Boeing 737s to sport a new look

Budget airline SpiceJet's Boeing 737s will now sport a new look. The 737s fuselage or exterior  will have photos of airline's pilots and cabin crew as a part of a branding campaign.

SpiceJet has a fleet of 51 planes including 36 Boeing 737s and 15 Bombardier Q400s. It is also inducting two Boeing 737s this year including one this month. Four days ago SpiceJet chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor tweeted " Our newest 737NG VT-SZK taxis out at Boeing, bound for DEL. Why all white? We'll just have to wait to find out" hinting at airline's plans.

SpiceJet did not respond to an email query on the topic and it is not known how many of its planes will undergo make over to carry images of pilots and crew. A source said wraps of vinyl stickers will be used to give the new look to the aircraft.

In the past Air Deccan and Jet Airways have used their Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s to advertise products. Air Deccan planes carried advertisements of Sun Microsystems and NDTV channel while Jet Airways Boeing 737 featured promotions of Nokia Lumia handset and Disney Channel. Amongst international airlines, South West Airlines of the US had featured Israeli model Bar Rafaeli's image on its Boeing 737 plane.

Over the last couple of months SpiceJet has stepped up its branding campaign with new advertisements for print and outdoor featuring its cabin crew and a new tag line "With all our heart." The branding exercise comes at a time when the airline is facing its toughest crisis. In FY 2014  the airline posted a loss of Rs 1,000 crore. The airline carried out a series of discount offers from January onwards as it faced cash crunch but the promotions did not push up the loads.

 The number of passengers it flew in the fourth quarter of 2013-14 declined six per cent from the same period a year ago despite a 2 per cent increase in departures and a 5% rise in capacity.

"Our network, product, pricing, on-time performance, service levels, and brand positioning has improved significantly in the past few months, and this will help us as the economy recovers (as is expected) post elections.  Macro-economic conditions are starting to improve.  The rupee is strengthening.  Bookings seven days prior to travel date are already seeing a visible bump post election results,'' SpiceJet said in a statement last week.