SimpliFlying » middle east

Etihad Airways video trip report – Business Class: Athens to Delhi, via Abu Dhabi

Shashank Nigam — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:31:32 +0000

As promised at the start of the year, SimpliFlying will be bringing you a new section with video trip reports – mostly shot at 35,000 feet. Because the best assessment of an airline brand can only be done during the Brand eXecution! Here’s the first of such reports.

In this 3 min video trip report, I share my experience on-board one of Etihad Airways‘ brand new Airbus A320 planes. This was a flight from Athens, Greece to New Delhi, India, via Abu Dhabi. Three things stood out about Etihad:

1) They greet you by name and talk to you personally
2) The planes smell of the desert!
3) Their transit lounge for Business Class in Abu Dhabi offers free spa treatments!

My rating for the flight is 4.5 out of 5. njoy the 3 min video trip report (Click here if you can’t watch the video)

If you haven’t flown Etihad Airways before, I’d encourage you to give it a shot – they’re one of the finest. If you’ve flown them before, then I’d love to hear how your experience was, in the comments or on Twitter (@simpliflying). Oh, and pls share how I can improve these reports further and what you’d like to see.

Special thanks to Michael Tan from Etihad Airways Singapore office and the Athens ground staff who made my trip such a memorable one.

How airlines in the Middle East are enhancing brand value through their frequent flyer programs

Shashank Nigam — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:45:23 +0000

The InsideFlyer magazine published an article entitled “The FFPs of the Middle East” last September. Though on the face of it, the article compares the various FFPs among the leading airlines there, upon closer look, you also discover the nuances that enhance brand value for the customers of these airlines. As proven by the large number of airlines from the Middle East winning the Freddies earlier this year, there are surely lessons for grabs here.

Catering services specifically to customers’ needs ensures loyalty

The region is flush with oil revenues, and more rich Arabs are taking to the skies – flying business class and first class. Airlines in the region pamper this key segment of their customers. Etihad Airways just opened a plush business class lounge at Abu Dhabi airport and offers limousine pick-ups, like Emirates. Emirates is also the first airline to introduce showers on-board its new A380 first class cabin. Qatar Airways has gourmet meals catered to suit their frequent flyers. It is no wonder that programs like Emirates Skywards reports that the program’s current rate of growth is just over a member a minute.

More importantly, all of these airlines give a variety of options to their customers to en-cash their frequent flyer points – up to 600 options at Etihad! These include not just flight tickets and partner merchandise, but also specially catered experiences like weekend breaks and shopping to one-of-a-kind experiences such as a night with the paparazzi or tandem skydiving among many others.

In addition to pampering the super rich, the budget airlines in the region offer the millions of low-wage workers from South Asia, China and The Philippines to fly home without burning a hole in their pocket. Again, a number of these airlines are owned by the legacy carriers, and new ones are propping up very often. The latest is FlyDubai, being launched by Emirates.

Airline services and frequent flyer programs that actively cater to customers’ needs can have a huge leverage on airline’s brand loyalty, especially over time, as new competitors take to the skies. And this is demonstrated very well by the Middle East carriers.

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Oman Air’s re-branding effort – worth it?

Shashank Nigam — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:35:13 +0000

Oman Air unveiled a new look in the first week of March, 2008. Gone were the red and green colors, as well as the “khanjar”, which have all been part of the livery ever since the airline’s inception, 15 years ago. In came a “contemporary rendition of Frankincense smoke”, with silver, gold and sober blue colors. The main reason cited for the revamp the expansion of Oman Air into long haul travel, which soon will include cities like Beirut, Zanzibar, Darussalam and Mumbasa in June (which still sounds is regional), and Europe in the future.

I think that with this re-branding effort, they’re stuck in the middle – not too contemporary, while tryin to blend in the tradition. A simply case of trying too hard? Ironically, officials went on the record that “khanjar” was “not viewed as a friendly image” in the West. Now, how is the smoke from an incense friendlier? Unless, of course, they smoke up the cabin to smell like Frankincense. Some reasons why switching to Frankenstein Frankincense smoke wasn’t such a great idea:

Even if symbolically, smoke at the back of the plane doesn’t always bode safety.
Switching from one cultural symbol to another still needs education for the ignorant traveler from the west, if that’s what they were trying to avoid
If we evaluate from a Brand Xpectation perspective, they still remain pretty much the same, despite the severe overhaul. The food is still the same, so is the service. They have not revealed any plans to make the new brand come alive across touch-points, other than print and web ads (see below)
From a Brand Xtensibility perspective, they seemed confused again – trying to keep things consistent, yet having an overhaul.

It would have been nice if they had kept their red and green colors, which represent the national flag, and may be redesigned the khanjar to look more appealing. I guess they can look into these suggestions when they start flying US and Aussie routes.

Here’re some more places you can read about Oman Air’s re-branding effort.

Let us know what you think too, in the comments section.