New TXT service lets businesses re-brand real time flight info
Released 6am August 28th 2008
Airport and airline users in New Zealand can now txt airline flight numbers to a special txt service called FlightCHECK
and receive instant arrival and departure flight information - including delays and cancellations.
As well as being targeted at consumers, FlightCHECK is also being marketed as a service available under licence to
companies and organisations such as airlines, travel agents, hotels, airport shuttle operators, taxi companies etc. who
wish to use FlightCHECK or rebrand and augment it with their own sales and marketing information - providing a unique
experience tailored to their own customers.
FlightCHECK launches this week (Aug 28th) in New Zealand.
How it works:
To use the service, users simply txt their airline flight number i.e. NZ423 to the FlightCHECK txt number, 8808. Web
users can also search for flight numbers or look at all New Zealand airports' departures and arrivals online at
http://FlightCHECK.co.nz
The FlightCHECK software takes the txt or online request and the relevant flight information is returned within seconds
via txt or the web, with a marketing message of up to 60 characters appended to the flight info.
Sample TXT Message:
Flight NZ1 is ON TIME
Departure from AKL @ 0900 - Arriving CHC @ 1100
** The Heritage Christchurch, rooms from $99 ph: 03 3779722 **
''To know your marketing spend is reaching your target audience is crucial," says FlightCHECK Director, Sam Allen.
"Using FlightCHECK, you can directly market into a specific core audience. You know where people are travelling and that
it's by plane, so you can target appropriate travel-related information - to an audience you know will be readily
receptive."
Continuing growth in air travel makes this a market well worth servicing. For instance, New Zealand residents undertook
1.96 million overseas trips in the year ended October 2007. That number has more than doubled over the last fifteen
years.
"Since the customer has requested the flight data, he or she will be more receptive to added value marketing information
tagged on to the end of the TXT message," saya Allen. "So it's definitely more bang for your marketing buck."
"The commercial opportunities offered by FlightCHECK give businesses a great deal of control and flexibility," says
John-Daniel Trask, the FlightCHECK CIO. "While providing a timely and relevant service, FlightCHECK simultaneously
empowers your own company's marketers and PR teams to directly control what is communicated to customers, without
needing to wait for third parties to make those changes for you. You control everything through a simple online
interface which is available 24/7, 365."
For consumers, txts cost 50c - which is clearly a small price to pay (especially for business travellers) compared to
needlessly waiting around for a late flight, getting up early to get to an airport only to find out your flight is
delayed or making a wasted journey to the airport to pick someone up. Unlike other flight checking services, FlightCHECK
can also be used to summon most flight information in Australia, the Americas, and a majority of Europe and Asia, so if
travellers have connecting flights outside New Zealand they can check to see if those connections are on-time etc.
ends