What do you get when you merge peach and vanilla? If you know your desserts, you know you’d get a Peach Melba. Merge two airlines called Peach and Vanilla though and you will get Japan’s largest low cost airline and the country’s third biggest carrier.
Peach colours for new low cost carrier
Speaking at the CAPA North Asia LCC Summit in Seoul earlier this month Peach CEO, Shinichi Inoue, who is heading the integration said the exercise to merge both airlines, owned by All Nippon Airways, would be completed next year with the Vanilla brand making way for Peach colours.
Inoue said that while shorthaul low cost would remain Peach’s core business, it will also extend its network to middle haul low cost. Kansai would remain its main base, with Narita one of its other bases.
The integration, he added, would strengthen Peach’s competitiveness. Already, he pointed out, it is Japan’s only LCC to record profitability for four consecutive years and by 2020, the airline is targeting to reach revenues of ¥150 billion and operating profit of ¥15 billion with a fleet size of more than 50 aircraft operating more than 50 routes.
Currently, Peach remains focused on its target market of women in their 20s-30s. “Why? It’s how we differentiate ourselves and because women are the final decision makers on everything and we men just follow them,” he said.
Its customer gender mix is 47% male and 53% female, and 88% are within the 20-40 age group. More than 95% book through its website, and 75% of its customers are non-Japanese.
Peach’s current target market – women in their 20s-30s (Image credit: beer5020/iStock-Getty Images)
Customer segments it has had success with include “Kansai aunties” going for “Seoul Day Trip” and “Cool Girls in Taipei” who travel to Okinawa once a month for hair and nail treatments.
Inoue said with Bangkok-Okinawa routes proving popular, Peach will consider starting longer haul flights of between seven and eight hours to capitalise on the growing demand within Asia.
Peach, he said, would continue to do things that generate buzz by using “creativity and knowledge to get free exposure”.
Citing the partnership with Volkswagen, he said the airline managed to sell five peach-coloured VW cars in inflight sales. “Who would have thought that people would buy a car inflight – we sold the five cars, each priced at ¥3 million, in three weeks.”
• Featured image: Peach CEO, Shinichi Inoue, speaking at CAPA North Asia LCC Summit
