An issue of Navi, Air Canada's business class inflight magazine
An inflight magazine (or in-flight magazine) is a free magazine distributed via the seats of an airplane, by an airline company, or in an airport lounge.
Overview
Many airlines offer in-flight magazines to provide details about their fleet, as well as articles about destinations, travel, and tourism information. In-flight publishing and media are a niche in the magazine industry. Airline titles have controlled distribution costs and readership figures come from existing passenger traffic. Most airlines use external publishers to produce their magazines.[1] In a 2009 Harris Poll, 94% of "business passengers" read in-flight magazines when they traveled by air, with a 30-minute average reading time per flight.[1] Despite the challenges facing the traditional publishing industry, in-flight magazines saw a smaller readership decline than other physical publications during the 2010s.[1] The quality of in-flight magazines varies from carrier to carrier. Their upscale, valuable, and captive readership appeals to advertisers across all sectors: luxury goods makers, car manufacturers, beauty and fashion brands, as well as global destinations.[1]
History
The first in-flight magazine was started by Pan American World Airways in around 1952. Its title, "Clipper Travel", was a reference to their Boeing 314 Clipper aircraft.[2] A decade later, KLM's Holland Herald,[3] the longest running in-flight magazine, was first published in January 1966.[4] In-flight magazines began booming in the 1980s, with new airlines forming them one after another. Some, including Japan Airlines, had over 300 pages in their magazines. This method of flight entertainment has proved to be a success for airlines around the world. To this day, over 150 in-flight magazines are being published.[5]
However, since the birth of digital technology, some key airlines are now offering the chance for magazines to be read digitally via tablet computer applications or over the internet.[6] Some magazines have been discontinued entirely in all formats, such as American Airlines' "American Way" magazine, which was discontinued in 2021.
Ink is a global media company specializing in content and advertising for the travel sector, headquartered in London. The company works with over 27 airlines, rail and hotel partners worldwide (including American Airlines, United, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, easyJet and Norwegian), with offices in London, New York, Miami, São Paulo and Singapore. Ink produces over 27 in-flight magazines in 18 languages, and airline mobile apps for their travel partners. Ink offers advertising across magazines, and passenger travel documents (print-at home boarding passes, booking confirmation emails), in airline mobile apps and online properties. Their media channels reach over 783 million passengers every year.[citation needed]
GroupSixPro, producing KAConfidential, the exclusive in-flight magazine of KaiserAir.
ExiGent Magazine is the official and exclusive in-flight magazine of several airlines specializing in business jets throughout Europe and Africa. It also is the corporate magazine of one of the largest luxury real estate agencies. The company works with six airline and real estate agency partners (including Afrijet Business Service, Dassault Falcon Service, Jet Net Alliance, Helipass, Coldwell Banker France et Monaco and Sparfell and Partners). ExiGent Magazine produces six in-flight magazines in two languages, French and English.
Spafax, a multinational editorial and content marketing company based in London, Montréal and Toronto with more than 70 clients around the world. Its 13 offices worldwide – London, Toronto, Montréal, Santiago, Lima, Dubai, Frankfurt, Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, Miami, New York, California, and Singapore – produce magazines and IFE products for clients such as British Airways, Air Canada, LAN, and Malaysia Airlines.
Stream, producing around ten in-flight magazines, including CityJet.
Motivate Publishing, which produces the in-flight magazine for Open Skies, and Emirates' business- and first-class magazine, Portfolio.
Cedar Communications, which produces British Airways' High Life, First Life and Business Life.
G+J Corporate Editors, which produces Lufthansa Magazin, Lufthansa Woman's world, Lufthansa exclusive and Holland Herald.
Lagardere France, whose main airline client is Air France.
Subcontinental Media Group, whose main airline clients are Biman Bangladesh Airlines from Bangladesh and Fly Africa Airlines in South Africa. It publishes Bihanga Magazine for Biman and Flyafrica.comMagazine for Fly Africa. It has offices in Dhaka (Bangladesh), New Delhi, Kolkata in India and Johannesburg in South Africa. SMG has a sales network in over 15 key countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.[7]
In-flight Media and Technologies, which publishes Max Air's in-flight magazine.
Panorama Media Corp are experienced publishers of consumer titles, specialist publications (including Skyways Magazine for Airlink for the last 30 years) and customer magazines, which compete in quality, design and reader appeal at an international level. Panorama Media Corp. is a full-service publishing company offering a one-stop service solution.
Shuffle CMS, which produces Jet2.coms' JetAway
Specialized advertising agencies of in-flight magazines
giO media (in-flight specialist for Benelux, Cyprus and Middle East markets), representing, recommending and centralizing all aspects of in-flight media. It is working for over 75% of all the airlines worldwide, such as British Airways, Air France, KLM, United-Continental, Emirates and Virgin Australia.[8]
IMM International (in-flight marketing bureau for France, Switzerland, UK, Italy and China markets), representing, recommending and centralizing all aspects of in-flight media. It works with 150 airlines worldwide (more than 200 magazines)[9]
The Media Ant, representing, recommending and centralizing all aspects of a few airlines. It works with 3 of 12 of the airlines in the country, such as IndiGo, Jetwings and Air Costa.[10]
In-flight Media and Technologies (in-flight marketing bureau for Max Air in Nigeria), representing and centralizing all aspects of in-flight media for Max Air. It also advertises on board for advertisers inside all Max Air fleets.
òrkestra, the first media center in Italy specialized exclusively in advertising in in-flight magazines (more than 250 magazines in portfolio) of the most important airlines in the world[11]
Quite similar to in-flight magazines, some railroad companies offer a comparable product aboard their long distance trains, e.g. Deutsche Bahn's mobil or Indian Railways' Rail Bandhu magazine.[42] This magazine is also distributed via the seats of the passenger cars.
^ a b c dDaniel Michaels (27 November 2009). "Magazine publisher finds profit in airlines". The Wall Street Journal.
^"The Ultimate Guide to In-Flight Magazines". Worldwide Freelance Writer. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^"Holland Herald Media Buyers Handbook 2012" (PDF). Holland Herald. 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2013.[permanent dead link]
^"Holland Herald". ink-live.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
^"The In-Flight Magazine Quick Reference PDF". Inflight-magazines.com. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
^"11 ways airlines are deploying the Apple iPad". airlinetrends.com. 8 August 2011. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
^"Subcontinental Media Group - Media Publisher in India & Bangladesh". Subcontinental Media Group. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
^"giO media". Gio-media.nl. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
^"Inflight Advertising & Inflight Media Marketing". IMM International. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
^"The Media Ant: The one-stop shop for information on non-traditional media platforms". Afaqs. 22 November 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
^"Home". orkestra.it.
^"Product". Ink Global. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^"Hemispheres Magazine - United Airlines". Hemispheres. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^"Ink Global". ink-global.com. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^"Air France Magazine et Air France Madame : voyage, tour du monde culturel, tendances, mode, luxe". magazines.airfrance.com. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
^"Ink Global". ink-global.com. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^"bthere: Inflight Magazine Brussels Airlines". Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^"404 | Ink Global". ink-global.com. Retrieved 10 August 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
^"404 | Ink Global". ink-global.com. Retrieved 10 August 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
^"Welcome to Spenta Multimedia". www.spentamultimedia.com. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^ a b c d e f g"Archived copy". Shuffle CMS Ltd. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2022. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"FlightLOG magazine". Loganair. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
^"World's Leading Inflight Magazine 2021". World Travel Awards. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
^"Product". Ink Global. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^"404 | Ink Global". ink-global.com. Retrieved 10 August 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
^"404 | Ink Global". ink-global.com. Archived from the original on 10 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
