Spirit – the ‘Dollar General’ of Airlines

Very interesting story on NPR. The story covers Spirit Airlines – the worst airline, as rated airlines by fliers. The article talk about how ‘hate fliers’ are common on Spirit – people who hate Spirit Airlines and its aggressive fees, but fly it anyways, because of its low prices. The most interesting part of the story to me however, was an interview with Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit. He called Spirit Airlines the ‘Dollar General’ of Airlines. He said that some airlines are like Nordstorm, JetBlue is like Target, but Spirit is ‘Dollar General’!

Mapping Airlines to Store Chains

That got me thinking – which airlines are like which store. Here is what I came up with. What do you think?

• Singapore Airlines: Saks Fifth Avenue
• Emirates: Harrods (of London)
• Qatar: Neiman Marcus
• United Airlines: JC Penney
• American Airlines: Sears
• US Airways: KMart (Owned by Sears, of course)
• Virgin America: Apple Store
• Asiana: Lotte
• Air India: Food Court in the Mall
• SpiceJet: Big Bazaar (Indians will get this one…)
• Southwest: Starbucks

Leave your Airline to Store mapping below.