As the Detroit Free Press reports, Spirit Airlines is planning to sell advertising inside its new Airbus planes. We reported on our thoughts on this practice with European discounter Ryanair.
Spirit’s Chief Marketing Officer said that customers should expect ads from travel-oriented businesses, like rental cars, or high-end brands aimed at fliers with disposable income. Of course, discount airlines is not always where those with disposable income are found.
Spirit also started selling blankets on a trial basis to customers for $3.
Now, we admit that airlines are trying to cut costs, and generate revenue from secondary sources to avoid raising pricing. But we remain concerned about the degree to which they are willing to sell themselves off.
Selling ad space to paint the plane with someone’s logo all over it runs the risk of being as overdone as in Nascar where logos are plastered so that they cannot be individually interpreted.
We hope that if airlines opt to sell ad space on ticket jackets, cups, tray tables, and napkins, that they do it in a tasteful way. Our biggest concern is with the tray tables. At least with a cup or napkin, you can get rid of it. With a tray table…if it is on both sides of it, you have no choice but to look at something throughout the flight.
That is the bottom line…as long as you are not forced to stare at ads every minute due to its overbearing presence and the choice of advertisers is not inappropriate…we suppose it is a necessary evil we can’t avoid. USAirways is already doing it here in the US.