Concorde

Air France’s new secret ingredient

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Most airlines no longer attempt to sell air travel as exciting or glamorous, because these days it usually isn’t. We examined that indisputable fact here quite recently.

Air France, however, is trying a new marketing idea to inject some romance into its product. I don’t believe this trick has been tried before – at least not by an airline.

Indeed, I’m not sure any other carrier could even hope to make this idea fly.

But Air France flies the flag of a country that’s home to the concept of Haute Couture, and home also to LVMH, by a massive margin the biggest luxury goods purveyor in the world. And its hub is Paris!

If ever there was a magic metropolitan brand name, Paris is it.

LVMH may not mean anything to most people, but its brands do. It owns Dior, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy, to mention but a few. It doesn’t own Chanel, but that name evokes Paris anyway.

So what is Air France trying to fly?

Its own perfume. Or, as the British upper classes prefer to call it, scent.

It’s called AF001, the flight number of the legendary Air France Concorde departure from Paris Charles de Gaulle for New York JFK.

If the glamorous associations with Paris France don’t sell it to ordinary passengers, that magic flight number will ensure romantic aviation buffs buy it for their wives and girlfriends!

Let’s test the power of an idea, because British Airways flew Concorde too. Couldn’t they try it?

What images does the name of BA’s base, London, evoke? Not a scent, surely, nor romance. Maybe energy, like New York? And Burberry may be famous, but isn’t up there with Hermès and Chanel.

And the airline names: Air France proudly uses its country’s name, whereas British – as in Airways – is an adjective. In branding, these things matter.

Meanwhile other companies have tried to harness the sense of smell, but usually for the purpose of exploiting an already strong brand name to generate a side-hustle that might be a good earner. Harley-Davidson tried it, for example, but would you buy the stuff? If it didn’t smell of oil and come packaged with a guttural sound-track, what’s the point?

Anyway, what does Air France have to say in its press release about its AF001 fragrance?

The airline hired Francis Kurkdjian, master perfumer and artistic director of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, to create the new scent: ‘I’m very proud to have created Air France’s first signature home fragrance. It was the illusion of a ray of sunshine on the wings of an aircraft that inspired me to create this light, fresh and comforting home fragrance’.

Fabien Pelous, the airline’s Customer Experience Manager, waxes lyrical: ‘The Air France travel experience now elevates all five senses: sight, with the haute couture uniforms of our staff, our cabin interiors, and the meticulous design of our lounges, taste with the delicious dishes on the menu on board, touch with the soft fabrics of our seats, sound with our playlists on board, and now smell with this prestigious signature fragrance’ 

The marketing department says the fragrance will become part of the AF ambience: “Air France will be gradually using AF001 in its lounges in Paris and around the world over the coming months. Evoking a feeling of space, calm and light, AF001 accompanies travelers in style. Its comforting musky scent, combined with mimosa from the south of France, adds a sunny, natural vibrancy. Created with hints of jasmine and rose, its delicate floral aura takes travelers on a real olfactory journey, capturing a specific moment in time.”

Personally, I salute any move to bring glamour back to airline travel – or at least to attempt it.

Here’s another test of the idea: what would a perfume called Ryanair or Southwest Airlines smell like?

Celebrating a Concorde anniversary

David Learmount Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

At precisely 11:40 GMT on 21 January 2016, a group of people who had designed, built or flown Concorde raised their champagne glasses to the 40th anniversary of the type’s first take-off for a commercial flight.

Plural take-offs to be precise. At 11:40 GMT British Airways’ aircraft began its take-off roll at London Heathrow for Bahrain and, simultaneously – perfectly choreographed via an HF radio link – Air France’s Concorde crew also engaged reheat bound for Rio de Janeiro.

It has been 12 years since, in 2003, the last Concorde flights took place, and all the experts and afficionados gathered at Brooklands last Thursday confirmed – despite many expressed wishes that at least one airframe could be made flyable at some time in the future – it will never get airborne again for air shows, let alone with commercial passengers on board.

Forty years is a long time. The Concorde on show at Brooklands may have still gleamed in the pale winter sun, but the passage of time shows on the faces of those who took part in the Concorde commercial operations story, especially from its very beginning in 1976.

Concorde with Charlie 2

G-BBDG at Brooklands on the 40th anniversary of the type’s first commercial departures

Capt John Eames (below), one of the first batch of BA’s Concorde commanders, was there to raise a glass of champagne, along with Concorde fleet senior stewardess Jeannette Hartley, both dressed in uniforms from that period. Hartley served as Concorde cabin crew from 1977 to 1998, spinning that magic that made everybody who flew on the machine feel special from the moment of check-in.

Jeannette Hartley & Capt John Eames

An event like this serves to remind aviation people – and ordinary souls – just how special Concorde was.

It was an amazing technical achievement and the ultimate adventure in commercial air transport.

Just one of the proofs is that it has no successor.

It’s extraordinary, in this world of breakneck technological advance, that I can tell my six-year-old granddaughter I flew as an airline passenger at twice the speed of sound, then add reluctantly that she can’t do that even if she chooses a career as an RAF fastjet pilot.

This reminder of a historic event was, itself, surrounded by history at Brookands Museum, the home of of both British motor sport and British aviation. The gathering was in the Vickers room (below), complete with the forward end of a Vickers Vimy embedded in the wall. The airscrew on the left was one of those that propelled Alcock and Brown’s first flight across the Atlantic.

Vickers Vimy room at Brooklands

A presentation by Capt Eames entitled Concorde – a pilot’s perspective, drew reminiscences from several of his peers about the event in their supersonic career that they found most memorable.

One such pilot recalled a training flight to Gander, Newfoundland, during a single 24h period. Outbound and return flights each took little more than 2h, but the phenomenon that stopped him in his tracks was seeing two sunrises and two sunsets on that day, and one of the sunrises was in the west.

Work that one out!

The first sunset was in UK before take-off. The “sunrise” in the west occurred as Concorde overtook the sun flying westbound, then after landing the sun set once more. Then, on the eastbound leg back to UK, the sun rose as one would expect it to, except that, at nearly 60,000ft above sea level, it rises incredibly early while the earth beneath the aircraft is still in darkness.

And we can’t do that any more.