Sterling to “turn inflight retail on its head”

Danish low-cost carrier Sterling Airlines is planning a broad review of its inflight retail offer following the appointment of veteran airline executive Lars Hjartbo, DFNIonline can reveal. Chief commercial officer Michael Hansen told DFNIonline that Hjartbo’s appointment is just the first step of a broad retail review that will aim to deliver a more targeted, aggressive approach to inflight retail.

 

Hjartbo will report directly to Hansen when he joins Sterling Airlines as director of inflight services on August 1. Hansen said: “I look forward to Lars joining and working with him to improve our product on board and take retail to the next level.”

 

Hansen believes that, with air fares falling steadily, low-cost carriers “need to catch up somewhere”, and retail is an ideal opportunity. He said: “We have not been very aggressive in the past, but now we will try to bring some innovation to inflight retail. Lars is joining us and we have changed our supplier to Inflight Service, these are the first steps. Once Lars arrives we will look at a more detailed retail strategy.

 

“We’re pretty good on retail but we want to take it to a new level. We have a lot going for us as an airline; for example we have passengers in their seats for an average of two and a half hours. We want to turn inflight retail upside down.”

 

Hansen gave a basic example of a more targeted offer in flight by talking about passengers flying on weekend breaks. While they can be targeted with a bigger liquor offer on the way out, he suggested that a different offer, perhaps selling juices and soft drinks, may be more suitable on the way back.