The More The Better
Sterling Airlines is continuing to uphold its reputation for an innovative approach to inflight retail, discovers David Davies
ESTABLISHED in 1962 by Eilif Krogager – a priest, no less, who also owned the Danish tour operator Tjaereborg – Scandinavian Airlines has developed over the ensuing 46 years to become one of Northern Europe’s most successful carriers. It now offers one of the largest choices of destinations in and out of Northern Europe, as well as between Scandinavian countries, and in 2007 flew an impressive total of 4.2 million passengers.
Now headquartered in Copenhagen and owned by Northern Travel Holding, the airline pursues a low-fare concept and, says CCO Michael T. Hansen, places “an emphasis on passenger service to destinations that are interesting for our customers, business-wise as well as for [leisure]. Sterling also
operates charter flights for more than 15 Scandinavian tour operators.”
As the airline sector in general starts to come under increasing pressure for numerous, welldocumented reasons, it makes sense for low-cost carriers to enhance their services in ways that
differentiate them from their (sometimes numerous) competitors, and introduce the possibility of lucrative new revenue streams. Inevitably, inflight retail is one of the obvious candidates for development.
“With increasing prices for fuel and increasing competition among airlines, there is no doubt that carriers will have to find alternative sources of income,” says Hansen. “At Sterling we are confident that – with more than 25 years of experience in preorder – we will be able to be much more competitive than our direct competitors. It is all about getting the right product at the right price to the passenger in the
most efficient way. And pre-order is key to that.”
Indeed, Sterling lays claims to having been one of the original pre-order pioneers, more than two decades ago. “Sterling was among the first airlines to develop the pre-order system, where passengers are encouraged to shop from a large pre-order catalogue which is sent to the passengers’ home address before departure,” says Hansen. “This system was originally designed for the charter flights and has been continuously developed from its start in the early ‘80s. It is still the backbone of the retail operation and will also be used on scheduled flights in the future.”
In terms of the most popular categories, Hansen reports that alcohol and tobacco are most successful
on the routes between non-EU member states. Meanwhile, on selected intra-EU flights the company
offers duty-paid products at duty-free prices when pre-ordered. “The split on these routes is more balanced – alcohol, perfume/cosmetics, tobacco,” he notes.
While Hansen says that the company has “all the basic stuff in place to obtain great sales” – including a selection of 800 products and the aforementioned pre-order system – Sterling has recently made a number of changes to its inflight retail operations. In May, the company announced a new deal with Inflight Service in Stockholm that will see IFS source products for pre-order, onboard sales and consumption, and manage all logistics involved. And this month (August) will find the company welcoming Lars Hjartbo – a familiar face in travel-retail circles for his long association with MyTravel Airways Scandinavia – in the role of director inflight sales & services.
The company’s inflight retail offer will continue to evolve, then, and in this regard Sterling will surely be assisted by the fact that Scandinavians’ passion for shopping shows no sign of diminishing.
“For Scandinavians, shopping is part of the trip, and due to historic high prices in the domestic markets,
[they] are among the highest spending duty-free shoppers in the world. So obviously Sterling’s approach is ‘the more, the better’,” concludes Hansen.
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