Musk claims that user numbers are higher than ever (which could be that people are attracted by the controversy and spectacle).  However, it would be wise to pin a tweet to the top of your feed about safety – for example, about how you will never ask for personal credit card details, and that customers should be wary of fake accounts that do.  We would also recommend requesting your complete Twitter archive

3 – Make sure your other social networks are active

Make passengers aware of Facebook and other social networks as an alternative to Twitter for service announcements and customer services queries.  Do you have WhatsApp enabled as a customer services channel?  Now would be a good time to do so if not

4 – Monitor Twitter alternatives

Some users are migrating to Mastodon, which looks and feels a little bit like Twitter.  However, we agree with the assesment that Mastodon is not really user friendly enough to appeal to the mass of non tech users.  But, you should register your domain here if you’ve not already done so, in case it does take off.

There also appear to be other networks on the horizon, one in beta is “Post.”  It’s worth monitoring them to see if these develop and become popular.

5 – Adopt a cautious wait and see approach

Twitter has been an invaluable tool for airports and airlines over the past decade.  Though things don’t look too good for the social network right now, we don’t know what the landscape will be like in the next month or even week.  Musk has talked about bringing in a new CEO, s/he might right the ship.  Or, he may even get bored of it and sell it on at a loss.  Or perhaps Musk’s plan will actually work. But for now, follow the other steps we’ve suggested

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The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly is currently taking place in Montreal, with a key focus being on sustainability.  As part of that, controversies around the industry’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) programme are emerging, with one group accusing it of being a “climate fraud.”

CORSIA is seen by the industry as a key tool in the journey to netzero. Under the scheme, emissions were originally meant to be capped at 2020 levels, with carbon offsets accounting for any increase.

Of course, 2020 turned out to be an abnormal year due to COVID travel restrictions. And so, IATA had suggested to ICAO that the baseline be set at full 2019 levels. The compromise that looks to be adopted is that the boundary will lie at 85% of 2019 levels.

Quoted by Reuters, Pedro Piris-Cabezas Ph.D. of Environmental Defense Fund said, “we should not entertain anything less than the council deal for 85% of 2019 levels.”

ICAO has also looked at the quality of offsets with inputs from NGOs and think tanks, including Brussels-based Transport & Environment (T&E), with ICAO highlighting the group’s involvement in a tweet in late September.

In a pretty extraordinary exchange, given T&E’s involvement in setting the standards, Carlos Cavel Ambel from T&E had the following to say in response to ICAO’s tweet:

“@ICAO, the fact that T&E (myself included) participated through task forces in the development of the standards doesn’t mean that we endorse them.”

Ambel also accused ICAO of being overly secretive in its processes.

“A Climate Absurdity”

Transport & Environment went further, issuing a press release with the headline “Pay €2 to greenwash a flight to New York with the UN aviation scheme.”

The claim by T&E is that the CORSIA costs are far too low (due to offsets only kicking in at post 2019 growth) – they used the example of €2.40 for an EU – USA flight in 2030.

In the press release, Jo Dardenne, aviation director at T&E, is quoted as saying the following:

“Offsetting is a climate fraud, perpetuated on unsuspecting passengers by an industry resisting real climate action. Paying €2 to fly ‘guilt-free’ to New York is a climate absurdity….CORSIA is a non-starter for our heating planet. Whatever ICAO decides during its Assembly, it will never rise to the challenge of aviation’s climate problem.”

We’d take issue with the blanket statement about offsetting, but two euros to cover a transatlantic trip to NYC would seem to strain credibility.

T&E claims that with CORSIA, in 2030 only 0.4% of operating costs for a transatlantic flight will be taken up by purchasing carbon credits. It contrasts this with the EU’s ETS scheme.

If ETS were to be applied to non-European Economic Area (EEA) flights, T&E says that 7% of transatlantic flight operating costs would be needed for carboncredits. T&E would then want to see those extra revenues being “reinvested into sustainable solutions and cleaner fuels like e-kerosene and green hydrogen.”

On that point, it’s noteworthy that T&E’s CORSIA press briefing included easyJet‘s European public affairs manager.  The European LCC, of course, recently announced an accelerated net zero programme, with a heavy emphasis on hydrogen-powered aircraft.

CORSIA should be seen as a starting point

We think a defence of CORSIA can be made as follows:

ICAO has 195 member states, and with countries such as China pushing back, getting something through at the same level as the EU’s ETS scheme would be challenging to say the least. The focus needs to be on what’s possible.

Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that there is a looming climate emergency. Aviation, like other carbon-emitting industries, needs to do its part.

As a result, for us, CORSIA is a starting point. And any airline sustainability plan relying only on CORSIA is not credible.

However, as William Ralliant Clark, ICAO’s communications officer tweeted back to T&E, collective international action is always better than individual country-by-country actions.

Much more needs to be done, but this at least sets some kind of foundation that can be built on.

Did you like what you just read? This type of industry content can be found in our twice-weekly Sustainability In The Air newsletter. So make sure to subscribe to our send-out to stay on top of the latest developments and updates on aviation sustainability.

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