When it comes to international flights, I've been curious as to how airlines think about offering an experience grounded culturally in their home country versus catering to foreigners (from a marketing, on-board languages, food, etc.) perspective. Are there some that pride themselves on being more "international" (maybe the ME3) versus others?
I fly DL fairly frequently for work, and no matter what country I'm in, I pretty rapidly feel like I'm back in the US the moment I set foot on board a DL flight (and I'm guessing AA/UA would be similar). Aside from the obvious starting point that the crew all speak English (and in many cases, a lot of the crew only speaks English), the food generally caters to an American palate (and if there are ethnic options, it tends to be a version accessible to American preferences), the IFE is pretty US-origin focused (although arguably this would be true on many airlines, given the dominance of Hollywood), the safety video is usually only subtitled in a foreign language, etc.
Any thoughts on airlines that are particularly effective (or not effective) at catering to pax not from their home country?
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
The ME3? They all serve alcohol for starters.
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- aemoreira1981
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
Besides the obvious example of Emirates and its fifth-freedom routes, Two examples I would think of being the case would be TK (serving the world over except for Australasia and thus catering to a lot of different cultures) and LY (especially on TLV-JFK/EWR - basically a shuttle between the two largest Jewish communities in the world). Another example may be OK on PRG-ICN. Even though KE no longer has a stake in OK (QS now owns OK but they operate under unique AOCs), the PRG-ICN route is flown on a plane that OK dry-leases from KE, with the KE A333 configuration and hard product, often has at least 1 Korean-speaking FA, and relies largely on sales from the Korean end. (This was largely done to make service effectively daily, as the bilateral prohibits KE from being more than 4x weekly on its own metal.)
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- Deltabravo1123
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
If passengers don't want to feel like they're in America on an American airline, then why come to America at all? I don't understand what people's obsession is with America being the only country that needs to be culturally diverse. You fly on a Russian airline and you feel like you're in Russia. No complaints. You fly on an Australian airline and you feel like you're in Australia. No complaints. You fly on a French airline and you feel like you're in France. No complaints. You fly on a Pakistani airline and you feel like you're in Pakistan. No complaints. But when you fly on an American airline and you feel like you're in America, people lose their shit. If you don't like the culture the airline has, then please don't fly on it at all. I know for a fact first hand that United and Delta workers for sure DO speak other languages, and DO cater to other ethnicities. If you can't accept the culture and values that an airline expresses then DON'T FLY ON THEM.
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- 4engines4lnghll
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
Does anyone know how Rouge is doing on its routes to OTP? Im surprised we don't have an Eastern European ULCC/LCC make waves on the East coast.
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- FlightMode
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
Deltabravo1123 wrote:If passengers don't want to feel like they're in America on an American airline, then why come to America at all?
Apart from the obvious, not all foreign airlines fly to the US from overseas and people have various needs for travel? But who has suggested that the US is the only country that should be culturally diverse? The reality is that the US already incorporates food from a broad range of countries and other airlines draw on cuisine from abroad, even on domestic flights. For example, Qantas has offered meals that are influenced by Moroccan and Thai meals on flights between Perth and Sydney.
Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
KLM would be on obvious example. They cater very heavily to various non-dutch markets. I believe they practically consider Scandinavia a second home-market. They have a strong presence, many flights and lots of marketing in those countries. But besides all of that, they are still heavily grounded in Dutch culture. The catering is meh, the only thing really Dutch is the Heineken beer.
For connecting flights. You don't have to have your ultimate destination in the USA just because you are on an airline from the USA, even if the US airlines can't do proper connections.
Deltabravo1123 wrote:If passengers don't want to feel like they're in America on an American airline, then why come to America at all?
For connecting flights. You don't have to have your ultimate destination in the USA just because you are on an airline from the USA, even if the US airlines can't do proper connections.
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- longhauler
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
4engines4lnghll wrote:Does anyone know how Rouge is doing on its routes to OTP? Im surprised we don't have an Eastern European ULCC/LCC make waves on the East coast.
Extremely well. Looking over the next few weeks, I see no more than 20 open seats a flight. About 30% of the passengers are connecting from/to the US to/from about 30 cities!
Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
I think all airlines with a large amount of international connecting passengers are quite good at that. Particularly if their language at home is englisch or if there are few people who speak that language to begin with.
For example, KL, BA and AY do a good job. SQ can do both, depending on your personal preferences and choices. I haven't flown Icelandair or Wow Air yet but I expect the same.
Then there are the LCC's who often don't have that cultural connection to any particular country anyway. Hence why Ryanair & Easyjet sucessfully fly all over Europe, or AirAsia & Jetstar all over Asia.
Examples on the opposite end would be Saudia (no alcohol, no pork, prayer area) or the US3 & the remaining EU legacies, who - sometimes intentionally or sometimes not - make you feel like you're already in their country.
For example, KL, BA and AY do a good job. SQ can do both, depending on your personal preferences and choices. I haven't flown Icelandair or Wow Air yet but I expect the same.
Then there are the LCC's who often don't have that cultural connection to any particular country anyway. Hence why Ryanair & Easyjet sucessfully fly all over Europe, or AirAsia & Jetstar all over Asia.
Examples on the opposite end would be Saudia (no alcohol, no pork, prayer area) or the US3 & the remaining EU legacies, who - sometimes intentionally or sometimes not - make you feel like you're already in their country.
Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
VSMUT wrote:KLM would be on obvious example. They cater very heavily to various non-dutch markets. I believe they practically consider Scandinavia a second home-market. They have a strong presence, many flights and lots of marketing in those countries. But besides all of that, they are still heavily grounded in Dutch culture. The catering is meh, the only thing really Dutch is the Heineken beer.Deltabravo1123 wrote:If passengers don't want to feel like they're in America on an American airline, then why come to America at all?
For connecting flights. You don't have to have your ultimate destination in the USA just because you are on an airline from the USA, even if the US airlines can't do proper connections.
Catering depends.
Shorthaul: The sandwich (two slices of bread with sliced cheese) and a "stroopwafel" is very Dutch
Longhaul: Eco is meh, nothing special, the stroopwafel and heineken are there. On Asian flights usually one of the options is catered to the destiantion.
Business: Usually one Dutch based meal (stew/potato based) , Jenever/bols (cocktail), Dutch wine (very rare stuff).
It's not that big of a thing, but Dutch cuisine isn't that in general.
Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
Ryanair, Norwegian, easyJet and Wizz do their very best to be non-national airlines, and quite successfully so.
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- zakuivcustom
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Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
mxaxai wrote:For example, KL, BA and AY do a good job. SQ can do both, depending on your personal preferences and choices. I haven't flown Icelandair or Wow Air yet but I expect the same.
WOW definitely caters to Americans/Canadians. Hack, they didn't even speak any French on KEF-CDG, only English and Icelandic
(And I'm pretty sure there are some, well, French on board; or even Quebecois).Otherwise, similar to SQ, CX can also cater to both HKer and "foreign" pax, due to the international nature of the airline, especially when you compare CX to a PRC carrier (They've improved somewhat as PRC carriers want to start carrying more transit pax, but you definitely still feel like you're in China aboard CZ/MU/CA). I can also imagined that AY's flights to/from Japan catering to the Japanese more than Finnish.
Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
Some airlines are known for full-on targeting diaspora populations. PR is one notable example, and a lot of international traffic is VFR and OFW traffic, although in recent years they've been trying to market to transit pax. Not sure how that's working out for them so far, but it seems to be working since they have been getting some transit traffic at MNL.
I actually wonder though how outbound marketing affects one's perceptions of the airline inside the cabin. KL, for example, doesn't really advertise its Dutch-ness and so I don't feel like I stepped into the Netherlands when I'm on a KL plane. Same with DL and the United States. But I suppose NH would make me feel like I'm in Japan since a lot of their marketing capitalizes on that "made in Japan" experience.
I actually wonder though how outbound marketing affects one's perceptions of the airline inside the cabin. KL, for example, doesn't really advertise its Dutch-ness and so I don't feel like I stepped into the Netherlands when I'm on a KL plane. Same with DL and the United States. But I suppose NH would make me feel like I'm in Japan since a lot of their marketing capitalizes on that "made in Japan" experience.
Re: Airlines Catering to Home Country vs. Foreign Pax
Cory6188 wrote:I fly DL fairly frequently for work, and no matter what country I'm in, I pretty rapidly feel like I'm back in the US the moment I set foot on board a DL flight (and I'm guessing AA/UA would be similar).
About 15 years ago I began flying around the world for business, visiting HK, Bangkok, and India. I flew home via LHR and transferred to an AA flight back to JFK. The meal was Yankee Pot Roast! And I was really happy to feel back home.
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