In January, SkyMall LLC and its parent company, Xhibit Corp., filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with some $50 million in liabilities. The company’s assets were set to go up for auction in late March. The news led to a strong show of support for the in-flight catalog.
On Friday, a company called C&A Marketing bought SkyMall, with a winning bid of $1.9 million. The company’s leadership already is hinting that they’ll bring back the SkyMall catalog. NPR spoke with Chiam Pikarski, executive vice president of C&A, for details about the catalog’s return.
But are they merely teasing us?
There have been a few articles saying that you might bring back SkyMall. Is that to be believed?
Everybody’s saying “bring back my SkyMall!” — sort of an outcry. And it’s something that we will definitely take a very close look at. We would start by reengaging our conversations with the airlines, get their understanding of what it is they liked in the SkyMall catalog, what did work for them. Then we can align that with what didn’t work for SkyMall, and see if there is an opportunity to bring it back in one form or another. To bring back something in print, and physically to the airlines … there will be some kind of catalog in one format or the other, whether it’s in the airline seat, whether it’s exclusive for regular customers in the mail, or some combination of that.
I’m the reason for SkyMall’s failure. During a quarter century of flying to gigs I used it for my reading entertainment, and to entertain my daughter when she’s traveling with me, but I never once purchased anything.
If it returns, I promise to become a customer. Until then, here are some weird products by which to remember the beloved catalog.
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