Skift Take
We write often about the importance of branding in aviation, the critical need to move away from selling air-service as a commodity or a utility, but we’ve never heard anyone put it as eloquently or as practically as Mr. Dedekoylu has, nor seen any airline 'get it' quite like this bold low-cost carrier has.
With the unbundled, fees added, sales strategy firmly embedded in the low-cost airline model, and now adopted by former full-service carriers around the world, it's unusual to hear any airline talk about taking a step back and listening to consumer opinions on these retailing strategies.
But that's exactly what Turkey's only low-cost carrier, Pegasus Airlines, has done.
Onur Dedekoylu, Marketing Director at Pegasus Airlines, explained to attendees at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in London how by following everybody else Pegasus very nearly got it wrong and how it quickly adjusted to do right by taking heed of consumer feedback and thinking like a travel brand.
Repackaged Fares
"We were only two months away from launching the new [unbundled] package structure, and while we were talking about working on the communication route we realized this wouldn't work," said Dedekoylu.
"First, the biggest objective offering packages is to offer one-stop shopping to different needs, with ancillaries, but we couldn't offer one-stop shopping to the majority of people because most would go for flight and luggage, and this is very limited. Second, this would make people think that something, some right was being taken away from them. We realized, talking to the consumers, that we can't really do this in the Turkish market. Some other airlines in other markets can do that, but we cannot. So we put all the technical developments in the trash, and we started the business rules from scratch and we moved to a four-package structure with flight only as package one, flight plus luggage as package two, and package three and four being flight with meal and seats added."
By structuring packages in this way, Pegasus accomplishes the same thing that other airlines offer, in terms of covering costs of extras, but presents it as a solution rather than an
