Thursday, April 09, 2009

Airline Brand Naming Gone Very Wrong (or At Least Very Funny)

We just saw the news that a new airline, Baltia, has received U.S. Dept of Transportation permission to fly from New York JFK to St. Petersburg, Russia. The report we saw on themoscowtimes.com indicates the airline will begin operations sometime this summer.

What we find hilarious, though, is the airline’s name for its frequent flyer program – Freeloaders. We really don’t think this is tongue-in-cheek, but rather a cheerful reminder that some things just don’t translate well, even in this interconnected world.

We also wonder if they chose the name “Baltia” simply because the dot-com domain name was available. OK, we get the Baltic part of the name. And we wish them all the success in the world – but we’d also suggest they hire someone for their marketing department.

We can’t wait to sign up and get our Freeloader card.