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Kingfisher to make flying fun for children

To keep its young guests entertained on board, Kingfisher Airlines ties up with Disney Publishing, Cadbury and VH1

The UB Group's Kingfisher Airlines has announced a tieup with Disney Publishing, the children's books and magazines publisher, to bring on board its kids programme called Little Wings.

The airline has introduced an array of fun activities under Little Wings, including an in-flight activity magazine called Disney Kids, in-flight entertainment and Disney giveaways to keep its young guests (within the age group of 0-14) entertained.

Talking to afaqs about the Little Wings programme, Vikram Malhotra, head, marketing, Kingfisher Airlines, says, "We want to be a family friendly airline and since brand choices are influenced by kids, we want to make it an enjoyable and exciting experience for them. When our little guests travel, they can sink into their seats and enjoy the flight. It is a complete kids' outreach initiative."

Kingfisher to make flying fun for children
This is not the first time that Kingfisher has launched such an initiative. In the past, it gave away jigsaw puzzles, aircraft models, Barbie dolls dressed as flight attendants and other goodies to little travellers.

The content for Little Wings will be developed by Kingfisher with support from Disney Academia, Milan, and will include cartoons, magazines, movies, TV shows, kids’ meals, school contact programmes and takeaways. The concept will have cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Cars, movies such as Princesses, High School Musical and Pirates of the Caribbean, and the TV show, Hannah Montana.

For the first few months, Kingfisher will host shows from the library of the children's content provider. "Within three to four months, we'll start making our own exclusive content, maybe in association with some publishing house," adds Malhotra.

The Disney Kids magazine will be a monthly edition and have 48 pages full of puzzles, cut-and-keeps, colouring pages, comic strips, nuggets of information about Disney characters, pull-out posters and other fun activities.

Kingfisher to make flying fun for children
"Around 5 per cent of our guests are kids. Keeping that in mind, we'll have a sufficient number of magazines on our scheduled flights," says Malhotra. The airline plans to start a digitised version of the magazine for its website, www.flykingfisher.com.

The service will be available across Kingfisher First, Kingfisher Class, Kingfisher Red and the international operations. The cabin crew of every Kingfisher flight will be responsible for delivering the magazines to the children.

As a part of Little Wings, the airline will increase its in-flight entertainment quotient by the end of the year and movies including Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo and Toy Story will be available on the personalised video screens of every seat.

For the marketing initiative, the airline has tied up with Cadbury, VH1 and Hilton Towers. Under its tieup with Cadbury, a sample of the recently launched Bournville chocolates was distributed on scheduled flights on Diwali.

"The sampling activity was beneficial for both of us. Cadbury got about 70,000 consumers in two days and we gave our guests premium chocolates for the festival," says Malhotra.

The airline is looking forward to tying up with other organisations for loyalty, content and other initiatives.

Kingfisher Airlines, which is a part of the UB Group, is a five-star airline which offers premium first class service on domestic routes. It also offers live television in-flight, along with 16 channels.

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