Korean Air and Absolut hail A380 Celestial bar collaboration : Moodie Davitt Report

The Korean Air new A380 features two Celestial Bars in Business Class plus one in First Class

SOUTH KOREA. Korean Air, the world’s number one inflight duty free retailer, and leading vodka brand Absolut have hailed the partnership that resulted in the creation of the Celestial Bar, launched onboard Korean Air’s new A380 aircraft.

As reported, the onboard bar was revealed to delegates at the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition in Singapore in May, with the first flight featuring the new-look designs taking place on 17 June.

“This is a great endeavour, very much in line with our evolution as a competitive airline in the Far East market and globally,” said Heather Cho, Senior Vice President of Korean Air Catering & In-flight Sales Business Division.

“We’re extremely pleased to have Absolut as our partner in this venture. I myself have long been a fan of Absolut. It’s a brand that represents all the cutting-edge values of quality, exclusivity, creativity and innovation that are also core to Korean Air. It is a partnership made in heaven.”

Korean Air has ordered ten A380 aircraft, with the first five to be delivered by the end of 2011 and an additional five by 2014.

“With the Celestial Bars, we want to bring some of the classic jet set glamour back, updated for an all-new generation of aircraft and style of travel,” said Anders Olsson, Director of The Absolut Company Global Travel Retail.

The Moodie Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie checks in onboard Korean Air’s new A-380

In addition to the onboard Celestial Bars (two in Business Class, one in First Class), the new Airbus A380s (the largest commercial aircraft in the history of aviation) also feature a complete onboard Duty Free Showcase, with a selection of high-end and exclusive products.

The ground-breaking venture between airline and brand owner was launched on Korean Air’s A380s last month

In a statement, Absolut said: “It’s a unique collaboration project that started back in 2005. The project has been greatly improved, enhanced and expanded in the meantime. Both the design of the bar and the whole project have been further developed and refined.”

Olsson continued: “Designing for an aircraft was a new world to us, though we have extensive experience in building bars in all imaginable kinds of environments. The merging of design, extreme high-tech and extreme security issues was exciting and most challenging. In aviation, every detail is crucial, in the true meaning of that word.

“Adding another five centimetres to the bar? Forget about it. Want to put a refrigerator here? Well, where do you want to get the electricity? What do you want to sacrifice – the toilet or the microwave?

“Everything is stripped down to the barest essentials to meet security and spatial demands. These extreme demands put pressure on us to purify our design, which elevates quality.”

The Absolut branding in the Celestial Bars is said to be “discrete, minimal and toned down and there are no visible logotypes in the bars.

The Absolut brand is subtly communicated in an exclusively designed pattern inspired by traditional Korean woodcarvings, decorated with the bottle shape. This pattern is used in the bar wallpaper, as well as on drink coasters. There are also a variety of drink folders and cards with exclusively created drinks, offering guests ideas on how to mix their own (one of the onboard bars is serviced by a bartender/mixologist, while the other two are self-service).

“This venture has also been exciting and challenging from a branding perspective,” said Olsson. “It’s proof of our brand’s power and our design concept that we can strip away almost everything, including our logotype, and still communicate our brand in a very clear, sophisticated and effective manner.”

As reported, three different Absolut drink concepts will be available onboard: Elyx – drinks mixed with the new super-premium vodka from Absolut launched in the global duty-free/travel retail market in July; Just Add drinks – a simple two-ingredient drink concept with various Absolut flavours mixed; plus Absolut Drink Lab drinks – a variety of drinks created by master mixologist André Basile Leon.

“Yet another exciting quality in this project is that it provides a fantastic opportunity to inspire a very advanced and trendsetting audience with an innovative new generation of drinks and cocktails,” Olsson concluded. “We’re utterly thrilled with this entire venture and most proud of our partnership with Korean Air. As travelling is our business, a project like this is a dream come true.”