Airplanes Becoming Giant, Flying Advertisements

Categories: Ads & Marketing, Air Travel, Business


Handing over two bucks for a can of Coke on a long flight is depressing, but it's even more so when you place that soda on a tray table that's covered with a giant advertisement.

It's a bummer, but it's becoming more and more common. Airlines, eager to grab revenue anywhere they can get it, are opening up every square inch of their planes to advertisers, selling space on tray tables, walls, overhead bins, soap dispensers, cocktail napkins and barf bags. If the idea proves successful, it could generate millions of dollars in new revenue.

Ultra-low-cost Spirit Airlines has taken the lead, going so far as to launch an entire department that hawks ad space on its planes. In a press release geared toward the advertising community, Spirit's Mile High Media unit asks: "Where can you find 100 percent saturation and an average three-hour gaze time?"

We'll give you one guess.

Spirit promises advertisers that its on-board campaign will deliver results because only a few advertisers can buy space on each flight. It means fliers won't be bombarded by pitches from 30 different products when boarding a plane, but instead will have two or three of them incessantly drilled into their heads for the duration of the flight.

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