Jetstar has been doing its darndest to shift perceptions among some Kiwis travellers that the low-cost airline is cheap for a reason, with its last campaign offering $24,000 worth of flight vouchers and drawing attention to the fact that, despite a reputation for unreliability, it was named New Zealand’s most punctual domestic airline in 2013. And it’s backing itself once again, offering a $25 voucher to all passengers if a domestic flight during the next eight days arrives more than ten minutes later than scheduled.
The punctuality promise campaign via Barnes, Catmur & Friends and Ikon is being promoted through TV, cinema, outdoor and press and online will run until the end of September for all Jetstar domestic New Zealand flights and will apply to all delays, including those caused by weather (or unpronounceable Icelandic volcanoes).
“Everyone knows the saying ‘put your money where your mouth is’ so we felt what better way to further promote our consistently high punctuality than to give people a voucher if we arrive more than ten minutes later than scheduled [arrival time is when the aircraft comes to a complete stop at the arrival gate and the handbrake is applied],” says Grant Kerr, Jetstar head of New Zealand. “While many people are aware of how much our on-time performance has improved, we wanted a campaign that would spread the message even more widely.”
Jetstar carries up to 5,000 domestic passengers every day around New Zealand on services between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown. And Kerr says there won’t be gaming the system and making any changes to regular airline operations during the period of the campaign.
“The point of this promotion is to highlight that we achieve strong punctuality month after month, so it’s very much business as usual over the next eight days,” he says. “We’re not adding any extra resources or doing anything differently and as always safety is our number one priority.”
According to research provided by ACARS, Jetstar was found to be the most punctual airline for eight of 2013’s 12 months and also finished joint top in another month. And it has continued that trend, with its ads for this campaign saying that it had the best domestic on-time performance between July 2013 and June 2014.
Punctuality is determined by whether or not the domestic flight has taken off within ten minutes of the scheduled time, and Jetstar recorded an overall success rate of 83 percent in 2013 (up from 72 percent recorded in 2012). Conversely, Air New Zealand declined from 85 percent in January 2013 to 77.7 percent in December 2013.
Jetstar had a bit of fun recently celebrating five years flying in New Zealand with a novel take on a game of Pass the Parcel.
