Airlines

Do you love the scent of the airport?

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Have you ever wished that you or your home would smell just like your favorite airport or airline?

It’s not such a far-fetched idea.

Back in 2012, we saw the debut of a line of 19 city-centric scents named for their airport city codes — CDG (Paris), LHR (London), DXB (Dubai) — and packaged in slender bottles with labels that looked like baggage tags, bar codes and all.

The Scent of Departure line no longer seems to exist, but it seemed like a charming travel souvenir.

Linking scents with airports – and airlines – is still a thing.

In mid-January Air France introduced a signature fragrance now being spritzed in its La Première (first class) lobby, a handful of lounge areas at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and onboard aircraft in the La Première suites.

Named AF001 as a nod to the Concorde flights that traveled between New York and Paris in the late 1970s, the bespoke scent will soon waft through other Air France lounges in Paris and around the world.

What does AF001 smell like?

According to Air France, it has a “comforting, musky scent, combined with mimosa from the south of France” that adds “a sunny, natural vibrancy.”

Air France may have the newest bespoke fragrance in the skies, but as we shared in a story we first wrote for The Points Guy site, there are other airlines and airports with their own special scents.

Dubai-based Emirates worked with Irish brand Voya on a bespoke Eau de Toilette fragrance used on flights in First and Business Class.

Singapore Airlines signature scent is called Batik Flora and was created by Singapore-based Scent by SIX. The fragrance draws its floral notes from the six flowers in the batik motif featured on the airline’s uniforms.

Singapore’s Changi Airport also has its own signature fragrance, called Changi Scent, which smells like orchid, geranium, mint, citrus and Asian spices.

And Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific worked with Australian scent marketing agency Air Aroma on a signature scent that features lavender, jasmine, bamboo, juniper berry, tea leaves, white musk and cedarwood.

Tampa International Airport (TPA) wanted a fragrance that could reflect the Tampa Bay Region. They settled on Scent Air’s “Bamboo Tea,” which has notes of green Bergamot (an Italian citrus fruit), Jasmine, Neroli (the blossom of the bitter orange tree), Musk and Tree Moss.

Smelled any good airports? Let us know.

Donate money or miles to wildfire relief efforts

Airlines,

The wildfires in the Southern California Metro area are causing widespread devastation.

Support is flowing in. But more is needed.

Here are a few ways you can join airlines in contributing money or miles.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are donating $100,000 to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and five million Mileage Plan miles to the American Red Cross for disaster relief related to the Los Angeles wildfires.

You can contribute donate miles, with all donations matched up to five million miles until January 17, 2025. Here’s a link to get started.

From now through January 22, 2025, American Airlines AAdvantage members can earn 10 bonus miles for every dollar donated to the Red Cross with a minimum $25 donation.

More than one million dollars has been raised already. Here’s the link to make your contribution.

Delta Air Lines is contributing $1 million to the American Red Cross to help those affected by the wildfires sweeping across California.

Delta customers can contribute to the Red Cross as well through the airline’s Red Cross microsite.

 

United Airlines has donated $100,000 to two local California nonprofits, the LA Regional Food Bank and California Fire Foundation. The carrier will match additional donations up to $150,000 and 5 million miles. Here’s a link to make your contribution.

What’s ahead for airlines & passengers in 2025?

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What’s ahead for airlines?

This week IATA, the International Air Transport Association, released its 2025 outlook, covering everything from the number of people expected to fly, to financial outlooks for the industry and the progress (or not…) on the industry’s goal of producing enough sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to help airlines combat climate change.

Here are some highlights:

5.2 billion people are expected to take to the skies during 2025. That’s a 6.7% increase over 2024 and the first time the total expected passengers will exceed the 5 billion mark.

IATA expects the average airfare in 2025 to be $380, which is 1.8% lower than 2024.

In 2025, global airline industry revenues will exceed $1 trillion for the first time, representing almost 1% of the global economy. Airlines also have $940 billion in costs and retain a net profit margin of just 3.6%, said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, “Put another way, the buffer between profit and loss, even in the good year that we are expecting of 2025, is just $7 per passenger.”

Airlines face some significant risks

IATA notes that there are strong geopolitical and economic uncertainties facing the airline industry, including multiple conflicts around the world and the incoming Trump Administration, which could create tariffs and trade wars that dampen both air cargo demand and business travel.

Is there a path to Net Zero?

In 2021, the global airline industry committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions from their operations by 2050.

Offsets and carbon capture as well as new technologies such as electric and hydrogen are elements of the plan, but the production of enough sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is the major component.

Unfortunately, while the amount of sustainable aviation fuel being produced is increasing, it’s going slower than planned.

“Governments are sending mixed signals to oil companies which continue to receive subsidies for their exploration and production of fossil oil and gas,” said IATA’s Willia Walsh, “And investors in new generation fuel producers seem to be waiting for guarantees of easy money before going full throttle.”

KLM unveils its 105th Delft Blue miniature house

Airlines,

Want a free house? KLM, the Netherlands’ flag carrier, gives them away for free.

There are strings, of course. And more to the story.

You need to be flying in business class on an intercontinental flight. And the houses are just 4 inches high.

But they are filled with Dutch gin and are part of a series of Delft Blue miniatures in the shape of a notable historic or landmark building in the Netherlands or abroad.

KLM began the tradition of gifting a miniature Delft Blue house filled with gin to first and business-class passengers back in the 1950s.

It was a way to get around rules about tax restrictions that once limited the value of the gifts that airlines could give to passengers. A cocktail that just happened to be served in a keepsake miniature house was within the rules.

The houses became so popular that in 1994, on the carrier’s 75th birthday, KLM issued a catch-up batch of houses so that the number of houses would line up with the airline’s age.

Now a new miniature Delft Blue house is released to great fanfare each year on October 7, KLM’s birthday.

The 105th KLM Delft Blue House

This year’s house – the 105th in the series – honors a 17th-century house in Amsterdam known as the House on Three Canals.

Built in the Dutch Renaissance style and renovated several times since 1687, this Dutch national monument has a different canal on three sides of the building.

“It’s one of the most photographed monuments in the city,” said historian Marz Zegeling. “This building – which was originally two buildings – has three different façades, or faces and is still revealing secrets,” such as a hidden hatch leading to a secret hiding spot, he added.

 

Zegeling is the author of “Little Kingdom by the Sea,” a regularly updated 2-book set with detailed descriptions and histories of each building in the KLM Delft Blue house series.  

On October 7, Marjan Rintel, the President and CEO of KLM, presented the first copy of the Delft Blue miniature of the House on Three Canals to Arthur van Dijk,  the King’s Commissioner in the province of North Holland.

KLM’s birthday and the new Delft Blue miniature house reveal comes at a “challenging time” for the carrier, Rintel acknowledged in a pre-event press conference. While the airline is investing billions in new, more efficient aircraft is also embarking on a campaign aimed at reducing costs, increasing productivity and increasing network capacity, especially on long-haul flights.

For now, though, KLM’s Delft Blue miniature house program is safe from cuts.

“We will look at everything but not the Delft Blue houses,” Rintel said, “We’re well known for it and it will stay as part of our brand.”

Some of the other buildings featured in KLM’s Delft Blue miniature house series include #104, the Valkenburg Station – the oldest existing train station in the Netherlands – and miniature #102, the Tuschinski Theater.

You can get a KLM miniature house as a complimentary amenity when flying business class on an intercontinental KLM flight, on eBay and in antique shops throughout Amsterdam.

And you can track your collection using the KLM Houses app.

Condor Airlines adds a pink-striped plane for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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Condor, the German airline with the candy stripe livery in an assortment of fun colors, has added a pink-striped livery to one of its Airbust A320 aircraft to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which runs through October.

Condor’s “Fly Pink” plane joins the “FlyPink” initiative founded by QantasLink pilots in 2015.

The initiative supports the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and contributes to local breast cancer charities around the world. 

This is the first new livery color for Condor since it launched in 2022 with five other colors.

The cabin of the “FlyPink” Plane will also sport pink on headrest covers and on special “safety cards” which have detailed information on breast cancer prevention, according to a Condor statement.

There’s also pink-striped Condor merchandise, including umbrellas, water bottles and beach towels, for sale in the Condor Shop and on board. The proceeds from these items will be donated to Brustkrebs Deutschland e.V., a breast cancer prevention and research association in Germany.