News

Five new airline safety videos with a creative twist

25 Apr 2018 by Craig Bright

Air New Zealand

There are two things in the world of aviation you can be certain will happen every six months – carriers will switch between the summer and winter seasonal schedules, and Air New Zealand will release yet another new, off-beat safety video.

New Zealand’s national carrier has created countless fun and humorous safety videos over the years, from Hollywood-inspired action flicks to road trips exploring the country’s major attractions.

But with its most recent video, the airline has taken a different approach, choosing instead to focus on the importance of conservation by highlight the incredible landscape of Antarctica. Featuring actor and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador, Adrian Grenier (Entourage, The Devil Wears Prada) as well as scientists from Scott Base, the video builds on the airline’s existing partnership with Antarctica New Zealand and the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute.

Qantas

The key to a creative airline safety video is to give viewers something exciting to watch while also learning how the aircraft’s safety procedures work, and what better way to do that than to use exciting, analogous real-life activities to demonstrate essential safety features?

That’s precisely what Qantas did for its latest video, which began screening across its international and domestic flights this month. The video uses out-of-breath hikers in the high altitudes of the Chilean Andes to demonstrate how the plane’s oxygen mask systems work, along with traditional tai chi practitioners along The Bund in Shanghai showing the correct brace pose to take during an emergency.

Overall, the video goes across Qantas’s network to locations including New York, Santiago, Auckland, Queenstown, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, Brighton, Kruger National Park near Johannesburg, Singapore and Perth.

EVA Air

Taiwanese carrier EVA Air launched arguably the most artistically abstract airline safety video at the beginning of 2018, featuring real life dancers performing choreographed sequences alongside 3D projections and motion-capture technology.

Directed by Taiwanese director Robin Lee, the video was choreographed by Bulareyaung Pagarlava, a member of the island’s indigenous Paiwan community, combined with projections on the walls to create a perspective-altering performance.

While the precise safety protocols that the video demonstrates are not always immediately clear from the performance, the background music and visually impressive sequences certainly make for interesting viewing – a definite positive when it comes to directing viewer attention towards oft-ignored safety videos.

Singapore Airlines

Before Qantas unveiled its video featuring people demonstrating in-flight safety procedures using real-life equivalents, Singapore Airlines was doing something similar using local attractions in the carrier’s home city.

These include The Intan Peranakan Home Museum, where seats and overhead lockers are represented using antique furniture and cupboards, and graffiti hotspot Haji Lane, where the in-flight oxygen masks take the place of regular face masks for use when spray painting.

Travellers who have flown with the airline since the end of 2017 will undoubtedly have seen the video, but for those who haven’t here it is.

United

As in-flight safety videos have got ever more creative, airlines have discovered a new way to not only demonstrate the essential aircraft safety protocols but also to showcase their home cities and networks.

Chicago-headquartered United Airlines notably chose the latter for its latest safety video, which sees airline staff discussing and demonstrating safety procedures against a backdrop of travel and celebration in numerous locations to which the airline flies.

Among the cities and festivities in the video are the world-renowned Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Oktoberfest in Munich and the Holi Festival in Delhi.

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