Let me start by saying I love Air New Zealand!  I am so proud that as a small nation we have a world class international airline.  A company that is smart, professional and isn’t afraid to show a bit of humour, is the one I will pick for my hard earned dollar.

Lets start with the topic of this blog – the sick bags.  Most airlines have the traditional waxed paper sick bags in the seat pockets – goodness knows I’ve seen the inside of more than my fair share of them (puts hand up for the worst motion sickness ever!).  Air New Zealand have taken the sick bag to a new level.  On more than one occasion, have I been tempted to take one – just to pop my work lunch in…

Over the years, Air New Zealand has lead the way in the humourous airline safety speils.  Some good, some great.

The recent Lord of the Rings themed “An Unexpected Briefing” has seen a whopping 11m views on Youtube.  For an airline safety video?  Thats certainly getting some air miles!

I also particularly enjoyed the nude body paint “Bare Essentials of Safety” video.  I’m pretty sure that a large percentage of people, would watch this safety briefing completely oblivious that the entire airline crew were nude.

There have been others, Bear Grylls and the spectacular New Zealand scenery, the All Blacks (Rugby) one, the Richard Simmons exercise video one, the list goes on.  They are always entertaining and for frequent Air New Zealand customers, its always fun to spot the repeat appearances by the same crew members in the different videos.

Other airlines also seem to be getting onto this bandwagon.  Virgin American have just recently done a safety video featuring dancing and just today Delta have also just loaded their new 80’s In-Flight Safety video onto Youtube – Alf from Melmac, Atari’s and the oh so big hair!

Personally I’m all for a bit of humour in these safety videos, with people travelling more than ever, its the same thing all the time, does anyone actually still pay attention?  Anything to get people to actually watch and listen has to be a good thing.

I look forward to what Air New Zealand come up with next!