KENYA’S JAMBOJET BECOMES FIRST AFRICAN AIRLINE TO ALLOW ADVERTISING ON BOARD
(Posted 30th August 2016)
It may cost passengers less to fly – as long as they book early enough that is or wait for special deals – but from next month onwards this will come with an added price.
Jambojet has reportedly signed a deal with ‘Global Onboard Partners‘ to roll out advertising in the cabins of their aircraft, subjecting passengers to visual images on service trays, perhaps headrest covers, the seatback and maybe even the overhead bins among other locations on the aircraft which can be plastered with advertising images without endangering safety.
Like it or not, there is hardly a chance to look away from this latest craze, which, while bringing in much needed cash into the airline’s coffers, may well cause negative reactions from passengers forced to eat a visual meal they did not order.
While Jambojet CEO hailed the initiative which in his words will give advertisers a ‘captive audience‘ others have responded to this correspondent’s question by saying it is holding passengers ‘captive‘ by subjecting them to advertising they did not ask to see nor can switch off, unlike on TV or in the print media – like inflight magazines – where one can flip the page of fast forward to get rid of unwanted commercials.
Time will tell how this is received by passengers, if they will approve, or perhaps silently suffer the visual intrusion or if they will revolt and chose other airline where a calmer, non advertising cabin environment is provided.
One thing for sure has emerged, that innovation and out of the box thinking rules when it comes to adding non ticket revenues. Pole position for this clearly goes to Jambojet of Kenya which has jumped the bandwagon as Africa’s first airline to do so and where the bean counters will no doubt smile as the cash begins to roll in.
