At the edge of the world, a small airline is pushing the envelope when it comes to doing the right things. This is a hallmark of a brand that is going places, even in times of adversity. If you haven’t already heard, Air New Zealand yesterday revealed a revolutionary flat-bed seat in Economy Class that will re-define the way we travel (Check out Crankyflier’s firsthand coverage here). This prompted a lot of commentary around the world, and I really liked one from Arun Rajagopal (in addition to Cranky’s) with his focus on branding. Arun is a creative supervisor with Wunderman in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. He is an award-winning copywriter, a co-author of the marketing book ‘The Age of Conversation’ and blogs at www.arunrajagopal.com. His interests include airlines, travel, marketing and social media. And here’s how Arun explains Air New Zealand is re-defining the flying experience (first published on his blog) Pic credit: Flickr – source 1. Be bold in your marketing Air New Zealand is not shy of stirring a little turbulence in your …

I recently flew Singapore Airlines’ First Class for the first time. It was a trans-Pacific flight, so I got to enjoy it for the longest time possible (23hrs!). What an amazing experience it was. Aside from the product aspects, the service was unmatched. A level I had never experienced before, not on SIA’s economy class, and not on any other First Class. This got me thinking…the marginal cost providing an exceptional service nothing compared to that of providing a superior product in a plane. And if such a service could be offered to the masses (in Economy class) for a charge, then it might be a win-win! What a VIP service on Economy class could be like? Great service on-board SIA is something even other airlines talk about (Aeroflot sent their staff to be trained by SIA last year!). But not everything that’s offered on First Class can be duplicated on Economy. So, here’s a quick list of what can and cannot be done: Being addressed by name, all the …

Let me say this again. I think Air Asia is one of the most innovative airlines in the world today – right up there with JetBlue, Virgin, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines and LAN Airlines. And today they pulled out a trump card – a joint venture with Australia’s Jetstar Airways. You can keep reading the press releases, but here’s the essence of the agreement and how it will benefit the airlines and their customers (you and I!) What the AirAsia and Jetstar “budget alliance” means The most significant difference is the departure from Star Alliance – type marketing or revenue driven alliances. Air Asia and Jetstar have formed a cost alliance, or what I’d call a “budget alliance” (pun intended). Here is the nitty gritty. The airlines will pursue joint procurement of aircraft – This means that they will be able to leverage economies of scale while buying from Airbus. Joint design specifications – since they’re going to order a lot of planes, they can demand from Airbus things like a twin-aisle A320 or more efficient …

TAP Air Portugal – a national carrier – maintains a YouTube Channel. Of all the videos they have posted on the channel, hardly any had crossed the 500 views mark in the past one year. Most are showcasing the latest products and are an extension of the marketing arm. This was the case till four days ago.

On Christmas day, the staff of TAP Portugal and Aeroports de Portugal launched into a spontaneous dance routine which brought a cheer to the Christmas travelers. The performance included a number of popular English songs the staff gooved to, and even  Bollywood number (5:48)! The dance followed an airport announcement for “Flight 000, where only happiness was allowed on-board.”

And guess what? The video now has almost 210,000 views on Youtube in just 4 days! Many times more than all of their previous videos combined. Watch the video for yourself right here. (If you can’t see the video, please click here). The travelers were caught unguarded and joined in the fun!…

Let me begin by clarifying that this article is not about whether Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus will take off or not. It has already taken off. Because the amount of discussion I’ve had about it with my friends from around the world, online and offline, is phenomenal. Just today, my status updates on Facebook by this app generated over 30 comments by friends from Dubai to Chicago (check out the screenshot below for a sample set). It’s thanks to these friends that I’ve been inspired to write this article.
MySkyStatus – what’s the fuss about?
For the unaware, MySkyStatus is a tool that posts your flight info (altitude, location and arrival updates) automatically to Facebook and/or Twitter while you fly. And you guessed it, it’s the real-time nature of this app that’s making it go viral. And as you can see below, the updates can generate quite a discussion.

At first glance,  MySkyStatus is true value add for the customer. But the application is not perfect – and it need not be perfect in its first release anyway. However, there are some small tweaks that can be made, as …

There was lots of buzz generated when JetBlue Airways launched their all-you-can-fly offer for just $599. It was like a buffet for flying buffs, and they could do it all September, to any of JetBlue’s destination. But one individual stands apart. As CNN mentioned, “for Greg Krause, the pass is a chance to raise money for a charity close to his heart, ­ an elementary school in Zambia that his parents created for orphaned children in a small village two hours from a main road.”

Krause plans to go to 24 cities, using about 45 different flights, to have both an enjoyable vacation and hopefully meet people who will donate to the school. He also will be documenting his trip on his Web site, 30daysonjetblue.com and you can follow him on Twitter too.

Kause auctioned himself on eBay and he’ll be wearing the the top bidding company’s t-shirts on all his travels! And the sponsorship was just over a thousand dollars – quite a good deal, I think.

What a brilliant idea! I’m thinking of donating to his cause, and would urge fellow aviation buffs to do so too! Also, from his website you can track where he is, and …

We all know United Airlines broke Dave Carroll’s guitar, and got caught stunned like a rabbit in headlights, when the video became a hit. But worry not, SimpliFlying has The Answer to United’s troubles. This song provides United Airlines with 10 solutions to dealing with this “PR mess” in a fun, innovative way. And in turn, engaging its passengers too.

For the vocally inclined, lyrics are included in the video. Enjoy the song, and the video. To have even more fun, try counting the number of unique planes seen in the video, and state your answer in the comments. The backstory follows.

The Backstory
When Dave Carroll came out with his first United Breaks Guitars video, I wrote an article that explained why Dave has become the de-facto Chief Marketing Officer of United Airlines.  The article was a huge hit, even getting a mention from the revered Chris Brogan.

After the first song, there was a huge hue and cry in the media about the PR disaster United faced. So when Dave came up with his …

Three airlines, three rockstars
Heard of Morgan Johnston? On Google, “Morgan Johnston Jetblue” produces over 37,000 results, as compared to “Dave Barger jetblue”, which returns 26,800 results. Dave Barger is the CEO of the airline, and Morgan Johnston leads JetBlue’s social media branding strategy. Morgan was into video production, before he joined JetBlue’s Corporate Communications department in early 2007.

Heard of Christi Day? She was voted the Employee of the Quarter earlier this year at Southwest Airlines, because of her tremendous efforts in leading the airline’s brand on various social networks. It’s not very often that a personin the PR dept. of an airline gets such a prestigious award.

Heard of Elliott Pesut? He was featured as the Geek of the Week, in one of Seattle’s leading daily this summer. Why? Because he is the “Head Twit” for Alaska Airlines. Elliot is a trained pilot, who was earlier at Flight Operations in Alaska Airlines. He volunteered for this new role, when the opportunity arose.
Why should YOU lead social media branding for your airline?
See a common thread in the stories above? All these people have no background in IT or new web technologies, yet have created an …

Recently, I had a very interesting email exchange with Anthony Prakasm, who lives and breathes aviation as much as I do, if not more. The conversation was about Singapore Airlines’ brand strategy for their new First Class Suites on board the A380 and whether that’s succeeded or not. Anthony had some very unique insights into the situation, and I asked him to share his views for SimpliFlying’s readers. I personally think he’s dead on target in his conclusion that SIA missed a trick or two in the execution of a seemingly great brand strategy. What do you think?
- Shashank
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Singapore Airlines Suites -  A Class Too Far Beyond First
Singapore Airlines launched the “Singapore Airlines Suites” product in October 2007, in conjunction with the new on-board product launch that came with the A380. Featuring an “unparalleled level of luxury” in the “widest seat in the sky”, and sleeping on a “standalone bed that was not converted from a seat”.  The airline promised the Singapore Airlines Suites to be “truly a class that is yours alone”.

Regular First Class travellers who wished to travel on the SIA Suites soon found that they had to pay in the vicinity of 50% to 60% more for …

Think of what an ideal airline would be like, one you’d love to fly. It will have the best on-time performance in the world. It will serve Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. It will have rock-concerts and fashion shows in the air. It will have the happiest employees in the world, who go out of their way to help you travel well. Stop thinking. Welcome to Volaris Airlines, from Mexico.

I believe this is bound to go down as one of the most inspirational interviews on SimpliFlying, with the Chief Operating Officer of Volaris, the fastest growing Mexican airline. Late last month at the low-cost carrier conference in Miami, I caught up with Andres Fabre, who is also the first employee of the airline, to learn how he and his team has built from scratch an airline with astonishingly happy employees, satisfied customers and performance that even other airlines are talking about.

Watch the interview with Andres (7.43 mins) to hear him explain:

How the culture inside the company makes all the difference in performance (1.09)
How operational excellence can be achieved when by “enjoying life” (1.45)
Why the money-back guaruntee is an investment …