sterlingnews
say hello to our new ceo!
Welcoming Reza Taleghani
New Sterling CEO,
Reza
Taleghani:
“Honoured to be
given the opportunity
to lead
this great
company and to
work
with such
a dedicated team”
Reza Taleghani, who was appointed President and CEO of Sterling Airlines in February. Reza recently moved to Copenhagen with his family to join Sterling, having spent the last 10 years with JPMorgan in New York and London where he focused on the airline industry.
Reza takes over from Almar Örn Hilmarsson who led the successful merger of Maersk Air into Sterling over the past two and a half years.
The start of Reza’s tenure is marked by the unveiling of a fresh new Sterling logo and brand image (story below). To celebrate our new CEO’s arrival and to unveil the new branding in style, our staff and press gathered for a reception on 28 March at the airy Wilhelm Lauritzen Terminal in Copenhagen Airport, designed by the famous Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen and in use from 1939 until 1960.
Speaking at the press conference, Reza said he would be taking Sterling to the next level with a “simple and focused strategy” while continuing to deliver reliability, flexibility and a fair price.
Reza also pointed out that in his previous life as an international banker he had flown enough miles as a passenger to have a good sense of what customers are looking for.
Find out more about Reza’s plans for taking Sterling to new heights by turning to his Welcome letter, on page 5 of this magazine. And if you see Reza on your flight, feel free to say ‘hej’ and let him know your thoughts on flying Sterling! He’s always interested to hear your views and feedback.
reliability, flexibility, fair price… and a new look
Our new logo on
a 737 tailwing
Perhaps you’ve noticed something different about Sterling’s check-in desks, our planes, our website…? It’s hard to miss. We’ve got a new logo and a sleek new brand image.
On 28 March we changed our logo and design. This transition marks our status as a strong and energetic airline, which offers reliability, flexibility and fair price.
If you live in Denmark, Sweden or Norway, you’ll probably have seen the ads and TV commercials too, which show off our new profile and slogan: We would fly with us. The new look and ad campaign was created by advertising agency Fiton, working together with the marketing team at Sterling.
Kristjan Sigurjonsson, Managing Director at Fiton Denmark, explains how the creative team came up with the look: “We wanted to build on the core values of Sterling, which has long been known for a fair price and good service. So we looked back to the old logo and we had this nice old picture of an old Sterling plane from the 1970s (below right).
“We started playing with that but we wanted to give it a fresh twist, and add a sense of speed as well as flexibility. That’s why the ‘s’ is leaning forward and is bendy and flexible looking, while the metallic look gives a modern, more steely feel. And we kept the red for passion and energy.”
bardi’s song for sterling
Sterling’s latest
TV advertIf you were in Denmark, Norway or Sweden this April you may have heard the song featured in Sterling’s latest TV ad campaign. Icelandic pop star Bardi Johannsson is behind the breezy new song, titled Let a Little Sunshine into your Heart.
Bardi started his career making surfer music with his band Bang Gang. Although the star has since left his surfer past behind him, he still releases his haunting solo records under that name. He is also involved in a number of side projects such as 2003’s Lady and Bird album, the phenomenal collaboration with rising Paris-based singer-songwriter Keren Ann. In addition to singing, multi-talented Bardi also works as a fashion designer, producer, film director and composer.
Kristjan Sigurjonsson of Fiton ad agency, in charge of Sterling’s rebrand, said: “We approached Bardi because he’s done some commercial work for Citroën and other brands. He picked out one of his new songs that he thought would suit us… It was perfect for Sterling. It had that summery feel we were looking for.” If you like the song, watch out for Bardi’s upcoming album (yet to be titled), which will be released later this summer.
q+a with bardi
Is working on ads different from making a record?
What I like about doing music for commercials is that it has a beginning and an end within a month. When you do a record it takes many years to write it and tour with it.
Icelandic pop star
Bardi Johannsson
wrote the songCan you tell us about Let a Little Sunshine into your Heart…
The song is from a side project I’m doing with an Irish guy called Craig Walker. He was in a band called Archive, which is based in the UK. He was a singer on two of their records. I always liked his voice so I called him and said I wanted to work together. We ended up doing 11 songs.
How did you rework the song for Sterling?
I changed the lyrics a little bit and redid the voices. It just worked perfectly.
Describe your sound in general?
I can make a really commercial pop song for an ad when I would not put it on my record. My first album Bang Gang was described before by people as a mixture of soundtrack music and The Beach Boys. People even compared me to the Smashing Pumpkins, which I didn’t see anything in common with. I was also compared to people I don’t like, like Nick Drake. My last record was a bit difficult to categorise. Now I think I’m just indie/pop/rock. “
Let a Little Sunshine is more cheery than your usually sombre music, isn’t it? Me and Craig accidentally made three happy songs. I like to do that once in a while.
CHLOE MARKOWICZ
www.bardijohannsson.com
love connections
Did you know…?
Sterling Airlines, the largest low-cost carrier in Scandinavia, is offering a brand new service to its customers: SterlingConnect. SterlingConnect offers customers the option to purchase a ticket for flights connecting through Copenhagen, on the same booking. The service is now available on flights from Aalborg in Denmark and Gothenburg in Sweden to Nice, Barcelona, Budapest, Faro and Milan via Copenhagen in Denmark. More SterlingConnect routes are expected to follow.
How does it work?
Customers who buy flights that connect through Copenhagen airport (CPH) get one boarding pass valid for their entire trip when they check in at their departure airport. On arrival at CPH airport they are able to go straight to the departure gate to board their connecting flight.
How long do I need to allow to make my connection?
To avoid misconnections, Sterling only sells SterlingConnect with a minimum connecting time in CPH of 90 minutes.
What about my luggage?
Bags checked in for your first flight will go directly to your final destination.
How do I book a ‘SterlingConnect’ flight?
Just go to our website www.sterling.com and book your flight as usual. You’ll find you can book both legs of your journey via Copenhagen on just one ticket. For example, you can now choose a single roundtrip ticket from ‘Barcelona’ to ‘Aalborg’, even though the routes connect in Copenhagen.
We hope you’ll enjoy using this new service – happy travelling!
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