Rebrand for growth: Pionair private aviation

: Pionair aviation | Rebrand

: Pionair Australia Convair CV580 VH-PDV with it’s fresh new fluid livery and the red carpet out on the tarmac at the Osborne mine airfield, QLD, Australia, February 2007.

‘Pionair aviation’ is the first of two case studies about my six year professional involvement with Pionair. The images in the Portfolio are from a Brand Identity Design Case Study PDF.

Commencing late 2004, my role as in-house creative designer at Pionair was to serve the marketing communications needs of all Pionair’s travel and aviation business groups, in print and on the web, on both sides of the Tasman—and also the two recently established marketing departments at Wigram airfield and Sydney Bankstown airport.

Pionair overview

Pionair took off in 1991, its name paid homage to the glamour days of European air travel—‘Pionair Class’ was considered to be the way to fly across Europe. Pionair began service in New Zealand adopting that same early spirit of adventure travel, when getting there was both extraordinary and fun, over the next decade it rose to became a leader in both private air charter and customised tour development in the South Pacific region.

The private airline began in Queenstown, with one meticulously restored DC3 airliner, air touring New Zealand and Australia. Pionair offered a premium yet relaxed personal service, showing each guest the very best that downunder destinations have to offer.

After about ten years of air touring, Pionair Australia was formed in 2004 with an operational base at Sydney Bankstown airport to offer scheduled short flights, plus day trips and other products based on the selling of individual seats, like weekend getaways to the Hunter Valley and Mudgee wine regions. Pionair Air Charter’s focus was on renting individual private aircraft and travel itineraries, urgent and contracted air cargo, disaster relief and many other forms of ad hoc air transportation. Pionair Air Charter owned Convair turbo props, but offered a range of aircraft from business jets to helicopters, mid-size jets and airliners.

Pionair was a trans-tasman firm that was simultaneously an airline that specialised in private air charter, and was also a ‘best in class’ regional tour operator, serving the affluent travel niche. The travel or tours departments specialised in the design and execution of all-in guided tours (or ‘escorted tours’ being the preferred nomenclature in affluent travel circles) for groups of 30 or more and practically all-in tours for the ‘Free Inboard Travel’ (FIT) market, largely couples and small family groups. The FIT business group I named ‘Unparalleled Journeys’, their fine-grained bespoke itineraries were not escorted, but brilliantly scripted and staged by the customer’s individual Pionair travel ‘concierge’ who personally designed their itinerary for them, greeted them on arrival and was on call for assistance 24/7 throughout their Unparalleled Journey. Aside from generally staying at the most up-scale private lodges, affluent travel is characterised by harking back to the glamour days of European air travel—‘Pionair Class’—the elite experience of the customer never having to handle their luggage during their journey is part of the early spirit of adventure travel carried forward into the 21st century by Pionair.

Winning the Pionair account

Pionair’s home and the location of my in-house “Propellor Studio” Wigram Airforce Tower, after the Deco themed repaint of the building which that I designed for the Ngai Tahu Properties building manager.

While working as creative director at tattoo in 2002, which was at that stage a 2-person operation, I was involved in winning the Pionair account and worked on it right up until the time I accepted the role as in-house creative at Pionair, based in the Airforce tower at Wigram airfield, at the end of 2004. Wigram airfield remained operational up until around the end of 2006, after which the airline’s operational base moved to the regional terminal at Christchurch International Airport.

Fluid Pionair Livery

As part of the Pionair rebrand in 2006 I designed a new “fluid” themed livery, logo and corporate identity system for the trans-Tasman firm. This full aircraft refurbishment and livery project was a first in the history of the company, a first for me, and a tremendous career highpoint. If you think rebranding is a good strategy for your firm email me here.

MORE REBRANDING PROJECTS