Our friends, Fiji Airways, have announced the latest stage of their rebranding excercise, bringing back the original glamour and authentic of their previous incarnation of the airline. The carrier on Thursday 27th June, relaunched itself worldwide as Fiji Airways, retiring its ‘Air Pacific’ brand. The defining moment, was the reveal of the new uniforms, created by…
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We are pleased to announce our Top 10 economy classes for 2013. We have scoured the world for airlines that have really shown us something truly special. Whilst many airlines didn’t make the list, we’d like to state that generally over the past 12 months, we have seen airlines around the world innovate and renovate…
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“I think that was Justin Timber-what’s-his-face serving me my Gin & Tonic?” I can imagine a few people in their ‘later years of life’ whispering to each other as they go on their annual holiday. Welcome to Air Canada Rouge’s new uniform. Following the trend of the capsule wardrobe that most North American Carriers seem…
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A few months ago, we posted the artists impression for Air Canada’s new diffusion brand ‘rouge’ set for their leisure routes. The first plane has been painted and has just shown itself to the world in these glossy press pics. Whilst a shiny plane always looks great, we still can’t help but feel this brand…
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Now that Batik Air, Lion Air’s latest ‘Premium’ venture, has been flying for a few weeks, we thought it best to take some time to take a look at this new carrier and what you can expect. Firstly, Let’s talk interiors. The whole premise of the airline is to fly passengers around the Asia region…
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Today, British Airways broadcast on its social networking sites, “A Big British Flashmob” to promote their new Moscow route. BA partnered with VisitBritain to promote the new flights, flown on their 747. This is cleverly timed, due to competition from low cost carrier easyJet, who have also won the rights to the route. The video,…
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British Airways today announced that booking has commenced for flights to Hong Kong and Los Angeles onboard their new flagship, the Airbus A380. Los Angeles will be available to book for flights commencing October 15th, and Hong Kong will commence operations on November 15th, both this year. The routes were widely expected, and fit the…
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As JAL announced today that they were launching the JAL 777 ‘Sky Suite’ interior on their New York route as of May this year, we thought we would take a look at the new product that has already been rolled out on the London route as of January 2013. JAL has always been a solid…
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It seems there has been quite the rumour-mill going on the past week over the apparent shift in Dragonair‘s new image, after leaked images of “Cathay Dragon” appeared overnight on the internet. Whilst the photoshopping on the images make it look more like a concept than reality for now, it seems there may be more…
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Air Canada has announced an amazing 458 seat configuration 77w coming on the line in July this year, including a new premium economy product, something we announced back in May last year. The airline has really stepped up their offering (thankfully), providing a European style cabin to compete with the slightly inferior north American counterparts. We…
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Short on the heels of other Pacific long haul rival Fiji Airways, a designair favourite, Air Tahiti Nui has revealed that it is refitting it’s A340 long haul fleet starting in April this year with a brand new economy and Poerava business class product. Here at thedesignair, we are super excited, as the long trip from…
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You might mistakenly thought the image here was of an AirBerlin aircraft, due to it’s pretty ‘samey’ appearance, but this is Air Canada‘s New Leisure Brand “rouge” (no, not a lipstick) very similar in concept to Qantas’ JetStar, launching from Toronto (and Montreal) mid 2013. Whilst this name might have taken most aviation buffs as a surprise,…
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TAM airlines has pretty much been under the radar since their recent merger with LAN earlier this year, with many of the details still being ironed out since the combination of two of South America’s biggest carriers. That was until a couple of days ago, when LAN blasted their competitors out of the water with…
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Sunday, 28th October 2012 marked a chapter in bmi‘s ever changing name and product, as it took flight as a new entity ‘bmi regional‘. Based on the existing bmi regional network, the airline; once an subsidiary of the main carrier bmi; was bought up by a consortium whilst the bmi brand was being broken down…
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Whilst it is perhaps best for you to make up your own mind on British Airways new commercial, hitting UK screens today, this 30 second advert feels a little cheap as far as brand positioning goes. The airline over the Olympics has produced some great adverts, and has been very clever in its marketing strategy in 2012.…
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Now I have a feeling this is going to be a “Marmite/Vegimite” of liveries. You are either going to love it, or hate it. But Fiji Airways rebranding gets a big thumbs up from TheDesignAir. When first mentioned on TheDesignAir we highlighted the fact that Fiji was going back to it’s roots with it’s new name.…
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As promised, here at DesignAir we evaluated airlines around the world to compile our definitive Top 10 list of Cool Airline Brands. Let us know if you agree, whether you think we’ve missed one, or what your top 10 would be at the bottom of the page! 10. Southwest Southwest Airlines could be seen as a…
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Streuth! It’s hard not to report about the Virgin group of airlines right now, as they just keep on doing things right. We, here at TheDesignAir love this brand new commercial from Virgin Australia. Turn up your speakers, sit back and enjoy! Slick, clean, and super retro, they are really trying to hark back to the…
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Southwest Airlines has always been seen as a fun-loving airline, with many people loving their light-hearted and easy going nature. Individual safety messages and character is encouraged to create a warm environment to put their passengers at ease. However, their latest incarnation of the female outfit, couldn’t be anything further from fun if it tried.…
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United Economy Report Flight: UA1717 Aircraft Type: B767-400 Class: Economy (Coach) Route: HNL – SFO Date: 26th September 2012 Best for: ‘Blandalised’ travelers, looking for a cheap seat, and nothing else. Most likely to sit next to: (on this route) An aging surfer dreaming of times gone by, or an armada of Japanese tourists. Business…
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Virgin Atlantic managed to top the polls in the CoolBrands List. The CoolBrands List has been running for 11 years and has featured the sexy red airline rather a lot. Sir Richard Branson’s airline was one of only two airlines to place, along with British Airways, However Virgin Atlantic placed 8th coolest brand in the…
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There is something to be said about UK advertising. It is some of the best in the world. Thomson’s latest advert currently screened on TV is somewhat reminiscent of the BA campaigns ‘To Fly to Serve’ seen on British TV before the Olympics. This move to nostalgia is quite common now, as coming out of a recession its…
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It seems the long-gone era of glamorous travel is fast diminishing, due to technological advances in the industry. Passengers are losing their connection to the airlines that they fly with, airlines are losing the communication points they used to have. ‘Tea? Coffee?” might be the only two words that a passenger could hear from their…
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Today, 09 September 2012, marks the news of one of the industry’s most influential CEOs stepping down from his position as CEO of Virgin Atlantic. Steve Ridgeway started his career with Virgin Atlantic in 1989 when he was appointed Managing Director of the industry’s first automated frequent flyer programme, Virgin Freeway. In 1994, he was…
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Singapore Airlines has always been seen as a global market leader so it doesn’t surprise to hear they have launched a plan to roll out their in-flight offering of WiFi from their current 14 aircraft out to their entire fleet. This will also mean that mobile phone data services can be enabled, allowing the humble…
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So, for those of you who have been following my posts will probably be expecting this report. It’s safe to say I’ve been confident that a ‘Virgin America’ product would end up over in Europe, recently covering such a concept in this Report. Virgin Atlantic have launched a 3 times daily return connection between Heathrow…
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US Airways isn’t really a market leader in many ways. Their cabins are still dated and for most internal flights, entertainment consists of an inflight magazine and either a rather boring game of eye-spy or completing a half-done sudoku. However, US Airways does have miniture strokes of genius from time to time, usually spurred on…
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Swoon. It’s no real surprise that Virgin America kept it’s probably now rather weighty crown of Best Domestic Airline in the US this year, it’s 5th year in a row. For those of thinking ‘Fix! Fix!’ It’s hard to say it is, as this award is voted by readers of Travel and Leisure magazine, rather…
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British Airways who have always taken more of an ‘atmospheric’ attitude towards their advertising campaigns compared to VA, their competitor’s, product led advertising strategy as of late, has taken a new direction. No doubt, off the back of Heston Blumenthal’s TV programme that highlighted the challenges found onboard airlines for their catering offering due to…
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So Malaysia Airlines is the latest airline to get hold of their brand-spanking-new-shiny-flying-office-block of a plane, the A380. Malaysia have been keen to push their product offering forward with the launch of their new fleet of 6 mega planes. On board chef’s for first class passengers, lie flat seats for business passengers and Thales entertainment…
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