Reach you already generate
Airlines send flight information to every passenger: booking confirmations, check-in messages, the app. Put a link to the flight on the airline’s own branded map in those messages and passengers open it — and forward it to the people picking them up, waiting for them or simply following their trip. Every share brings new people to the airline’s brand.
On a public flight tracker, that attention earns someone else’s ads. On the airline’s own map, the airline decides what sits next to the flight.
Keep the media budget in house
Reaching the same people with paid display or social advertising would cost real money. A mid-size carrier’s flight map can generate tens of millions of impressions a year — reach that, bought as advertising, would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the airline’s own map it comes free with every tracking link it already sends. Estimate it for your airline.
The idea is not to sell the map to advertisers. It is to point that free reach at what the airline already sells and the partner programmes it already runs.
What to promote
| Offer | When it fits | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Seat and cabin upgrades | Before departure, while the passenger checks their flight | Flight detail panel |
| Extra bags and comfort add-ons | Before departure | Flight detail panel |
| Lounge access | Passengers tracking their own departure, especially during delays | Detail panel, or a lounge pin on the map |
| Loyalty programme | Sign-up for non-members; earn and burn offers for members | Always-on placement |
| Holiday packages | Destination inspiration while the flight is in the air | Per-destination placement |
| Hotel and car-rental partners | Arrival approaching, for the passenger or whoever is meeting them | Per-destination placement, partner pins |
| Co-branded card and payment programmes | Frequent travellers and their families | Always-on placement |
| Codeshare and alliance partners | Connecting journeys and partner destinations | Per-flight or per-destination placement |
| New routes and the next trip | Route launches and “where to next”, linking to booking | Destination cards with Buy ticket, a route-launch pin |
Matching the offer to the moment
Offers can be shown:
- for every flight, as one always-on placement;
- per flight number or per destination, so each route carries the right offer;
- in the flight detail panel, as calls to action next to the flight’s status;
- as pins on the map, for lounges, partner hotels and attractions;
- by context, for example an offer that appears only when it is raining at the destination.
Offers are configured from the same dashboard as the rest of the map and change without a redeploy, so commercial and loyalty teams can run campaigns without an engineering ticket.
Measuring it
For each placement the airline sees impressions, reach and clicks, so offers can be compared, tuned and reported like any other campaign — with the difference that the reach itself cost nothing.
And if you want to sell it
The same placements can also be offered to outside partners as paid placements, if an airline wants to. Most airlines will get more from using the reach for their own products and partner programmes first.