1 Introduction
2 New communication and sales channels of airlines
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Bi-directional social media are those enabling mutual communication between airlines, customers and the public. Standard examples include Facebook and Twitter. These social media allow all users to add content and all users to reply. Airlines can inform the public about important news and other users can share this news and comment on it. All users can ask questions and airlines as well as other users can provide answers.
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Airline-to-public social media (A2P) are those used for one-way communication from airline to the public. Customers and general public can not leave any feedback (which makes them similar to traditional media), but can share, re-post or e-mail airline’s posts, thus increasing their reach. Airline-to-public social media include blogs, YouTube and other related platforms. Under certain circumstances Facebook can be considered an A2P media as well. If page administrator disallows users’ comments any bi-directional medium becomes an A2P platform.
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Public-to-public social media (P2P) are similar to A2P, but instead of an airline, the page is administered by a different user. The administrator can post airline-related content; however, the airline is not able to respond directly to the content. Typical P2P social media are blogs, virtual communities, airline rating web sites and media sharing platforms. These media have a significant impact on airlines’ image and it is therefore of utmost importance for airlines to monitor them. If a potentially viral negative communication is identified, PR department of an airline should take necessary steps to avoid image damages. Possible strategies include contacting author of the communication to try to settle the issue or using A2P media to contest the claim.
3 Methodology
Characteristic | Categories (number of airlines) | Source |
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Geographic region | Africa (12) Asia and the Pacific (66) Commonwealth of Independent States (18) Europe (67) Latin America and the Caribbean (19) Middle East (16) North America (34) | United Nations, expanded |
Income group (GNI using the Atlas method) | High income – \$12,476 or more (135) Upper middle income – \$4,036 - \$12,475 (67) Lower middle income – \$1026 - \$4,035 (28) Low income – \$1,025 or less (2) | World Development Indicators 2012 |
Business model | Full-service (122) Low-cost (52) Regional (45) Charter (13) | Airline websites |
Airline size | Very large – more than 30 million passengers (19) Large – 10 to 30 million passengers (45) Medium – 3 to 10 million passengers (87) Small – less than 3 million passengers (81) | ATW World Airline Report 2011 |
Ownership | Private (171) Government or local (61) | Airline websites |
Airline quality rating | 5 stars (6) 4 stars (27) 3 stars (98) 2 stars (12) 1 star (0) No rating (89) | Skytrax 2012 |
Internet penetration | High internet penetration – 75 % or more (92) Medium internet penetration – 50 % to 74 % (49) Low internet penetration – 49 % or less (91) | World Development Indicators 2012 |
4 Results
Business model | % airlines | N |
---|---|---|
Full service airlines | 75.4 % | 122 |
Low cost airlines | 86.5 % | 52 |
Charter airlines | 76.9 % | 13 |
Regional airlines | 22.2 % | 45 |
Rank | Airline | Likes |
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1. | Southwest Airlines | 3241307 |
2. | KLM | 2160447 |
3. | AirAsia | 1641476 |
4. | Turkish Airlines | 1206963 |
5. | Lufthansa | 1182504 |
6. | Gol Linhas Aereas | 1102549 |
7. | Air France | 1080194 |
8. | ANA - All Nippon Airways | 1030463 |
9. | Jet Airways | 991787 |
10. | Emirates Airline | 967422 |
11. | Azul | 939991 |
12. | Alitalia | 876226 |
13. | Japan Airlines | 722312 |
14. | Cebu Pacific Air | 721366 |
15. | JetBlue Airways | 670790 |
16. | Nas Air | 587208 |
17. | Malaysia Airlines | 566705 |
18. | LAN Peru | 548235 |
19. | British Airways | 519767 |
20. | Philippine Airlines | 469545 |
Rank | Content category | % airlines |
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1. | Website link | 100.0 % |
2. | Updates – posts by airline | 96.2 % |
3. | Basic information about the airline | 89.2 % |
4. | Miscellaneous apps | 78.3 % |
5. | Fans’ comments | 75.2 % |
6. | Answers to fans’ posts | 68.2 % |
7. | Phone contact number | 49.7 % |
8. | Booking application | 34.4 % |
9. | Contests, sweepstakes | 33.1 % |
10. | Games | 12.7 % |
11. | Careers | 11.5 % |
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Fully bi-directional communication – is the strategy of choice of the majority of airlines (71 %). Users add content to the page and airline PR or customer service department staff provide replies. The quality of service differs from airline to airline.
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One-way communication from airline to public – users are not allowed to add content to the page. The page serves strictly as a PR platform to generate publicity for airline. This form of communication has been chosen by 25 % of airlines from the sample of 151 airlines operating a regularly updated FB page, including Emirates, Kenya Airways or Japan Airlines. This strategy effectively changes Facebook from a bi-directional to an airline-to-public social medium.
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Unmonitored bi-directional communication – has been chosen by seven airlines from the sample (4 %), the most prominent being US Airways. Users are allowed to add content to the page, but airline staff do not provide replies. Pages operating under this strategy tend to overflow with negative comments and random visitors are not likely to get a positive impression about airline’s service standards. If airline posts content only rarely, the page effectively changes to a public-to-public social medium.
Categories (N = 175) | N | Likes* | Facebook | Comments | Replies | Booking |
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Geographic region | ||||||
Africa | 12 | 29211 | 75.0 % | 55.6 % | 44.4 % | 22.2 % |
Asia and the Pacific | 47 | 267749 | 76.6 % | 69.4 % | 69.4 % | 25.0 % |
CIS | 16 | 5596 | 68.8 % | 54.5 % | 45.5 % | 36.4 % |
Europe | 54 | 210989 | 88.9 % | 79.2 % | 72.9 % | 45.8 % |
Latin America and the Carib. | 15 | 346270 | 100.0 % | 86.7 % | 73.3 % | 53.3 % |
Middle East | 16 | 230554 | 75.0 % | 75.0 % | 75.0 % | 41.7 % |
North America | 17 | 359958 | 94.1 % | 81.3 % | 75.0 % | 25.0 % |
Income group | ||||||
High income | 97 | 239784 | 88.7 % | 76.7 % | 72.1 % | 38.4 % |
Upper middle income | 50 | 243587 | 80.0 % | 75.0 % | 67.5 % | 37.5 % |
Lower middle income | 26 | 174723 | 76.9 % | 65.0 % | 60.0 % | 30.0 % |
Low income | 2 | 27008 | 50.0 % | 0.0 % | 0.0 % | 0.0 % |
Business model | ||||||
Full service | 111 | 244937 | 82.9 % | 70.7 % | 65.2 % | 43.5 % |
Low cost | 51 | 288153 | 88.2 % | 77.8 % | 71.1 % | 28.9 % |
Charter | 13 | 58635 | 76.9 % | 90.0 % | 90.0 % | 10.0 % |
Airline size | ||||||
Very large | 16 | 845546 | 100.0 % | 81.3 % | 68.8 % | 50.0 % |
Large | 38 | 325320 | 94.7 % | 75.0 % | 72.2 % | 33.3 % |
Medium | 65 | 146651 | 84.6 % | 74.5 % | 69.1 % | 34.5 % |
Small | 56 | 45016 | 71.4 % | 70.0 % | 65.0 % | 37.5 % |
Airline ownership | ||||||
Private | 125 | 272953 | 85.6 % | 75.7 % | 70.1 % | 36.4 % |
Government or local | 50 | 111134 | 80.0 % | 70.0 % | 65.0 % | 37.5 % |
Airline quality rating | ||||||
5 stars | 5 | 277902 | 100.0 % | 60.0 % | 60.0 % | 0.0 % |
4 stars | 23 | 399610 | 95.7 % | 72.7 % | 72.7 % | 36.4 % |
3 stars | 87 | 258544 | 88.5 % | 76.6 % | 72.7 % | 45.5 % |
2 stars | 11 | 43110 | 90.9 % | 90.0 % | 60.0 % | 20.0 % |
No rating | 49 | 122952 | 67.3 % | 66.7 % | 60.6 % | 27.3 % |
Internet penetration | ||||||
High internet penetration | 61 | 281122 | 90.2 % | 81.8 % | 74.5 % | 36.4 % |
Medium internet penetration | 43 | 182539 | 88.4 % | 76.3 % | 71.1 % | 39.5 % |
Low internet penetration | 71 | 208873 | 76.1 % | 64.8 % | 61.1 % | 35.2 % |
Variable | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) |
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Intercept | −0.476 (0.10) | −0.315 (0.17) | −0.187 (0.37) | −0.179 (0.49) | 0.053 (0.73) |
lnPAX | 0.055** (0.03) | 0.056** (0.03) | 0.063** (0.01) | – | – |
lnGNIcap | 0.036 (0.14) | – | – | 0.048* (0.05) | – |
Income group | – | 0.052 (0.18) | – | – | 0.068* (0.07) |
Business model dummy | 0.500*** (0.00) | 0.495*** (0.00) | 0.470*** (0.00) | 0.548*** (0.00) | 0.542*** (0.00) |
Ownership dummy | 0.000 (0.99) | 0.008 (0.90) | 0.021 (0.75) | 0.021 (0.76) | 0.032 (0.63) |
R
2
| 0.52 | 0.52 | 0.51 | 0.50 | 0.50 |