This was the advt campaign when AI got its 747s. JRD Tata took a lot of interest in the uniforms then.

Cabin crew had a ghagra choli kind of uniform that they wore while inflight and was for mainly the J upper deck. Much like the sarong of SIA and Thai that SIA and Thai crew have to change into when in inflight.

-- Edited by karatecatman at 13:14, 2006-06-30

karatecatman wrote:

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Compliments on a real good thread!

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Thanks mate.

Quality shows!

Some more of the ads.

AI ran series of print campaigns in the late 80s. Choose a destination and then did a theme around it. London for example had the Tower of London and the Changing of Guards. Done by HTA.

But the TV campaigns were smart. Used to run on NDTV when Prannoy Roy was the only competitor to DD. First campaign was around the A310. Background score was by Gary Lawyer that ended with a very fast paced line of "Now A great new Experience". The visual was of a A310 almost shooting off like a MiG 21. A310 in that was "Narmada".

 

Second had the background by Gary Lawyer also singing a very slow paced line "Now a great new experience". Visual was of a very slow and graceful 747 almost taking the full run to lift off. 747 in that was the great "Rajendra Chola", a 747-200, sadly scrapped in Mojave.

 

In the late 1990s, HTA again launched the music ads. Just music with no words sung (this continues even today).

Shots were off the new 747-400 "Konark" taking off from Boeing Field, then moving over to the Air India logo scrolling across, close-up shots of Indian food on the trolley, a child passenger listening to music and finally one of AI's most charming and stunning airhostesses Raje Balsara doing a Namaskaar.

Later HTA reshot the campaign with airhostesses Air-India Sunita Sodhi Kanga (who won the Miss Airlines contest in 1993), Upneet Gill (in every AI booking office she's there as that unmissable large cardboard cutout. In the New York office, she's there as a life-size statue of 5.11 ft!!), Odette Noronha and Radha Sharma (the mother in the old Pears soap ad who looks at her daughter through transparent Pears soap).

Music in this was a selection of Beethoven, piano notes, which then became a modern score. Was a hit on BBC London and was rated as one of the best foreign Airline ads.

When I recorded it on VCR, ppl at home laughed, especially Granddad.      

In 2004, AI made a very cheap TV ad. Shots were of "Konark" again (747-400), a close-up of one of AI's women pilots, three shots of the AI logo scrolling across, a very cheap map showing AI destinations and a close-up of chocolate covered sponge cake on a trolley. Had a shennai score that was very depressing. Was luckily removed after about three months.

That was the last TV advt.

But once the new fleet arrives, AI is planning to bombard the TV networks and print with a deadly campaign. Might introduce their brand mascot/s also.   

AI is also planing a campaign with its new Miss India 200 recruits (six of them) who fly mainly the London-US route. They are: Kaveri Jha, Aparna Sharma, Pooja Arora, Nayaa Singh, Hufriya Bhivandiwala and Priyanka Jha.

NDTV did a story on this:

www.ndtv.com

Air-India, which gave the air-hostess selection procedure a skip to directly recruit six finalists of last year’s pageant, plans to do the same this year.
"The finalists were taken in without a formal recruitment process (interviews or written tests) as they had already undergone a difficult selection process (the Miss India show) on an all-India basis," said A-I’s Human Resource Development Director V A Ferreira.
Of the 23 finalists at the Miss India 2005, A-I contacted 16. Six agreed to join: Kaveri Jha, Aparna Sharma, Pooja Arora, Nayaa Singh, Hufriya Bhivandiwala and Priyanka Jha.
While the rest began flying in December 2005, Priyanka opted out of training to finish her modelling commitments and joined the January 2006 batch. She will begin flying later this month.
All six have been allowed to continue their modelling assignments. The modelling agencies are expected to give credit to A-I.
The six have been deployed on the premium US and UK routes, where A-I just expanded its operations. Even Priyanka, who initially declined the offer, was persuaded to change her mind.
She was preparing for her final-year engineering exams when she was made the first offer. "I turned them down a couple of times, but then I wanted to be a pilot some day. So I decided to take it up as it will help me learn, earn and travel a lot," said Priyanka.
She denies any preferential treatment. "Yes, it was simpler getting in, but we are treated the same way like the rest," she said.
In the past, A-I’s direct recruits were only sportspersons who had worn the national colours.
Ferreira maintains that the selection process is fair. According to him, barring the fact that these finalists did not have to take written tests and interviews, they were on par with the rest.
"We want the best," he said, adding that A-I would be advertising for more cabin crew. "We have been to job fairs, beauty pageants and conducted our own recruitment procedures. We badly need people," he said.
      

 

Debateable whether it will make a difference.! 

     

 

-- Edited by karatecatman at 15:04, 2006-06-30

-- Edited by karatecatman at 15:05, 2006-06-30

-- Edited by karatecatman at 15:13, 2006-06-30

Here's me praying for the charm to return to AI.

I would personally much prefer to fly AI over 9W, provided AI gets it's act together.

Hopefully with:

• New LH/ULH aircraft
  
• Merger with IC
  
• Privatization
  
• World class scheduling/hubs/crisis management
  
• Full participation in an international alliance like *A.
  
• Last but not the least - Miss India participants serving me my meal!
  

I'll be excited to fly AI/IC again!

There's definitely some great innovation from them on the AIX front - those liveries are outstanding, and I hear the service is pretty good as well. Waiting to read the first TR on AIX!

Bring Back Another JRD.Recover AI past Glory.

regds

MEL

the_380 wrote:

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Correct me if I am wrong... We have a new JRD in the aviation business already-Vijay Mallya Just my opinion what do the others say...

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Mallya is a Brash Branson.

JRD is JRD. No one can replace him.

A true incident...

I was returning in DEL-BOM Kingfisher flight and in DEL airport i saw in the news that some AI B747 skided or some damn thing like that date i guess was 2nd or 3rd April pls check out the records if possible and there were two people in front of me sitting in the airport and they were like "Why does it always happens with Air India?"

Do u think this is the thought in most people's mind

I think somewhat uite like that but what abt the others?