Update: Voting is now now closed. See the results here.

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As you all know, SimpliFlying is not only devoted to bringing you the best in marketing initiatives by airlines (along with analysis and commentary on digital trends concerning airlines) but we also regularly honour and award the stalwarts behind airline social media initiatives. We call these visionaries SimpliFlying Heroes. Over the past couple of years we’ve profiled about 10 such people who’ve truly rocked the social sphere with their innovative campaigns and leadership.
A new Heroes initiative – led by you!
What started off as a space where we’d have to look for people doing great stuff, has evolved into an incredibly competitive arena where airlines are actively fighting the “war for social supremacy” online. No longer is social a fad. It’s not deeply entrenched in the online consciousness of every Digital Marketing Director. And in many cases, even that of the CEOs. As our monthly Top 10 case-packs indicate, almost every month there are multiple creative initiatives by airlines to drive one or more of their business goals online such as revenue, engagement and loyalty.

With SimpliFlying Heroes, Every month we will choose 3 outstanding folks …

This is a guest article by David Doctor, Director of Airline Distribution at Amadeus. Amadeus is the leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

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The latest study from Ideaworks, sponsored by Amadeus; shows that airline ancillary revenue is on the increase, up 45% on last year to €11 billion ($13bn), and that in order to be in the top 10 ancillary revenue generators an airline must drive €300 million in ancillary sales. Airlines cannot afford to ignore the rapid development of this trend but strategies to take advantage of ancillary revenue will need to vary according to each airline’s brand positioning, and this involves careful decision-making.

Unbundling translates into cash
As can be seen from the graphic above, LCCs have moved full steam ahead with unbundling, selling exit-rows, extra legroom and priority boarding. However, the story of the last couple of years has been the entry of the U.S. majors – United and American now generate around €1.5 billion each. Even Singapore Airlines has started charging up to $100 for exit-row seating on their long haul flights.

There are compelling reasons for an …

Remember the video I did about the future of flight if airlines adopted the technologies available today to enhance the flight experience? Inspired from that, I wrote an article on FlightGlobal’s ShowDaily at the Hamburg Interiors Show last week, which zoomed in on scenarios assuming airlines would adopt the latest free social media technologies today. And the result was quite enjoyable (from the reviews I’ve heard).

Hence, I’d like to share with you the full article here. You can click on the image to read in a larger font size, or view the text-only version here.

On this hypothetical flight,

After booking the flight, my Facebook and Twitter friends planned my trip, thanks to a tool called Flip.to
I pre-ordered food on Twitter
Pre-selected “family zone” on the flight, where people of similar interests would be sitting
I managed to get the wifi free, by filling up a survey on the landing page, when I turned on my browser
“Rented” a power point to plug in my Mac.
Was offered an iPad, but couldn’t rent it, as they were all booked in advance

So, what do …

Last weekend, as United and Continental announced their plans to merge, I was answering a flurry of emails from journalists on quotable quotes about the merger. Some of them made it to leading newspapers like USA Today and FinanceAsia. Thanks to Dan Reed and Ed Russell respectively for the quote.

Though, too often, quotes in the press are either truncated, or lost in translation. Hence, here I share with you many more quotes I had been asked for, and sent out to various press outlets. I think they give a unique insight into the United/Continental merger.

On the brand change to United: Though both brands are globally recognized, I personally would have preferred to see the Continental brand survive, because they’ve done a fantastic job of resurrecting the brand over the years, while United has struggled with its re-branding efforts. As long as the name change doesn’t degrade Continental’s product or service, I think customers would be happy to move on.

On the executive appointments: It’s good for the airline in the long term, that Jeffery Smisek becomes the key executive, because he has …

This guest article is written by Oussama Salah, who is an aviation expert based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Being a Jordanian who flies around the region a lot and works in the sector, he shares his thoughts how the proposed sale of two Gulf carriers may or may note be a good idea.
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In the last week two governments in the Middle East have declared their desire to sell their national carriers within a relatively short period, about one year. Well it ain’t gonna happen.
Gulf Air goes on sale
Twenty days after Mumtalakat (the investment arm of the Kingdom of Bahrain) returned the ownership of Gulf Air to the government, citing that an airline is a strategic asset that will yield very little return. The government on 25 February 2010 announced its intention to privatize the airline within one year. Well, I don’t think it will happen. Although Bahrain Air is not a major threat, carriers in the region are. Gulf Air has a few advantages:

It has a restructuring plan and a vision of where it is heading
It has a fleet renewal plan which is in progress
It has several code sharing agreements within the …

Last week, I wrote an article for CNBC, which talked about the agility of Qantas that keeps the airline in profitable territory. The article resulted in a lively debate with a number of Aussie aviation experts down under, and one of them kindly offered to write a detailed Guest Post on SimpliFlying on how it’s actually Jetstar that’s keeping Qantas afloat.

Grant McHerron (aka Falcon124) is an opinionated aviation enthusiast & co-host of Plane Crazy Down Under, Australia’s only aviation podcast. He is an online/digital project manager and perpetual student pilot who can often be found crewing hot air balloons, working airside at Avalon Airshow and plane spotting at airports around the world. He graciousouly hosted me when I visited Melbourne last year, and we almost watched the sunrise in his hot-air balloon Enjoy!

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The latest half-yearly results from QANTAS continue to show an airline that is hemorrhaging cash on its mainline, full service routes. While QANTAS are certainly showing signs of agility, the primary factor keeping the group afloat is the success of their Low Cost Carrier brand Jetstar.
The creation of Jetstar
Towards the end of the 1990′s, QANTAS saw …

Garuda Indonesia on a roll At the Singapore Airshow, I had to opportunity to interview the CEO of Garuda Indonesia – Emirsyah Satar at the CNBC studios and it was quite a revelation (see video below). After churning a healthy $66 million profit in 2008 (after years of losses!), going through a major re-branding effort and ordering brand new Boeing 777s,  Garuda Indonesia is set to start an LCC, CityLink, have an IPO this summer and re-launch flights to Europe at the same time. It’s certainly a brand on a roll, and kudos to Mr Satar for championing the turn-around. Though, work still needs to be done. A brand that needs to re-build trust As we discussed in the interview, the Garuda Indonesia brand suffered setbacks after a few of crashes between 1997-2007, resulting in a ban from the EU for all Indonesian airlines to fly to the continent. …

This article was first published on the CNBC blog———-Qantas announced today a net profit after tax of A$58 million for the first half of the financial year, down from $210 million a year earlier, although the airline did recover from a loss in the second-half of last financial year. This 72% dip in profits resulted in the shares falling by up to 7.2% in early morning trades. However, Alan Joyce, the CEO, says the carrier has done better than most of its rivals. And it has, indeed, thanks to its agility.Agility through smart cost-cuttingAlthough revenues dipped by 13.4%, costs were slashed by 16.2%, which shows Qantas’ diligence and discipline in reducing expenditure in the past year. The cutting of frequencies to unpopular routes and grounding of older aircrafts was key to these cost savings.Load-factors have been the highest in five years – at 82.4%, on flights that carried a lesser number of total passengers as compared to the past year.This simply means that flights were more full than in the past, despite the recession. Of course, the downside was that this was achieved by …

As promised at the start of the year, SimpliFlying will be bringing you more Guest Columns from leading aviation practitioners around the world. Our second guest article of the year is written by Oussama Salah, who is an aviation expert based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Being a Jordanian who flies around the region a lot and works in the sector, he shares with us his thoughts on why the proposed checked-in bag fee by Etihad is not a good idea. —–—–—– “ETIHAD may charge for second piece of luggage” This  was a remark made by James Hogan Etihad’s CEO, otherwise I would have thought it was a joke. Why would an aspiring and highly branded airline with cash flushed owners want to do something like this? Etihad operates in a highly competitive and well connected market, whether it is the UAE, MENA or the Indian subcontinent. The traveling public (both Arabs and Indians) in the region is traditionally price sensitive and is used to weight and not number of bags. It is basically a visit friends and relatives (VFR) market used to carrying gifts and shopping across continents, …

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 …