Strategic Moves to Air Australia Brand

As anticipated, Strategic Airlines has announced that it will reposition its brand in the market as it prepares to launch long-haul flights before the end of this year. The carrier plans to re-invent itself as a low-fare carrier under the Air Australia brand and late last week unveiled a revised lime green and gold corporate livery that will adorn its fleet of Airbus A320 and A330 models.

The revised look will be adopted from October 30 ahead of the inauguration of its new services to Honolulu from Brisbane and Melbourne on December 14. The same month the carrier will also start flying the competitive Melbourne – Brisbane trunk route as well as increasing its links to Bali and Phuket.

Further network growth is expected in 2012 including flights to China. This expansion will be facilitated by a fleet growth, which will see three A330s in service by the end of the first quarter of 2012 and up to seven by 2014, as well as the delivery of one or two additional A320s for short-haul routes.

The new look was developed by specialist branding company Cummins Ross. “We challenged CumminsRoss and our marketing team with the historic opportunity to create an iconic brand for a new Australian airline,” said Michael James, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the airline’s parent company Strategic Aviation Group. “The name Air Australia was already marked as our preferred choice.”

“The task was as much about design as it was about communication,” “The challenge was to convey a modern Australian aviation product, for a company with its own heritage and an instant sense of familiarity and like-ability. Green is our key color, with a hint of gold and subtle silver-grey representing gum trees, koalas and grey kangaroos,” added Sean Cummins, Executive Director, CumminsRoss.