Marketing / Advertising
Airlines in Brazil open ‘mini travel stores’ at subway stations to engage emerging middle class
30 January 2012 | Brazil, the largest South American country, has recently enjoyed a tremendous growth of its middle class, resulting in increased demand for aviation. In fact, the Brazilian middle class grew from 30 percent of the population in the 1960s and ‘70s to 55 to 60 percent in 2011. In 2010, the lower-middle class accounted for 34 percent of domestic tourism, almost double that of 2002. In the last 10 years, the demand for air travel in Brazil has increased by 194 percent. Much of this increased demand comes from the members of the new Brazilian middle class, many of whom are entirely new to air travel. TAM estimated that in 2011 there were going to be 10.7 million first-time flyers.
Brazil’s airlines have been developing innovative strategies as they compete to win over this new market. In the past, airlinetrends.com discussed marketing strategies adopted by TAM to target this first-time flying segment. TAM, and its low-cost competitor GOL, have continued to target the emerging middle class with novel sales channels, including sales kiosks at subway and bus stations.
GOL
During 2011, GOL opened kiosks in subway stations where they provide not only information, but also the option to book, change and/or cancel a flight. The first kiosks were opened in Sao Paulo’s Itaquera, Sé and Luz subway stations in March 2011 and GOL subsequently opened additional kiosks in Sao Paulo’s Tatuapé station, Rio de Janeiro’s Central do Brasil station, Porto Alegre’s Estação Mercado do Metrô station, and one in Salvador.
The main goal of this new distribution channel is to engage the new Brazilian middle class in aviation. According to GOL’s Market Vice President, Claudia Pagnano, “The new identity comprises items referring to airports, as well as illustrations showing the main phases of a flight.” In order to provide better service and meet the needs of a ‘typical’ subway user, GOL’s kiosk teams completed 20 days of specialized training courses that focus on the habits of the emerging middle class, selling techniques, and language skills.
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Finnair and Helsinki Airport employ ‘Quality Hunters’ to come up with new ideas
13 December 2011 | In a follow-up to last year’s campaign, Finnair in September 2011 launched a new public search for so-called ‘Quality Hunters’, this year in partnership with Helsinki Airport. Seven Quality Hunters, chosen from hundreds of applicants, travelled around the world for 48 days throughout October and November 2011, collecting ideas and insights on how Finnair and Helsinki Airport could improve the flight and airport experience. An eighth “Bonus Hunter” joined the group in November on the basis of his social media activities.
Seven categories
Each Quality Hunter was given a theme to focus on: food & beverages, entertainment, socialising, travel in business class, services, shopping and “on the move”. Their task was to collect product and service ideas and present them to Finnair and Helsinki Airport at the end of the project in early December. Finnair and Helsinki Airport in turn would commit to the best ideas for implementation. Says Finnair “We don’t need a list of flaws (we’re painfully aware of most of them already!) but we want to know how to fix things and go even beyond that.” […] ”As a part of renewing our entire service identity, we want to go further in charting the black spots of travel and finding creative solutions to resolve them.”
The Quality Hunters blogged and tweeted daily about their observations and ideas, made videos and acted as community managers. Visitors to the Quality Hunters website could set tasks for them, make comments and share their opinions, while passengers at Helsinki Airport could drop by at the Hunter’s Lounge, located between gates 32-38.
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Airlines give their best customers access to branded zones at cinemas and events
8 December 2011 | IKEA stores in Canada feature ‘green parking’ spaces close to the entrance that are reserved for drivers of hybrid cars and fuel-efficient vehicles. Credit card companies such as Amex and Mastercard have been opening airport lounges for their members (at for example Toronto and Budapest airports). UK mobile operator 02 gives its customers exclusive access to concert tickets up to 48 hours before general release, while Palmeiras, one of the major football teams in Brazil, reserves 5,000 seats exclusively for Visa Card customers. Called the ‘Visa Sector’, the section has a lounge, restaurant, bars, plasma TVs and other perks.
Coined by trendwatching.com as ‘Perkonomics’, these initiatives are part of a new breed of perks and privileges that are added to brands’ regular offerings in order to satisfy consumers’ ever-growing desire for novel forms of status and/or convenience. Several airlines have also jumped on the ‘perkonomics’ bandwagon by offering more inclusive perks for members of their loyalty programs.
Cine TAM
Cine TAM is a cinema owned by Brazil’s TAM Airlines. In 2007, the airline transformed a former theater in the Santo Amaro neighborhood of Sao Paulo into a TAM-branded cinema. The design of the four-screen cinema is inspired by the jet-set era of the 1960s, and for example features several ‘ball chairs’ in the entrance hall, while the theater’s screens are named Londres (London), Nova York (New York City), Milão (Milan), and Paris. Red and Black members of TAM’s Fidelidade frequent flyer program, as well as holders of TAM co-branded credit cards, receive a standard discount of 50 percent on film tickets, can make use of a preferential queue when buying tickets at the box office, and are invited to attend exclusive premieres. TAM commercials are shown before each movie.
Air France-KLM Kinepolis
On a similar note, albeit on a much smaller scale, Air France-KLM offers members of its Flying Blue loyalty program the chance to reserve one of the airline’s VIP seats at the Kinepolis cinema in Brussels, Belgium. Amenities of the so-called ‘Air France-KLM VIP Lounge’, include 4 comfortable “Business Class” aircraft seats, a cooled bottle of champagne and a mini-bar. The perk is reserved for Flying Blue members (silver tier and higher) residing in Belgium, who can book the cinema lounge twice a year.
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AirBaltic turns virtual shoe featured in advertising campaign into real sneaker
3 December 2011 | Besides starring Bill Murray as oceanographer Steve Zissou, the 2004 cult movie ‘The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou’, also featured custom-made Adidas white/yellow ‘Team Zissou’ sneakers with light blue striping, designed by the creators of the movie. After seeing the film, hundreds of sneaker fans inquired with Adidas where they could buy the fictional shoes. However, despite numerous requests, an online petition and Facebook page, Adidas declined to take the shoe into a limited edition production. This prompted many fans to design and produce their own Team Zissou shoes – and also offer them up for sale on eBay.
airBalticShoe
Fast forward to 2011, a time when the ‘conversation economy’ has become much more mainstream. In March 2011, Latvia-based airBaltic – which has been featured several times before on airlinetrends.com – launched a new advertising campaign that highlighted several airline-themed shoe designs branded in airBaltic’s colours. The fictional shoes were meant to illustrate the various reasons consumers could have for taking advantage of an offer by the airline, such as summer travel, winter break, visiting a sports game, or an upgrade to Business Class.
The shoe designs were featured in print ads, outdoor billboards and online banners, and appealed to the public is such a way that people started to inquire at airBaltic via Facebook and Twitter where they could buy the shoes. Having already launched innovative ‘Baltic’-branded products such as the airBalticBag, BalticWater, BalticTaxi and BalticBike, airBaltic was quick to embrace this marketing opportunity and recently turned one of the designs into a real shoe. In the airline’s words: “Inspired from our advertisments we have made real airBaltic branded leather shoes.”
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South African LCC Mango rewards random acts of kindness
1 December 2011 | Social good is on a lot of people’s minds these days. With a turbulent economic climate and more social awareness, nonprofits, charities and businesses have been scaling their presence to give more, and have been doing so with unique models. Over the past year, businesses in particular have been unprecedented in their initiatives ranging from pay-what-you-can schemes to giving free rides to volunteer events. The trend of spreading good is rightfully taking root in the global business community, and more and more airlines have been catching on with their own unique initiatives.
Airpoints, surprises and free wifi
Dutch carrier KLM has been widely recognized in the industry as a highly innovative carrier – a reputation that can also be applied to their involvement in kindness-based campaigns. In late 2010, KLM’s incredibly well-received KLM Surprise initiative, rewarded small gifts to random passengers who left an ‘@KLM’ tweet or checked in at the airline’s Schiphol Airport FourSquare locations. With New Zealand being the world’s first country to designate a national ‘Random Acts of Kindness Day’, it should come as no surprise that Air New Zealand has also been at the forefront of offering kindness to fliers. In addition to its long running gift-granting @AirNZFairy Twitter account, Air New Zealand earlier this year launched a similar campaign as KLM’s at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports.
Mango
Recognizing and rewarding kindness made its way to South Africa this year in the form of Kindness Month. Mango, one of the country’s low cost carriers, and a subsidiary of South African Airways, commemorated its fifth birthday by implementing a new initiative to reward acts of kindness across the country. During ‘Kindness Month’, which started on 15 November and lasts until 15 December, 2011, Mango will be celebrating acts of kindness between South Africans “through hearing how South Africans helped one another.”
Says Mango’s CEO Nico Bezuidenhout, “We want to hear about personal experiences, about individuals who have made a difference; small but significant acts that has impacted someone’s day, week or life. It could be a shop assistant who went out of their way for a customer, a friend in need, someone who gives you a lift when in challenging circumstances. Anything. In the lead up to the December holiday season, we need to share kindness in even larger measures.”
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Estonian Air’s social loyalty program rewards fans for online promotion
14 November 2011 | One of the most compelling aspects of location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Facebook Places are their game dynamic, which rewards users with virtual badges for checking into venues repeatedly, thereby promoting a venue or brand to their friends through Facebook and Twitter. Airlines such as Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, Virgin America and JetBlue have launched campaigns that reward their fans and followers for ‘checking in’ into their virtual venues.
Gamification
The initiatives by these airlines are early steps in what is called the ‘gamification’ trend, which is described by JWT as “Brands applying game mechanics –incentives and rewards such as leader boards, leveling, stored value, privileges, superpowers, status indicators, etc.– to non-gaming spaces in an attempt to drive certain actions or behaviors.” Gamification can encourage people to perform taks that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading web sites, and according to trendwatching.com it taps into basic human needs: “Fun and entertaining, games allow players to visualize progress, while satisfying fundamental needs and desires – for reward, status, achievement, self-expression, competition, and altruism.” For more on ‘gamification’, we recommend reading ‘Gamification 101: The Psychology of Motivation’.
Social loyalty
Moving beyond location-based reward schemes such as TopGuest, companies such as Badgeville, CrowdTwist, Gamify and Manumatrix have created ‘white label’ social loyalty platforms that allow members to earn points, unlock badges, and be featured on a leaderboard as they engage in various activities such as watching videos, commenting on articles, reviewing, “Liking” or tweeting products and promotions, posting photo’s on Instagram, and participating in polls. Examples of social loyalty programs include ‘Samsung Nation’ and the upcoming Hilton Social HHonors (site is not yet live).
Estonian Air ‘AirScore’
In late October 2011, Estonian Air, flag-carrier of the tiny but internet-savvy Baltic nation, became the first airline in the world to launch a social loyalty programme on Facebook, rewarding its customers and fans for being strong advocates online. Called AirScore, the scheme allows customers and fans to get rewards for promotional actions such as sharing a review of the airline or tweeting a deal. Read full article »
SAS lets Facebook fans decide its next summer route
9 November 2011 | The airline industry is busy experimenting with various social media initiatives that aim to use the power of the crowd. Airlines such as Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Emirates and British Airways have been tapping into the creativity of the general public to crowdsource products as diverse as designs of loyalty cards, eyemasks, and catering items such as cocktails, snacks and desserts. Meanwhile, Virgin America and Southwest, among others, have recently held ‘crowd clout’ campaigns with group buying site Groupon, offering consumers a deal when enough buyers would commit to the offer.
SAS ‘Sommerflyet’
Scandinavian Airlines’ (SAS) ‘Sommerflyet’ (‘summer plane’) campaign has tapped into ‘the wisdom of crowds’ to determine its next destination. The airline recently announced it would start 21 new leisure destinations for its summer 2012 schedule and reserved one of its aircraft next summer in order to let its more than 110,000 Facebook fans choose a 22nd destination.
Says Christian Kamhaug, Head of Social Media at SAS, “Every summer SAS reduces capacity on its domestic networks in Scandinavia. These are mainly business-driven, high-frequency routes, and as we all have 4 to 5 weeks of vacation here in Scandinavia, business traffic grinds to a halt in June and July. SAS used to park planes and send crews on vacation, but in the last couple of years costs have been cut by 23 percent and now it’s more profitable to operate these planes, even to low-yield leisure routes.” […] “More than 110 000 people follow Scandinavian Airlines on Facebook and we think it is great to let our most dedicated fans influence our product in this way.”
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Aeroports de Paris teams up with consumer brands to offer free airport amenities
See our Facebook page for more images
7 November 2011 | Faced with ever more experienced consumers, who routinely ignore the commercials and ads thrown at them, brands have found new ways to break through the advertising clutter to reach and engage consumers. Coined by trendwatching.com, ‘tryvertising’ can be thought of as “product placement in the real world, whereby brands integrate their goods and services into daily life in a relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience, not on the message.” Being high-traffic locations with a diverse and international mix of consumers, brands see airports as a good setting for tryvertising campaigns, while for airports they are an economical way to improve the service, or even as an additional source of revenue.
The free, branded, airport amenities are also examples of the ‘marketing as a service’ trend (or ‘Brand Butlers’ in trendwatching.com lingo). When advertising no longer talks at you but actually does something for you, then it becomes a service. Brands get meaningful exposure, airports get happier travellers and consumers perceive the brand as an emphatic and helpful resource.
While tryvertising/brand butler services can be found at airports around the world (see our Facebook page for an extensive slideshow), Aéroports de Paris, which operates Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports, has embraced the concept on a large scale.
Samsung and Sony brand spaces
At the end of July 2011, consumer electronics brand Samsung opened the ‘Samsung SoundCorner’ at Charles de Gaulle airport’s terminal 2B boarding lounge. The free entertainment and music lounge consists of individual alcoves equipped with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets to relax while listening to music. The tablets give access to the SoundCorner application, developed by Universal Music, which offers a selection of a hundred songs to listen (the selection is renewed every month). The alcoves also have connection stations to plug in passengers’ own devices so they can listen to their own music via the directional sound speakers fitted in every alcove. A central screen also plays video clips non-stop.
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Brazilian TAM goes retro to celebrate its roots in a time of rapid expansion
5 October 2011 | As the airline industry has always captured people’s imagination, airlines – legacy carriers in particular – can tap their heritage to incorporate a bit of storytelling into the travel experience (see also our earlier ‘heritage marketing’ report). BA’s new ‘To Fly. To Serve’ retro-style brand campaign, for example, aims to showcase the airline’s history and emphasize its ‘Britishness’. Brazilian airline TAM, meanwhile, has taken this retro approach several steps further by creating a vintage onboard experience on two of its aircraft.
TAM Vintage
Since May 2010, TAM has offered passengers on shuttle flights between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro a full retro experience on board two A319 aircraft. Highlighting two important moments of the airline’s history, the first aircraft is painted in TAM’s livery dating from the 1970’s, when the company launched its regional operations. The other aircraft was painted in a 1990’s color scheme, a time of great expansion and national level recognition.
The TAM Vintage project was launched at both Sao Paulo’s Congonhas and Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont airports in May 2010. Actors dressed up like in the 70’s greeted passengers at check-in counters with a music band playing songs of that time.
On both aircraft, the seats, on board service, printed materials and other details are modified to create a nostalgic atmosphere. Cabin crew and pilots wear uniforms from the 70’s and 90’s: Red skirts below the knee for the ladies and a white cap and jackets with large gold buttons for the pilots.
The aircraft interior has also received a retro makeover, with seat covers, carpets and curtains refurbished in the fabric and pattern of old times. Meals are served on old-fashioned disposable tableware.
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Angry Birds take flight with Finnair
21 September 2011 | In a globalized world, airlines, especially legacy carriers, can differentiate themselves as a national brand ambassador. Think SWISS Air Lines’ ‘Taste of Switzerland’ food service, Alitalia teaming up with Italian luxury brands to improve the onboard amenities, KLM’s Dutch Design and British Airways renewed emphasis of its British heritage.
The latest addition to these ‘experiental marketing’ initiatives are onboard events. For example, Lufthansa currently operates so-called Oktoberfest flights, which sees cabin crew dressed up in traditional Bavarian costumes and serving hot pretzels. Estonian Air, meanwhile, has just operated its first ‘gourmet flight’, featuring a local restaurant chef personally introducing the menu of the month onboard. And today, Finnair operated an Angry Bird-themed flight between Helsinki and Singapore in partnership with fellow Finnish company Rovio, the creator of the popular Angry Bird game.
Angry Birds
In the Angry Birds game, players fling birds at structures to try to destroy pigs. It started on smartphones like the iPhone and on tablets like the iPad and then expanded to a large number of other platforms like web browsers and TV boxes that are powered by operating systems like Android. Since its launch two years ago, Angry Birds has turned into a worldwide phenomenon and has been downloaded over 350 million times. Thanks to the success of the game, it is also a sign of Finland’s prowess in technology (Nokia), entertainment (Sulake’s Habbo Hotel) and design (Helsinki is named world design capital 2012), something Finland’s flag-carrier Finnair intended to capitalize on with the launch of an Angry Birds themed flight, an idea which Rovio approached Finnair with last June.
Service and entertainment onboard the flight were in ‘Angry Birds style’, with cabin crew wearing angry birds approns and serving items from an Angry Birds’ menu to passengers. A real live Angry Bird was also present and passengers were offered passengers Angry Birds plush toys. Eight people were specially selected to be part of the trip and given free tickets in advance, including two Singaporeans, winners of an Angry Bird ‘Face-off Challenge’ at Singapore Changi Airport, who were flown to Helsinki the previous weekend. Read full article »
11 ways airlines are deploying the Apple iPad
8 August 2011 | Updated December 2011
The iPad, which began primarily as an entertainment device when it was launched in 2010, has captured the imagination of many other industries in ways that Apple never even imagined. We have reported several times on airlinetrends.com how airlines have made Apple’s versatile iPad device available to passengers in their lounges, rent them out in the air, or use them as self-service kiosk, customer survey tool, and food ordering tool. As the list of applications continues to grow, here is the latest overview of how airlines and airports are deploying the iPad worldwide.
1. Book, check-in
Cathay Pacific in July 2010 became the first airline to launch a dedicated application for the Apple iPad that lets users book Cathay Pacific flights, manage their flight booking, check the status of their flight, and check-in. Similar apps are today offered by American Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, THAI, and Alitalia.
In June 2010, Malaysia Airlines, in cooperation with SITA, introduced the world’s first airline kiosk that uses the iPad. Passengers can use the ‘MHkiosk’ to search and book flights and check-in online. The kiosks are installed at the airline’s ticket office at Kuala Lumpur’s central station.
2. Airport service
Spanish airline Iberia has equipped customer service staff at its Madrid-Barajas hub with iPads to provide them with real-time access to the information they need to make decisions and to keep passengers informed. Iberia’s so-called IBPad is loaded with 30 different applications which, according to the airline, together put the entire airport in the palm of the employee’s hand. Iberia says the IBPad has improved everyday operations and dealings with customers, boosting communications and staff decision-making autonomy, while eliminating the use of paper.
Since March 2011, so-called Changi Experience Agents (CEAs) have been walking the grounds at Singapore Changi Airport, assisting passengers with special needs, and helping passengers with wayfinding at the airport. Locating missing luggage, facilitating passengers with check-in needs and assisting transit or transfer passengers with their onward connections also form part of the CEAs’ duties. Each CEA is equipped with an iPad with which they can retrieve information, such as the latest flight updates, store location, check-in gates, etcetera. The CEAs are on duty all day except from 1am – 6am when passenger traffic is low.
3. Airport lounge
To keep passengers entertained whilst waiting for their flight, several airlines have made iPads available in their lounges. Since July 2010, KLM offers 8 iPads in each of its two lounges at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Lounge guests can use the device to access the Internet, watch content from the airlines’s IFE programming, play games, view KLM images and use a series of pre-installed apps. Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, offers 21 Wi-Fi enabled iPads in its ‘The Cabin’ lounge, which opened in early October 2010. The devices come pre-loaded with apps such as newspapers, magazines and games. Other airlines, such as ANA and airBaltic, also make iPads available upon request to lounge guests at respectively Tokyo Haneda and Riga. Read full article »
Free printed guide books and random surprises from KLM this summer
3 August 2011 | Dutch national airline KLM is developing a reputation when it comes to digital media campaigns that combine the online, virtual environment with the offline, real world. Examples include a Delft Blue Tiles livery based on Facebook profile pictures, passengers who are randomly surprised with a personal gift, a commercial flight exclusively sold via Twitter, and free customized luggage tags. In the past weeks, the airline has launched several more “OFF=ON” initiatives.
Hard-copy customized city guides
KLM currently lets the public create and customize their own travel guide, to be printed and delivered to their home address for free. Visitors to the KLM Cityguide website can select the sites, activities and hot spots they would like to visit at their destination via a number of questions. The final result is then turned into a pocket-sized guide that consists of 3 chapters (and 12 activities in total) and a map. The printed city guides can be ordered by residents of 10 European countries, as well as the United States and Canada. Delivery is within 4 weeks. For other countries, the personalized city guide can be downloaded as PDF file. KLM’s free hard-copy guides were so popular that heavy traffic caused the website to go offline on the first day of the campaign.
KLM Surprise, summer edition
In a follow up to the very successful ‘Surprise’ campaign, which took place at the end of 2010, KLM has just launched the KLM Surprise ‘Summer Edition’. Combining social media with real-world interactions, the KLM ‘Surprise team’, consisting of staff from the airline’s E-commerce, Ground Services and Inflight Services departments, from mid-July to mid-August randomly surprises passengers with ‘little acts of kindness’ based on information found on the passenger’s social network profile(s) or in recent tweets. Since most people have profiles on social networks such as Facebook and Linkedin these days (in fact, more Americans now have Facebook accounts than have passports) it is relatively easy to find some interesting facts about a person in order to come up with a creative surprise.
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British Airways turns to the British public to co-create menu, movie and livery
11 July 2011 | Following earlier crowdsourcing initiatives by airlines like Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific and Emirates, which have been turned into actual products such as elements of in-flight menus and amenity kits, British Airways has launched a co-creation campaign in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games under the strapline ’We Can Help Your Talent Fly’.
BA Great Britons
As part of its ‘Great Britons’ programme, launched in 2009, BA is inviting aspiring chefs, scriptwriters and artists to submit their ideas for an onboard menu, in-flight movie and aircraft livery. The winner of each category will then receive one-to-one mentoring from culinary expert Heston Blumenthal, actor Richard E Grant and artist Tracey Emin to develop their idea further.
The winner of the food category will produce a bold British menu, in cooperation with Michelin-star restaurant owner and chef Heston Blumenthal, which will be served on board BA flights around the Games. The winner in the film category will receive mentoring from actor, scriptwriter and director Richard E Grant, to write a short film. The final production will be broadcast on board BA flights in the run up to the Games, and showcased at the pre-show to the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. In the art category, Turner Prize nominated artist and Royal Academician Tracey Emin will mentor the winner to produce an iconic piece of artwork for the livery of 12 BA aircraft.
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Airline ‘fare clubs’ offer regular travellers a standard discount
7 July 2011 | As ancillary fees for checked baggage, priority boarding, extra legroom seats, etcetera, become more commonplace in the airline industry, several airlines have been introducing branded/bundled fares and annual ancillary subscriptions as a next step. United Airlines, for example, offers unlimited checked baggage for USD349 a year, while airBaltic recently introduced a similar fee in partnership with luggage brand Samsonite. Another category are ‘fare clubs’, which for an annual fee, provide regular travellers with a standard discount or access to member-only fares.
Wizz Air ‘Xclusive Club’
Wizz Air, a low-cost airline from Poland that offers flights from several bases in Central and Eastern Europe, has recently launched a new membership program called Wizz Xclusive Club. For an annual fee of EUR 29.99, Wizz Xclusive Club members get exclusive access to a pool of tickets that can be cheaper by up to 10 EUR per one-way flight than regular prices. Up to 9 passengers can be booked together with the Xclusive Club member on the same reservation and benefit from the discounted fares. Wizz Air is the first airline in Europe to offer a ‘fare club’ and says that in the first two weeks following the rollout, almost 50 thousand customers signed up.
Spirit Airlines ‘$9 Fare Club’
Wizz Air seems to have been inspired by Florida-based low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, which in 2008 launched its ‘$9 Fare Club’. Spirit guarantees a member-only sale, with ticket prices as low as a few dollars, at least once every six weeks, but usually offers at least one sale per week. The special fares are offered on a first come, first serve basis and travellers flying on the same ticket will receive the members-only fare as well. Annual membership of the $9 Fare Club costs USD59.95, but those who sign up for a Spirit-branded MasterCard also obtain a free membership to the $9 Fare Club.
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Kenya Airways lets the ‘unbanked’ pay for their ticket via sms
11 June 2011 | We have reported earlier how Brazilian airline TAM is reaching the rapidly growing middle class in Brazil in innovative ways. The airline sells tickets via low-end retail chain Casas Bahia and at bus stations, lets customers pay in multiple installments, and provides ‘how to fly’ advice to first-time flyers. Meanwhile in East Africa, airlines such as Kenya Airways and Uganda Airlines have teamed up with mobile payment services M-PESA and Airtel Money to allow people without a bank account to purchase air tickets.
M-PESA
M-PESA (M for money, pesa is Swahili for money) can be regarded as the African equivalent of the credit card and was first launched in 2007 by Kenyan mobile phone operator Safaricom, an affiliate of Vodafone. M-PESA allows Kenyans to transfer money via SMS instead of via a bank account, an important aspect in a country like Kenya where an estimated 30 percent of people (the so-called ‘unbanked’) have no access to formal or even informal financial services.
With M-PESA, the user can buy electronic money at one of 24,000 M-PESA agents around the country and send this ‘e-cash’ to any other mobile phone user in Kenya, who can then redeem it for conventional cash at a snearby agent. M-PESA customers can do transactions of up to Ksh 140,000 (USD 1600, EUR 1100) per day and a maximum of KShs70,000 can be deposited, sent or withdrawn per transaction. A variable fee for transaction applies (example Ksh 150 for transactions between Ksh 20,000 and 35,000).
Originally launched as a money transfer service for relatives abroad to send money home, M-PESA is also often used to pay directly for goods and services, from groceries at selected supermarket chains to electricity bills and taxi-cab fares. An M-PESA enabled mobile phone can also function as an electronic wallet that lets users pay directly for goods and services at one of 600 participating organizations. M-PESA does not pay interest on deposits nor make loans and users only need to sign up for the service with an ID card.
As of March 2011, the M-PESA service had nearly 14 million customers, or over 80 per cent of Safaricom’s customer base. M-Pesa has also been launched in South Africa and Tanzania by Vodacom, another Vodafone subsidiary.
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