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While they may feel as though their jobs have lost any trace of the glamour and allure of years gone by, the flight attendant remains as essential to commercial air travel as a tank of fuel and two stable wings. With reductions in capacity and subsequent job cuts throughout the industry, flight attendants are being looked at to front new revenue initiatives in some ways that are practical and other ways that are very much outside the box. But if they work, then why not?!
Recently Jetstar Asia announced a partnership with Sunsilk, a brand of hair care products produced by the Unilever Group for an undisclosed amount. The deal signing is an attempt for Sunsilk to target Singaporean women in a “unique and captivating way”, says Tina Koh, Brand Manager of Unilever Singapore. In the new agreement, all Jetstar Asia flight attendants will now be required to give two in-flight demonstrations on all flights leaving Singapore; the standard safety demonstration and a tutorial on how to properly use Sunsilk’s new Damaged Hair Reconstruction product line. The flight attendants show passengers each product and simulate usage, including a mock shampoo demonstration and during the flight, give a sample Sunsilk trial package to each female passenger onboard. CEO of Jetstar Asia, Chong Phit Lian comments, “One need not miss new product launches now, even while during air travel.” You would have to assume that to be at best a secondary motivation for the new deal, but it is no less a fantastic concept.
The flight crew’s principal responsibility is of course the safety and security of the passengers onboard. To be reminded of that fact, one does not have to look further than the emergency landing on January 15th of US Airways Flight 1549 where Captain Cheseley “Sully” Sullenberger made a forced emergency landing of an Airbus A320 in the middle of New York’s Hudson River. As the A320 began to sink in the 32°F water, the 5 members of the flight crew sprang into action and evacuated the aircraft bringing each of the 150 passengers to safety. Each of those 150 passengers would be quick to defend that a flight attendant serves a much greater purpose than pouring a complementary cup of Earl Grey or showing you how to get more bounce in your tresses.
Everyone recognizes however that the industry is shifting. As airlines begin to create new sources of revenue streams, they are cautiously looking to their flight crew to drive several initiatives. The adoption of in-flight merchandising through the sales of ground transportation transfers, theatre tickets and catalogue merchandise has already begun, but several associations representing American flight attendants have voiced some initial uncertainty of these new revenue models. The association spokespeople have released several statements reminding the public that flight crew are “safety professionals and not sales people”, however they do agree there are some benefits. If these initiatives allow the flight attendants to serve as a new driver at keeping airlines profitable, allowing the crew to provide unique offerings to better their passengers’ experience, help to increase loyalty, and potentially earn the flight crew commissions, it becomes a much more difficult task to negate the model’s impact.
Being put to the task of actively saving the lives of 150 passengers in emergency conditions is thankfully not a common occurrence in air travel. This makes safety training and rigorous security preparations no less important, but in this turbulent financial struggle within the airline industry, flight attendants are starting to recognize that there is a new life in need of being saved; the airline industry itself.
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