Alaska continues its metamorphosis into a premium global carrier today by announcing a couple of new routes as well as a new livery that will apply only to the B787 fleet. The airline is really trying to walk a fine line here between brand consistency and brand confusion. and it remains to be seen if it can pull that off. But hey, in the meantime, we get another pretty airplane to look at.
What we learned today is that all of the B787-9s will be moved from Honolulu to a new Seattle crew base and will fly in this livery:
Yes, it’s still Alaska. But good ole’ Chester is gone from the tail. In his place is a stylized version of the Northern Lights that comes to a point with a sort of half cheatline carrying to just ahead of the wing. Alaska does have to repaint the four airplanes it has in Hawaiian’s livery today, so a change doesn’t bother me in general. If these airplanes won’t fly in the islands — and they shouldn’t since the islands don’t need those long legs — then they should be Alaska-branded. But why alter the livery away from the standard Alaska look? I spoke to Eric Edge, Vice President of Brand & Marketing for Alaska, to get a better sense of what the airline is trying to achieve here.
Eric likened this to what Starbucks does with Starbucks Reserve, a “brand expression” that’s more premium. Alaska will continue to have its core product with no change in livery on the existing fleet. This will just be for the B787-9s flying long-haul operations from Seattle. It’s meant to show that the product is going to be more premium, though I will note that Starbucks calls its premium experience Reserve while Alaska is not differentiating what it calls this product.
In that sense, I suppose it’s very similar to Alaska’s regional strategy. Other airlines may have American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express, but Alaska is still just marketed as Alaska. Yes, it discloses who operates the flight, but you know what I mean here. It doesn’t have that overarching regional brand. Everything is Alaska on the surface, even though the onboard experience may be different. Unfortunately, Alaska is not ready to talk about its plans inside the tube just yet.
So, we get a new livery. I still don’t know why they had to get rid of Chester. If they wanted a more premium, international feel, then this would have been a good option.
What’s more international than Chester and Pualani dancing the salsa?! Ok, ok… not a fan? What about this one? It screams premium to me, as it should to any air travel connoisseur.
Come on, you can’t tell me that an upside-down tulip doesn’t look like a stylized A. It’s not like anybody is using this anyway…. No? Ok, fine, too soon, I guess.
While I do think the new livery looks nice, and I like the tie-in with the Northern Lights, I still struggle with this whole brand idea. This is a complex livery that’s going to add cost and time to the process of painting. On a small fleet like this, I don’t care that much, but it still makes me wonder why it’s worth bothering. I suppose the idea is that the differentiation — and more complexity — makes it seem more premium. And it’s going to need to get people to think of Alaska as more premium as the airline prepares to do battle across the Atlantic next summer.
It has already found competition from Delta which added Rome flights soon after Alaska announced it would do that. But now, the airline will begin daily service from Seattle to London/Heathrow next summer. As a reminder, British Airways flies 10x weekly in winter and double daily in summer. Delta/Virgin Atlantic do 11x weekly in winter but also double daily in summer. There is no shortage of competition.
How did it get slots at Heathrow, and presumably ones at desirable times? That’s a near-impossible task. The answer is not clear, and Alaska wouldn’t tell me. But I will point to this very interesting blurb in the release:
Alaska’s expansion into the London market, facilitated by strengthened collaborations with American Airlines and British Airways, presents significant opportunities. These alliances are expected to deepen over time, offering even greater value and connectivity to consumers.
Ok, so it clearly seems to have gotten slots from one of them, which would make a great deal of sense. I am particularly curious how these alliances will deepen, however. This is the kind of teaser that drives me mad, because they won’t say anything more. All I could get out of the airline is that it hopes to put flights on sale this fall.
London is not only A premium market, but it is THE premium market. And Alaska is going up against some very steep competition on that route. The good news is that with BA and American as partners, it has more leverage than it otherwise might. Those in the frequent fliers programs of all three airlines shouldn’t hesitate to fly the other airlines. It may not be a perfect substitution, but the barrier is far less than going to an unrelated airline.
To round out the press release, Alaska will start flying during summer from Seattle to Keflavik in Iceland. This is on a 737-8 MAX and that makes it a no-brainer to try, but it’s not exactly key to the overall message that Alaska is delivering. That message is “we are going to be a premium global carrier, and we need you all to know it.”
Of course, the paint on the outside of the airplane doesn’t tell us much about what’s on the inside. That’s the announcement that will matter much more… whenever it happens. For now, everyone just get excited for the pretty plane to make its debut early next year.
