So, we all know that Japan Airlines has filed for bankruptcy, is de-listing from the Nikkei Stock Exchange, will be selling all 30 Boeing 747s, shedding 30% of their staff and has hired a new CEO who used to be a monk. But what is the impact of all this? And where does a potential deal with Delta Airlines and Skyteam fit in the scheme of things? What happens to Oneworld? I answered these questions and more during my Live interview with CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange today. I’m sharing the 5 min interview video below and would love to hear your thoughts on my take. (Click here if you cannot view the video)

I bet anyone who’s got anything to do with flying is now well aware of the incident that happened on-board Northwest Flight 253 over Christmas, where a bomb was almost set off.

Reading through my airline branding lense I could tell the confusion the event was causing among travelers, especially in this peak travel season. And this went through the roof when FAA/TSA came up with knee-jerk measures to beef-up security on US-bound flights.

It’s difficult for most passengers to distinguish whether the inconvenience they’re being put through is something the airline has initiated or is it something beyond their control. These are what I called Brand eXternalities in my 6X model – where the customer has the tendency of forming an impression about the brand, even when the events are beyond the airline’s jurisdiction. At this time, the airline needs to ensure that it nullifies any adverse impact on the brand. Here’s how.
Prepare for the confusion – It will arise, even for Finnair!
I was browsing through Airliners.net the day after the incident and chanced upon an interesting comment. Take a look:
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A special day in aviation
Two important events took place in aviation today – both of which conjored mixed feelings in me.
1. The British High Court declared illegal the potential X-mas strike by British Airways‘ Unite union. The good news is that this promises hassle-free travel for almost a million BA travelers over the holiday period. The downside is that the union is keen on re-grouping to go on strike early next year.

2. It was the last day at work for Paula Berg, the force behind the successful new media brand strategy of Southwest Airlines for the past decade. She’s leaving to move back with the true love of her life – the mountains. So again, a bitter-sweet news. (Watch Paula’s video interview on SWA’s media strategy here)
What’s the link between Southwest Airlines and British Airways?
“So, what’s the connection”, you may wonder?

Paula had emailed me about her move last week and in her note included 68 reasons why she loved working at Southwest over the last ten year. Can you imagine an employee putting in so much affection and effort while she’s leaving? This only …

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Every single time I’ve been to Dubai, I’ve heard that Emirates is bankrupt and the state of Abu Dhabi has bought the airline. But I always dismissed them as baseless rumors. Then, the Dubai World crises happened around Thanksgiving/Eid. And that made me think again. That the Abu Dhabi government could ask for Emirates, the airline, as collateral in bailing out Dubai, the state.

So, let’s imagine that if this does happen, that Abu Dhabi takes over Emirates and by default it merges with Etihad. What will that mean for the airline brands?

Emirates and Etihad merge to form a mega-airline with over 250 planes connecting almost any major city in the world with any other – one-stop.
Emirates and Etihad move operations to the Jebel Ali Airport – DWC from their respctive hubs to centralize operations
Ultimately, effectively managing the scale of the new airline’s operations can determine its chances of success

However, I feel that this is unlikely to happen, because:

Emirates …

I often get asked by senior airline executives and readers of this blog, “How can we deal with real-world PR crises using social media?” Well, the recent war of words Facebook and Twitter posts between RyanAir and SAS Scandinavian Airlines offers a number of lessons in the matter.

For the unaware, here’s a a gist of what happened. Just a few weeks ago, Ryanair said it would offer SAS executives and board members “free tickets on any of Ryanair’s 100 Nordic routes”, then surprisingly rescinded the offer. Nevertheless, SAS’ Director of Communication and EVP, Claus Sonberg, made his first flight with Ryanair from Oslo to London, which could be followed via both Facebook and Twitter.

What was meant to be just an update about the flight experience turned out to be an online “shouting match” with Claus pointing out how RyanAir was more expensive and a “Fletcher Reede” constantly brought out RyanAir’s perspectives. So now, what are some lessons airlines can take away from this?

1. Integrate new media and old media
Something I feel SAS did quite well in this matter was to make …

If you’re in the airline industry, you must have heard about the misery of Jet Airways in the last few days. Half their pilots went on a “mass sick-leave”, causing almost 200 flights to be canceled per day, inconveniencing over 20,000 passengers resulting in absolute mayhem at the major airports, most of which tend to be chaotic on a good day.

Not very long ago, everyone was swooning over the re-birth of the romance of travel and airlines in India leading the pack. Business week had good words to say about Jet Airways, and even here on SimpliFlying, I did interviews with senior Jet executives.

Unfortunately, after two years of heavy losses, the brand was already tattering. A few months back, there was the employee sacking saga, and now, the mass sick-leave by the pilots is ruining the brand image built by the founder with great care over time. Sad but true.

And nowhere was this paradox more evident than on the front page of a leading Indian daily’s website. See it for yourself.
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Inspired from my earlier article about legacy airlines being dead, I’ve come up with this graphic to represent which legacy airlines we can look out for, and those which need to work very hard to survive the next decade. What do you think?

At the Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney early this month, where I delivered a keynote on airlines + social media branding, the first day was mostly doom and gloom whereas the second day was much more up-beat. Not surprisingly, executives from legacy carriers like Qantas, Air New Zealand and the European Commission spoke on the first day, and up-beat executives from rising stars like AirAsia X, Oman Air and Gold Coast Airport spoke on the second day. That got me thinking…are legacy airlines dead? I now believe they are. Here’s why.
1. Legacy airline brands come with legacy baggage
Unions, legacy systems, government bureaucracy, old planes, old workforce, high costs, bankruptcy… these are all words that can be easily associated with Air India, Alitalia, Japan Airlines, Air Canada and many more legacy airlines. And these are all aspects that do not allow these airlines to function efficiently in the current climate.

The airline industry has evolved drastically in the past decade. With each new shock (9/11, SARS, H1N1…) we see new stars emerging, which have streamlined costs, efficient operations and specifically targeted markets they go after. And they beat the hell out of monolithic airlines that legacy carriers have become. Just read …

I’m not suggesting Emirates should become the national carrier of India. I’m asserting that it is already the de-facto national airline of the sub-continent. And Indians need to tell their politicians to get over the rescue-Air-India-at-any-cost fever, save some tax rupees and let the market decide which airline survives and which doesn’t.
Game over, Air India
As I mentioned in a previous article, Air India contributes 10% of global airline losses with just 0.35% of global traffic (stat. from Bangalore Aviation). To rescue the airline, hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ rupees are required over a long period of time. And even then, a profitable airline cannot be guaranteed, especially one that is mostly run for, and by the government and bureaucrats.

Even if you can gloss over the fact that lots of money is required to rescue Air India, the ideas for the turnaround that have been proposed till now have been far from convincing. Repositioning Air India as a low-cost carrier, with sky-high employee-to-plane ratio, aging fleet, poor plane utilization and lethargic execution, is at best an ill-conceived dream.

Till date, Air India has filled its planes either with politicians, or by selling dirt-cheap tickets that hardly cover …

Image by caribb via Flickr

Air India is losing about $1 billion, on revenues of $3 billion. What’s more alarming is that Air India contributes 10% of global airline losses with just 0.35% of global traffic (stat. from Bangalore Aviation). And the Indian national carrier is still struggling with its merger with the domestic Indian Airlines a couple of years back. Couple that with the global economic crises and a bloated payroll, and you know how much trouble the airline is in.

Being an Indian at heart, I couldn’t help but come up with some ideas to save this once well-regarded Maharaja brand. In fact, I know that when Singapore Airlines began operations, they heavily hired the best from Air India! I’m not sure if Air India can return to its former glory anytime soon, but these ideas should certainly help it get back on track. Or at least, I hope so.
Getting the business plan in order
I frankly feel that Air India has only survived as long as it has due to two …