NZ airline to offer bald facts on new services

New Zealand's national airline is planning to give the bald facts on plans to speed up check-in queues for passengers - literally.

Air New Zealand said yesterday it is looking for 50 people willing to be "cranial billboards" with a message temporarily tatooed on their shaved heads for two weeks advertising new speedy check-in services.

The airline said it will pay €473,000 per head, making it easy money for bald-headed frequent fliers. "How better to tell our customers that Air New Zealand is going to do something about (long check-in queues) ... than through messaging they can read while they're standing in a queue themselves?" the airline's marketing manager Steve Bayliss said in a statement.

Air New Zealand is an international and domestic airline group which provides services within New Zealand, as well as to and from Australia, the South West Pacific, Asia, North America and the UK. Air New Zealand encompasses business units providing engineering and ground handling services. Subsidiaries extend to booking systems, travel wholesaling and retailing services.