Four shortlisted airlines made their case for being ‘Airline of the year’ at the 2015 Inflight Sales Person of the Year (ISPY) awards this morning. In four totally contrasting presentations Aer Lingus, AirAsia X, HongKong Airlines and Wizz Air told an audience of ISPY delegates why they deserved the 2015 title.

 

It was in December last year, that ISPY announced the finalists for the Airline of the Year award, as reported on TRBusiness.com. EasyJet won the award last year as well as a number of other high profile accolades, but this year they were not in the running.

 

This morning each airline made a 20-minute presentation – although almost all the presentations overran – to a live audience (ISPY delegates) and answered questions from TRT UK MD Christine Martin and Frankie Gair, Training and Events Director.

 

 

The audience was then invited to vote for the airline presentation they thought most deserved to be awarded the title of ISPY2015 Airline of the Year.

 

The shortlist of airlines was drawn up after three judges – Markus Stauss from Coty; Adrian Dibden from Portfolio Partners and Tom Manktelow from Mars – cast their votes, based on the criteria of best practice in communication/crew engagement; performance management; training and sustainability.

 

The first of the four airlines to make its presentation and bid for the title of Airline of the Year 2015, was Aer Lingus. Anthony Carson, Aer Lingus Inflight Services Manager for Belfast, who is no stranger to ISPY after winning the Product Merchandising Award in 2005, took to the stage. Although the airline has been a strong supporter of ISPY since then, it decided to take a year out from attending the event last year, in order to invest in necessary improvements, in what was a ‘heart-breaking decision’.

 

In 2015, the airline has certainly returned with a bang, with what has to be one of the most emotionally-stirring presentations TRBusiness has had the pleasure of witnessing.

 

Carson took the audience through the improvements that the airline has made to its inflight retail and catering services in the last couple of years. One of the newest projects involved the airline’s new on-board menu – called ‘Bia’; Irish for ‘food’ – which has been created in collaboration with Irish TV chef Clodagh McKenna.

 

 

“We have sourced these ingredients from all over our foodie island to bring you fresh, tasty, handmade food using Clodagh’s special recipes,” says Aer Lingus on its website. [The menu, which allows customers to pre-order their meals inflight certainly appears to provide a fresh, destination-specific alternative to ‘plane food’- Ed].

 

Aer Lingus also said that they had also revamped their airline shopping offer and more specifically, the inflight retail brochure entitled ‘Boutique’, which Carson admitted was ‘lacking something’ in previous years.

 

He said they had placed more emphasis on editorial and celebrity to entice passengers to pick up the brochure regardless of whether they actually planned to purchase anything.

 

Carson said that the Christmas Gift Guide edition of the magazine did so well that they sold out of some of the Irish-themed gift items, completely. Carson says they plan to bring out a Valentine’s edition of the brochure too.

 

Although Carson could not divulge specific sales figures – as the Irish carrier could be on the brink of accepting a takeover offer from IAG – he did tell TRBusiness in Brighton today that the sales had increased significantly since relaunching the brochure.

 

 

Carson pointed out that Aer Lingus had previously been weak in PAs (Public Announcements) and Product Merchandising – something very close to his heart as this is something he excelled in as a crew member – but that this has now changed. This has been aided through the production of cart-top merchandising tutorial videos that can be accessed by crew members.

 

During the presentation, Carson said he was extremely proud of the airline’s incentive programme, which rewards best-selling crew with a range of gifts and prizes; all the way from a perfume to a trip to New York in what is coined ‘The Big Apple’ incentive programme.

 

He also spoke of the airline’s ambassadors, which aid the training of sales crew. One ambassador in particular, Emma Young who was seated in the audience, got Carson choked up as he mentioned why she so greatly deserved her place at ISPY 2015.

 

Finally, Carson took the audience on a journey from when the airline first competed at ISPY (and won) in 2005 right up to present day before inviting four Aer Lingus ambassadors on stage for a group hug. The passion of Carson and his team left everyone in the room fighting back the tears.

 

“I am honoured to have the ambassadors here by my side at ISPY 2015,” said Carson, who called the ISPY programme ‘life-changing’. “Utilise the people in this room,” he said as he called on his own experience, which saw him rise from cabin crew to Inflight Services Manager with the help of the ISPY programme.

 

In response, Christine Martin said, “we are honoured to see you back at ISPY – we missed you immensely.”

 

Following Carson on stage was an extremely jovial pair from AirAsia X described as ‘the dream team’ – Terence Pragash, Flight Attendant Manager and Jonathan Lourdes, Flight Attendant Executive.

 

AirAisa X is the low-cost, long-haul affiliate of Air Asia which introduced long-haul in 2007. AirAsia X – whose concessionaire partner is DFASS – made it clear right from the start that their approach to inflight retail and crew training was ‘unique’ with a focus on fun. “We may not be the biggest or the toughest airline, but we are fun,” said Lourdes.

 

They talked of how the airline’s management team engage with crew members through various means including the X Touch monthly email newsletter. They also talked about their SkyShop Xtra-hi flyer club Facebook page, which is a brilliant vehicle for communicating with young members of cabin crew.

 

They said, through their experience, that money, and not career progression was the ultimate motivating factor for crew members who now have access to product, monthly and annual year-end incentives.

 

The examples provided by Pragash and Lourdes of the methods in which AirAsia X are able to promote certain products, or highlight certain promotions, were refreshingly creative. The Fashion Parade concept saw members of crew dress up like elderly women to promote offers for Mother’s Day; an eccentric, but certainly a hard-to-ignore approach.

 

Air Asia X also make it a point to feature some of their very talented sales team in the inflight retail brochure in a regular ‘Hand-picked by cabin crew’ article [a simple, but effective idea, which could be replicated by any airline -Ed].

 

One of the ways in which they train and motivate cabin crew is to invite them to sales boot camps – run in partnership with DFASS. Other ways involve cultural exchange programmes – the mixing of one sales crew from one base with another e.g. crew from Malaysia and Indonesia bases switch; mentorship programmes and product road shows.

 

Pragash and Lourdes were keen to focus on the importance of team work throughout their presentation. “A team that sells together, stays together,” said Lourdes. Pragash also said that by giving cabin crew freedom in their sales approach, the crew showed their appreciation with a strong sales performance. “Freedom allows our crew to exceed expectations,” he added.

 

After a coffee break, up next was HongKong Airlines (HKA) – a comparatively young airline. Set up in 2006, HKA has just 24 aircraft, which are, on average, just 2.6 years old. The presentation was made jointly by Sandra Ng Chaffey, Director Sales & Marketing for DFASS Asia and Mr Pacino Quin Ancillary Revenue Manager for HongKong Airlines [although lead by Sandra for most of the presentation].

 

 

The self-determined ‘young and fresh airline’ was struggling in 2012 – a fact agreed upon by most in the airline industry – reporting a steep decline of -30% in 2013 vs 2012. The young, energetic and passionate sales crew utilised the 27 years of experience brought to the table by DFASS, in 2013, to completely overhaul inflight retail operations.

 

During her presentation, Sandra echoed the sentiments of AirAsia X in as much as Facebook is the most useful way for management to talk to its crew; especially considering the average age of the crew. Sandra divulged that the HKA SkyShop Facebook page has accumulated 424 members in just 12 months; a large proportion of the entire HKA crew network.

 

Sandra then talked about the Core Sales Team (CST), which makes a conscientious effort to hone its retail skills and help others crew members to do the same. This moved from 120 members to 198 in the period April-December last year and saw sales move upwards in line with the number of recruits.

 

It was interesting to hear that 70% of HongKong Airlines’ customer base hails from Mainland China. But Sandra rightly said that the buying behaviour of passengers from first, second and third tier cities differs greatly.

 

In order to aid crew in their selling technique, a Quick Sales Reference guide was produced – informed by historical sales data – which allowed crew to tailor their sales approach, according to more specific passenger profiles.

 

During this presentation the numbers really spoke for themselves; HKA achieved 78% overall inflight sales increment in 2014; 297 crew are currently under the mentoring scheme; 32 cabin crew forums take place a year and HKA has 2,528 likes on its crew Facebook page.

 

The HKA presenters were then joined on stage by two emotional crew members who thanked DFASS and their own management for making their jobs easier. When asked by TRBusiness what piece of advice he would give new crew members, Clover Lui – who is one of HKA’s best performing sales crew – said that a smile was one of the most important tools. “I would try to be a role model [for the crew],” he said before becoming tearful. [Lui, a humble and very sweet young chap, thanked TRBusiness for the question and for the chance to have his say on stage-Ed].

 

And last, but not least, was Wizz Air, who is celebrating its 10^th anniversary in 2015. The airline, which began in 2004, now boasts 240 routes in Europe and beyond. The company, which started with just 0.7m passengers in the beginning served 15.8m in 2014; proving their claims of being a ‘fast-growing airline’.

 

It was clear from the start that Wizz Air values ISPY for helping them bring about the improvements made to their inflight retail offer; even though this is only the second year that they have participated [a testament to the effects that ISPY can have on any inflight retail team- Ed].

One of the two presenters, Alexandra Avendenai, Cabin Crew Service Manager, said that Wizz Air’s participation in ISPY2014 was a ‘life and vision-changing experience’ for Wizz Air’s sales culture. In fact, the ‘Wizzit Game’ first conceived at ISPY2014’s Dragon’s Den competition has now been introduced on-board.

 

The importance of ISPY was so great that Wizz Air launched an ISPY selection process [again something similar has been introduced by other airlines-Ed] called WISP (the Wizz Air Inflight Sales Person).

 

One of the interesting ways in which Wizz Air motivates its crew is to communicate its sales results. “We find this is one of the best tools to establish an honest, friendly and professional relationship with the crew members,” said Avendenai. TRBusiness understands that monthly sales updates; including spend per head, are circulated.

 

“The crew members’ sales commission is not flat; it is growing with the SPH result,” added Avendenai. She also remarked that the company’s strong incentive programme – which actually gives crew members the chance to plan a month’s roster of crew’s working hours – means “Wizz crew members are outperforming themselves.”

 

But one of the most interesting concepts brought in by the airline was the Treasure Box, which allows for the carriage of mini fragrance bottles – the closest that any airline has come to solving the sampling issue, on-board. This way passengers are able to sample the fragrances, which are carried in the Treasure Box, before committing to a purchase.

 

The final presentation was wrapped up by Christine Martin and ISPY partner in crime Frankie Gair, who revealed that delegates could now vote, on their tablets – provided by GuestLogix – for their airline of the year.

 

Check back here for the results…