Ads add up for airlines, but some fliers say it's too much

— -- For a cool $14 million, you can advertise for a year on the exterior of every Spirit Airlines jet.

If that's too steep, consider plunking down $196,000 for three months of ads on the overhead bins in Spirit's planes, $119,000 for ads on the tray tables or $18,500 for ads on air-sickness bags.

Spirit, along with Europe's leading cut-rate airline Ryanair, are unashamed industry leaders at generating ancillary revenue by seemingly renting every inch of in-flight display space to advertisers.

But they're just leading the way. A growing number of U.S. airlines — perhaps emboldened by billions of dollars of extra revenue collected annually for bag fees — are reaching out to advertisers, too.

Ads are appearing not only on overhead bins, seat backs and tray tables but on flight attendants' aprons, snack boxes and napkins.

And in announcements by flight crews and even in safety videos.

That's sacrilege to some fliers who view a plane — and a few hours alone in the air without a cellphone or other interruption — as a respite from life on the ground, the office, home or even the airport. To and from the boarding gate, travelers face ads in taxis, at ticket kiosks, on airport walls, billboards and digital screens, in jetways and on baggage carousels.

"I get aggravated by advertising during the flight," says Memphis-based frequent flier Trey Block, the chief financial officer of a chemical distribution company. "Anywhere inside a cabin is inappropriate."

Block and frequent business traveler Michael Sommer, of Jacksonville, say they were annoyed by a Lincoln automobile commercial that was shown before Delta Air Lines' pre-flight safety video.

"Safety should be the primary concern, and if it's Delta's priority, then why distract someone's attention from the video screen?" says Sommer, who works as a consultant. "As soon as I see the advertisement, I look away and go back to what I was doing."

This month, Delta added a welcome by CEO Richard Anderson and began running the Lincoln commercial after the safety demonstration. That doesn't appease Sommer.

"I pay for a ticket to get from point A to point B safely," he says. "If they want to bombard me with advertising, then give me a discount."

A discount isn't likely. Nobody has exact figures on how much airlines make selling advertising. Airlines don't divulge it. But the revenue is large enough that no marketing expert foresees a rollback.

Airlines realize airfares cannot be the sole source of revenue and are constantly looking for new sources, says Michael Houston, an associate dean at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

"If they can attract more advertising revenue, they will be in a better position to keep airfares from going up too rapidly," he says.

Backlash at ads?

Some marketing experts warn that the airlines may be going too far.

Marketing consultant Bruce Silverman, a former creative director at three of the largest ad agencies, says many frequent fliers "regard their in-flight experience as their private time, when they can hold normal intrusions of the outside world at bay."

The growth of in-flight advertising "is repellent to these passengers" — an "insult" to paying customers, he says.

"There is already too much advertising clutter in the world," Silverman says. "I truly believe advertisers who choose to intrude on airline passengers are likely to lose — not gain — customers."