Humor is a relatively new phenomenon in the aviation industry for marketing purposes.The purpose of the study is to explore how humor-based airline marketingcommunication campaigns affect Gen-Z consumers’ perceptions of brand warmth andbrand competence, and their behavior on willingness to buy, price sensitivity, ease ofremembering, sharing intent and recommendation intent The study is supported by thetheory of brand identity and brand image related to the concept of brand warmth andbrand competence proposed by the Stereotype Content Model. A quantitativeexperimental methodology was conducted. A between-subjects design was used in theexperiment, where participants were randomly assigned to answer questions on eitherhumorous or non-humorous airline marketing ads, combined with cheap or expensiveprice framing. The findings of the study indicate that humor significantly increasesperceived brand warmth, willingness to buy, ease of remembering, and sharing intent,but decreases perceived brand competence and expected quality. Price framing is able tomoderate these effects; high price framing has a positive moderation effect on perceivedbrand competence. Brand warmth has more correlations with key indicators such aswillingness to buy and recommendation intention, showing how relevant the shift frombrand competence to brand warmth is even in professional industries like aviation. Dueto the similarity of airline services and safety regulations across Europe, brand warmthplays a more crucial role for differentiation in marketing among airlines, where similarservices are provided. The findings also suggested that there is a visible trend of humordecreasing price sensitivity, but not significantly, and it still requires further research.Organizations are able to use these findings to design more effective marketingcommunication strategies by using humor carefully to boost emotional engagementthrough perceived brand warmth, especially when targeting younger consumers.However, managers must use a well-balanced humor with professional brandingelements to avoid damaging the expected service quality and competence too much.