British Airways announced the forthcoming launch of a new airline yesterday, and launched a blog to go along with it.

British Airways is planning to launch its new US-EU subsidiary airline "OpenSkies" with daily flights from New York to Brussels and Paris.

The airline will launch in June 2008 with one Boeing 757 aircraft that will operate from New York to either Brussels or Paris Charles de Gaulle airports.  A second aircraft will be added to the fleet later this year to fly to the other EU destination.  The plan is to operate six 757s by the end of 2009, all of which will be sourced from the current British Airways’ fleet.

The announcement tells you that more info is at www.flyopenskies.com – which is a blog, not the usual type of website you might expect.

OpenSkies managing director Dale Moss has the first post with commentary largely along the lines of the press release.

Then this concluding part:

[…] But beyond the specs, I’d like to say that OpenSkies is dedicated to elevated customer care. We will take the lead from British Airways and try new, inventive ways to improve service at all levels. We’d also like for you to tell us your thoughts, your ideas, and—once we take off— tell us how we’re doing. You can start right here with this blog.

Cheers for now,

Dale Moss
Managing Director

Terrific – a personal insight opinion. To me, that commentary has far more impact than the massaged press release text: I can read that same stuff in all the mainstream media reporting.

So far, there are more than 20 comments to that opening post.

The blog, which runs on the latest version of WordPress, has no obvious British Airways branding other than a small BA logo at the foot of the pages. Mind you, the photo of the plane on the home page does provide a clue if you recognize BA’s aircraft colour scheme (on the tail).

The blog includes some compelling features such as a section where jobs will be listed (with a great page title: "Innovators Wanted").

Such friendly emotive wording is used in other content such as "Behind the blog," the page that tells you what the blog’s about and which includes a commenting policy.

"Our lines are open, so are our minds," it says, and "This blog is the heart of our conversation."

It will be interesting to see how this blog develops in terms of creating real engagement between the fledgling airline and potential customers between now and the airline’s actual launch in the summer.

It looks like a flying start.

(Via Craig McGinty)