An empirical investigation into the changing visual identity of full service and low cost carriers, 2000 vs. 2012

Purpose: This paper reports on the findings of an analysis of the visual branding of over 630 airline tail fins as they appeared in 2000 and 2012. Design/methodology: Unlike existing studies of airlines’ visual identities that rely on a snap shot in time and examine all airlines, this paper focuses on changes that have occurred in the visual branding of full-service carriers (FSCs) and low cost carriers (LCCs) between 2000 and 2012 using a semiotic content analysis. Findings: The results confirm that there have been significant changes in the visual content of FSC and LCC tail fins and the way in which these airlines portray non-price competitive characteristics. The research shows that while an increasing number of LCCs now use aircraft tail fins to display their corporate name, FSCs are increasingly employing icons of nationhood. This suggests that while LCCs are trying to appeal to a wide passenger demographic who value low fares over service, FSCs are responding to the competitive threat by explicitly drawing on the cultural rhetoric of symbols of sovereign national identity to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market. Originality/value: This paper builds on previous analyses of this type focusing on temporal comparisons and suggesting differing strategies adopted by LCCs and FSCs.Peer Reviewe

Promoting passenger comfort and wellbeing in the air: an examination of the in-flight health advice provided by international airlines

Following recent, well-publicised, cases of airline passengers developing deep vein thromboses (DVT) and contracting infectious diseases during flights, airlines’ provision of in-flight customer health advice has come under increased scrutiny. By means of a manifest content analysis of the information that is provided in 50 international airlines’ in-flight magazines, this paper examines the nature and presentation of the health advice that is supplied and comments on the different approaches individual airlines adopt

Scales of governance: the role of surveillance in facilitating new diplomacy during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic

The 2009–2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic has highlighted the importance of global health surveillance. Increasingly, global alerts are based on 'unexpected’ 'events’ detected by surveillance systems grounded in particular places. An emerging global governance literature investigates the supposedly disruptive impact of public health emergencies on mobilities in an interdependent world. Little consideration has been given to the varied scales of governance – local, national and global – that operate at different stages in the unfolding of an 'event', together with the interactions and tensions between them. By tracking the chronology of the H1N1 pandemic, this paper highlights an emergent dialogue between local and global scales. It also draws attention to moments of national autonomy across the global North and South which undermined the WHO drive for transnational cooperation

Safeguarding public health at UK airports: an examination of current health security practices

In response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak and the role of air travel in facilitating the virus’s rapid spread around the world, this paper contributes to debates concerning the governance of commercial aviation and infectious disease by examining the role of the Port Health Regulations and associated health security practices that are enacted at UK airports. Drawing on extensive action research and in-depth interviews that were conducted with key stakeholders in the aviation and health care sectors (including airport managers, ‘front line’ customer-facing airline staff, and public health clinicians) during the spring and early summer of 2009, we chart the development of sanitary regulations at UK airports and explore the challenges of performing health security screening at individual sites. In so doing, we identify a number of challenges that are associated with safeguarding public health against the dissemination of infectious diseases by air travel through UK airports. We also suggest that policy transfer may represent an effective mechanism through which best practice procedures from airports overseas could be adapted and incorporated in the UK

Surveillance networks and spaces of governance: technological openness and international cooperation during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic

The ongoing 2009-10 H1N1 pandemic has highlighted the importance of global health surveillance. It has, in the words of WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, offered the opportunity to ‘watch a pandemic unfold […] in real time’. Moreover, it has allowed the international community to more fully prepare for major infectious disease outbreaks. Whilst there is an expanding literature on biosecurity and preparedness, we argue that little consideration has been given to the impact of increased reliance on event-based surveillance on global public health governance. Using Margaret Chan’s 2007 call for a ‘new’ international health diplomacy, we assess the importance of global surveillance networks (such as the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) and HealthMap) in informing national and transnational practices in relation to the risks posed by emerging infectious diseases. Our analysis is supported by empirical data supplied by GPHIN and by reference to national pandemic influenza preparedness plans. In conclusion, we argue that, by increasing availability of local reporting of disease outbreaks, these networks act as a powerful prompt in initiating global pandemic preparedness and, by extension, international cooperation. Yet, the ongoing H1N1 pandemic demonstrates their fragility as practices of preparedness vary between states across the global north and south

Taking care in the air: jet air travel and passenger health, a study of British Overseas Airways Corporation (1940-1974)

This paper explores an aspect of medical history that has been overlooked in existing academic studies of commercial air travel, and advances a new historiography of airline passenger health and commercial aviation medicine. The introduction of jet-powered passenger aircraft by British Overseas Airways Corporation (B.O.A.C.) in 1952 presented a new set of epidemiological, chronobiological, and physiological passenger health concerns. These resulted from the increased size, speed, range, and cruising altitude of commercial jet aircraft. Drawing on extensive archival research, this paper explores the nature of these ‘new’ aeromedical challenges. It places them within the context of much earlier concerns about healthy travel, including military interest in the influence of flight on the human body. Focusing on B.O.A.C., the paper examines the ways in which one major airline responded to the passenger health challenges jet air travel posed, and assesses the extent to which B.O.A.C.’s responses transformed practices of aviation medicine

Pandemic governance: using event-based surveillance to manage emerging infectious diseases

In this chapter...we focus on the operation of event-based surveillance systems in relation to the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic, identifying in the process their implications for the wider political economy. Utilising Margaret Chan’s call for ‘new’ international health diplomacy, we consider how disease risk is represented in the international community and we seek to uncover the locations captured by complex information networks, mediating in the space between preparedness and response. Specifically, we investigate: the spatialities of public health surveillance; the complex nature of pandemic preparedness and response; and the diverse biosecurity practices that underpin global public health governance. Through a case example, we draw attention to three ways in which the use of event-based surveillance systems advance understandings of global public health governance

Model of health? Distributed preparedness and multi-agency interventions surrounding UK regional airports

The liberalisation of the European aviation sector has multiplied paths of entry into the United Kingdom (UK) for the international traveller. These changing mobilities necessitate a reconceptualisation of the border as a series of potentially vulnerable nodes occurring within, and extending beyond, national boundaries. In this paper, we consider the border through the lens of port health, the collective term for various sanitary operations enacted at international transport terminals. In the UK, a critical player in the oversight of port health is the Health Protection Agency (HPA), which became a non-Departmental public body in 2005. A major part of port health is preparedness, a set of techniques aimed at managing, and responding to, emergencies of public health concern. More recently, certain jurisdictions have embarked on public health preparedness work across a number of different geographical scales. Using methods pioneered by the military, this form of ‘distributed preparedness’ is of increased interest to social science and medical scholars. With reference to case studies conducted in localities surrounding two UK regional airports following the 2009-10 H1N1 influenza pandemic, we consider the extent to which distributed preparedness as a concept and a set of practices can inform current debates - in the UK, and beyond - concerning interventions at the border ‘within’

Safeguarding public health at UK airports: an examination of current health security practices

In response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak and the role of air travel in facilitating the virus’s rapid spread around the world, this paper contributes to debates concerning the governance of infectious disease by examining the role of the Port Health Regulations and associated health security practices that are enacted at UK airports. While airports have been at the forefront of measures to prevent the importation of ‘foreign’ infectious diseases since the early 1930s, the present scale of international aeromobility combined with heightened awareness of the role air travel plays in the global spread of human pathogens, the epidemiological obsolescence of many early aeronautical sanitary regulations, and a dearth of academic studies on health security at airports, provide compelling reasons to examine the development, content, and implications of the existing Port Health Regulations and associated health security practices that are performed at UK airports. Drawing on extensive archival research and fieldwork interviews with key stakeholders in the aviation and health care sectors (including airport managers, ‘front line’ customer-facing airline personnel, and medical practitioners), we chart the development of sanitary regulations at UK airports and explore the current practices of health security that are performed at individual sites. We then identify the main challenges involved in safeguarding global public health against the dissemination of ‘foreign’ infectious diseases by air through UK airports and conclude by offering recommendations for improved practice