Let's Eat at Delta Tonight!
Airline Opens a New York Lounge to Show off New Cuisine, Sans Air-Sickness Bags
Scott Mayerowitz, ABCNews.com, 10/2/2007 (excerpted)
Here's a conversation you'll probably never hear:
"Hey honey, what do you want for dinner?"
"Well, I've kind of got a craving for some of that nice airline food."
The most enjoyable part of the flight, if there is any these days, is seldom the food. But Delta Air Lines hopes to change that perception with a new lounge in midtown Manhattan that showcases the airline's new cuisine, drink and entertainment options.
It won't be taking reservations, but for the next six weeks Delta will be serving some of its new in-flight food offerings - designed by celebrity chef Todd English - at the lounge. Delta is highlighting its new first- and business-class menus and a separate for-sale menu in coach priced from $5 to $9.
The new space, called SKY360, is aimed at elite frequent fliers, big corporate clients and other invitation-only guests, but Delta expects 300 to 1,000 other people to walk in off the street for a meal.
The idea behind the lounge: let people experience the new services and generate buzz about them, said Tim Mapes, Delta's vice president of marketing.
Visitors can sit in Delta's new business-class seats, drink cocktails created by nightclub owner Rande Gerber and check out the airline's new entertainment system.
"You can certainly talk about [these new features] in an ad, but unless you've seen them or sat in them or felt them or tasted them - obviously an experience lets you take full advantage of all five senses not just sight or hearing it on a radio spot," Mapes said.
The lounge has a light and airy feeling.
The ceiling tiles light up to look like a partially cloudy sky. White couches and white pods overlook the street. Waiters serving food wore shirts at today's opening with the slogan: "Clean Planes Dirty Martinis."
But can an airline be saved by a roast beef Cobb sandwich, a chilled black-olive spaghetti salad or a Mediterranean salad with grilled shrimp?
"For international, it does make [a] difference for your premium customer," said Ray Neidl, an airline analyst with Calyon Securities. "This is just one way of emphasizing that you are providing a competitive and superior service."
Calyon has provided advisory services to Delta in the last year.
Neidl said the lounge makes sense for Delta, which is trying to aggressively expand its New York service, particularly international flights out of JFK.
"New York is a very key market for them," Neidl said. "Continental has been very successful in targeting this market and Delta is trying to duplicate what Continental has done over at Newark [airport]."
This is not the first time Delta has created such a lounge. When it launched its now-abandoned discount carrier Song, the airline promoted it with a gallery space in New York's SoHo and in Boston's Prudential Center.
But this space at the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 57th Street is significantly larger. While Delta will get some street traffic - passersby were definitely turning their heads today - the real target is business travelers.
Tim Sieber, vice president The Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Colorado, said that Delta is doing this retail marketing approach because it probably got a good response out of its Song campaigns.
"It's great water cooler banter," he said. "It's great gorilla marketing."
Sieber noted that JetBlue has an Airstream trailer that it takes around to events so people can try out its seats and entertainment systems.
"This is a way to get people to experience your product," he said, "before they have to commit to put down their credit card."
The airline is planning to host sports-viewing events - you can watch come games in the in-seat entertainment system - and a number of corporate parties.
Don't expect free food all the time. Most days the general public can just get free Cokes and coffees. Folks can also sit back, relax and even use the free wireless Internet. Most of the food will be saved for the business travelers, but each Wednesday, the airline will provide samples of its food-for-sale menu.
And, of course, anybody can come in and sit in an airplane seat any time they want. About the only part of the plane not being shown off in the new lounge is the bathroom.
