OAG Travel News

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, seeking new revenue sources amid record fuel costs, are starting to place advertisements, coupons and weather forecasts on boarding passes when travelers check in online.

Sojern's service debuts Tuesday on Delta's Web site, with ads customized to passengers' destinations, said the co-founder Duane Woerth, a former Air Line Pilots Association president.

Sprucing up the passes with discounts and promotions is a departure from the industry's embrace of fees such as $15 for a checked bag to defray a doubling in the price of jet fuel in the past year. Airlines will share in the startup's ad revenue.

"Imagine a casino in Las Vegas being able to make that one last little pitch to lure an arriving customer," said Jay Sorensen, a former Midwest Air Group Inc. marketing director who now runs IdeaWorks, a Shorewood, Wisconsin-based aviation consulting firm.

AMR's American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and US Airways Group are the other participating carriers besides UAL's United and Delta, the second- and third-largest U.S. airlines, respectively. The other airlines will follow Delta in using the service, and each will have a small equity stake in Omaha, Nebraska-based Sojern.

Source: http://www.iht.com