Humour in Business - In Flight Fun by Kevin Ryan

Some of the best examples of humour in business across the world are from the airline industry. In the USA, South West Airlines have insisted that a sense of fun and air travel are not only compatible, they are essential - especially in this post 9/11 world. In Australia, Virgin Blue has a deliberate strategy of introducing humour into their customer interactions. Here are just a few examples of cabin announcements I have heard recently.

"Welcome onboard this flight to Sydney on this lovely Valentine’s Day. To help me with our pre-flight announcement today I have, at the front of the plane, ‘Shy Girl’, in the middle, ‘Fancy Pants’, and, down the back, we have ‘Red Hot Lover’."
"We will be dimming the cabin lights for take-off. For those of you who want to continue reading, you will notice above your head are two buttons; one with a light symbol and the other with an attendant symbol. Pressing the first one will turn on your reading light. Unfortunately, pressing the other one will not turn on the flight attendant."
"Smoke detectors have been fitted to the toilets and anyone caught smoking in the toilets will be asked to step outside to finish it."
"Welcome to Brisbane. Please stay seated until the captain turns off the seat belt sign. Anyone who stands up before then will be asked to stay behind and help us clean the aircraft."

What was the effect of this? Was it just a case of show-off flight attendants? I watched the reactions of other passengers very carefully. In the first example (Valentine’s Day), more people paid attention to the pre-flight announcement than any I have noticed before. In the final example nobody rose from their seats before the seat belt light was extinguished – and I’ve never seen that before on a flight!

So, as well as reinforcing Virgin Blue’s image of being young, innovative and a little bit cheeky, the announcements also caused the passengers to pay attention to what they would usually ignore. On one recent flight, the attendant received a round of applause after his final announcement.

This is a very clever policy. At a time when, because of inadequate facilities and unprecedented patronage post-Ansett, most Virgin Blue clients will experience some inconvenience, this is giving them a good story to tell at the end of their flight.

© 2002 Kevin Ryan

Other articles: Fun in 'The Fridge' Hospitality Humour It's like baking a cake! 16 Ways to bring fun to your workplace Training Fun

These are examples of the value of humour in business, the subject of my keynote presentation "Bottom-Line Humour – making fun a profit factor". I also conduct training seminars for staff in Humour in the Workplace.