Asiana Airlines Takes 5th in Airline of the Year Awards

14Aug08

In Skytrax’s annual airline awards, Asiana Airlines, rival to Korean flagship carrier, jumped to 5th place this year from 12th last year.  Asiana was also the number 4 Asian carrier on the list as Singapore Airlines claimed the top spot again, while Cathay Pacific took second, and Thai Airways took fourth.  Asiana’s jump seven places was among the most impressive gains of any airline on the list.  Asiana also was recognized as having the best economy class and best cabin staff. Asiana has been known for having exceptional inflight service, winning awards for cabin staff in the past.  This has to be a blow to Korean Air, the larger of the two Korean carriers, as it failed to place in the top 10 for Airline of the Year. 

Personally, I am a bit surprised at Asiana’s inclusion in the world’s top 5 airlines. My last Asiana flight was this past March on a short hop from Seoul to Tokyo.  I left from Seoul’s Gimpo Airport and flew back into Incheon International the next day.  The aircraft, a A330, appeared new, clean and modern, and all seats were equipped with personal inflight entermainment centers on the back of the headrests.  The cabin service was good, but included nothing special, standard for international carriers.  Food was good, not great, and the cabin crew were friendly and acommodating.  I don’t remember anything special about the flight, other than the fact that it was non-eventful (which the value of which might be underestimated in this day and age of flying).  The airline left no impressions on me and did not necessarily convince me why I should fly with them again. (I tend to fly Skyteam which puts me on Korean Air, so naturally, going into this trip I was excited to experience Asiana as it had been a good three years since my previous trip, but considering my expectations for something new I was somewhat underwhelmed).

If I arranged my own list of the world’s best airlines, I naturally would put airlines such as Emirates (# 9 on the 2008 Airline of the Year List) Qatar, Ethiad, Virgin, Lufthansa, and Air France ahead of Asiana. But seeing that Skytrax polled a range of travelers including both business and leisure passengers on a wide range of service points including ground/airport service, inflight food and entertainment, and onboard service for the past several months, I started to think that perhaps my initial ranking of the world’s best airlines had a lot more to brand value rather than service delivered.  Emirates, Virgin, Lufthansa, and Air France are household names and known around the world for their premium product, so it is natural for me to associate them with quality. However, Asiana is a far less recognized brand and one that in my opinion isn’t particuarly known for anything, which is perhaps why it is so surprising Asiana ranks so high. To me, the takeaway here is that there is a major diversion between perceived value/quality and brand experience/offering for Asiana Airlines. This is a fundamental breakdown in their international (and domestic) communication of their core brand values and offerings.  The gap that exists between their brand offering/experience and perceived brand value represents tremendous opportunity for Asiana, especially in the premium market, but really across all customer segments as they were also recognized for the exceptional economy class.  If I were a senior executive at Asiana, you better bet that I would start identifying the underlying reasons that created this gap and start devising a plan to bring consumer perception of the Asiana brand closer to what the airline offers.

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Tags: A330, Air Travel, Airline Awards, Airlines, Asiana, Brand Experience, Branding, Cathay Pacific, Communication, Consumer Perception, Gimpo International Airport, Incheon International Airport, Inflight Entertainment, Korean Air, Marketing, seoul, Singapore Airlines, Skytrax, Thai Airways, Tokyo, Tourism, Travel