Antipodean - A Low-Cost Carrier that's Cheap and Actually Cheerful.

Here's the first instalment of our MFDC Blueprints series. A series which will see us sharpen our pencils and pixels to draft up well-designed fixes to modern-day quandries.

The first issue we're tackling is how do we bring back humanity into air travel without losing its affordability.

With that we introduce Antipodean, a long-haul, low-cost carrier that would be headquartered out of Sydney.

It would cater to the gap in the market created by expensive and primarily business-focused flagship carriers and the cheap, but often cheerless low-cost carriers that have a poor reputation for customer service.

The Antipodean business model would largely mirror the current low-cost model but with a stronger emphasis on design, experience and customer service.

Elevating the quality of service yet retaining the value of the offer would be achieved by following these few key guides:

• Airline paint more or less costs the same whether it's canary yellow or a navy. We'd instantly pitch Antipodean above its low-cost competitors by shunning a gaudy colour scheme for a more premium deep blue indigo.
• We'd work with a smart yet affordable uniform partner such as Uniqlo to provide our front-line staff with well-crafted kit that doesn't blow the budget. A sharp off-the-rack base would be dressed up with bespoke knitted blue ties for male staff and blue, patterned silk scarves for women.
• Antipodean will invest in their staff and include hospitality training in a regular working roster. This will help ensure a great welcome at check-in and at the gate and attentive and friendly service on-board.
• The Antipodean network would focus on the key tourist hot-spots in the Asia-Pacific and would also key up with some important long-haul business hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and London.
• On short-haul flights, Antipodean would adopt a one-class only approach but would trade off a business cabin for the most generous seat pitch available in international economy.
• The food and beverage offering would focus on simple yet strong flavours and meals that are well-suited to in-flight cooking. The menu would reflect the Australian brunch ethos of elevating simply cooked food with fresh produce and shun the traditional white-tablecloth approach preferred by many premium characters.
• Antipodean aircraft will be the only commercial planes in the sky equipped with espresso machines to pump out silky flat whites in-flight.
• Our in-flight mag would adopt the persona of a full-service news monthly with a strong style and travel component. It would resemble: The Monthly up front with a news run-down and a series of long-reads; elements of Esquire, Vogue, Vanity Fair and Vogue Living in the third quarter and Australian Gourmet Traveller in back. The magazine would put 220 pages of well-crafted editorial in seat-pockets every month and it's quality would also demand $8 on regular newsstands. 
• In addition to providing a better experience and quality of service across the board, Antipodean would also revive the sense of the golden age of air travel with retro-inspired ephemera and an elegant series of destination posters.

Our aim for Antipodean would be to create a model that would increase the competition for quality across the sector with a hope that that would put a stop to the largely spreadsheet-driven approach to how customers are treated in this segment of the market.