Expect more advertising on flights

ATLANTA (AP) — It soon will be harder to avoid advertising if you fly on one major carrier.

AirTran Airways is installing ads on the bottom of seat-back tray tables on all its planes.

Passengers have to keep the tray tables in their upright, locked position, during the beginning and end of their flights. That means an unimpeded view of the ads, which AirTran hopes will bring in millions of dollars in new revenue at a time when much of the industry has been reeling amid the economic slowdown.

AirTran expects the ads to be on its 138 planes within weeks. Mother Nature Network, offering a chance to win a Royal Caribbean cruise, is its first advertising partner.

US Airways has been placing ads on the tops of tray tables for years, but only on some planes.

The five biggest U.S. carriers lost a combined $3.2 billion in the first nine months of 2009. To cut costs and keep ticket prices from plunging, they are flying fewer flights and shuffling the planes they use. That has reduced flying to levels not seen since after the 9/11 attacks. AirTran is one of the few major carriers that has been profitable this year.

Airlines also have been trying to raise new revenue through ad-on fees for checking baggage, making a reservation over the phone or, on some carriers, asking for a better seat in coach.

Advertising onboard aircraft is not new. You see ads in the magazines in the seatback pockets and on airplane napkins. But placing the ads where passengers have little choice but to look at them is novel, and an enticing opportunity for AirTran.

“You see it for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the length of your flight,” said Tad Hutcheson, AirTran’s vice president of marketing and sales. “It gets a lot of impressions.”

US Airways Group Inc., based in Tempe, Ariz., has fashioned ads to the tops of tray tables, so you don’t see them unless you pull your tray down. In the past, Mercedes-Benz, Verizon, Microsoft and Ford have advertised on its planes, spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said.

“It’s certainly not on every single airplane,” Mohr said.

US Airways generates roughly $10 million a year from on-board advertising, but that includes napkins, cups and some buy-onboard products, Mohr said. The carrier does not break out revenue generated from seatback tray table advertising.

The 21‚Ñ2 inch by 9 inch ads going on AirTran planes are easy to change out and are encased in a plastic covering.