Local Search | Jennifer Lind

This may sound crazy, but I think the answer to the airline crisis is to follow the advertising model of Nascar.

My husband travels frequently and he is always happy to talk about the types of jets from the Northwest fleet that he’s flown on: whether it’s a Boeing 727, an Airbus, or a DC-9 (oh yea, I looked those up!).

So what if Northwest created an interactive website that profiled the planes and the pilots that fly them? And allowed sponsors to put their logo on the planes?

Here is how the plan would work:

Pilots: Show us pictures of the pilots, how many seasons they’ve had, interesting statistics like how many miles they go a day and how many places they have flown to (like the “where I’ve been” application on Facebook), and details for the ladies like are they single. Image the teenagers and kids looking at these pages with admiration!

Planes: Show us the funniest moments on the plane, special features of the plane, the crew, and where it’s going next. Allow travelers to find the plane they traveled on and enter their own stories or upload a video.

Sponsors: Advertisers could offer free samples, ask travelers to fill out surveys, have them try out your product, etc. You have people engaged, just sitting in a seat for hours, why not!

Benefits:

• Northwest can generate revenue from the advertisers to balance out what they are losing on fuel costs
• Travelers will be excited to see who their pilot is, the plane number, and main sponsor of the plane

Possible problems are obviously security concerns. We would also need to know how often planes are repainted.