Twitter has a huge aviation community – from airlines and airports, to cabin crew and aviation enthusiasts. Whether you like to fly a plane or just watch planes fly, there are lots of aviation geeks on Twitter with whom you can converse about your passions or just listen.
Many of these (very interesting) Tweeps are tapping into Twitter’s real-time network to offer up travel tips, airline recommendations (or warnings), and an inside look at life in the cockpit (or cabin). Personally, I have made some amazingly talented new friends on Twitter, whom I wouldn’t have known otherwise, from Melbourne to Muscat.
This list has 11 great aviation geeks to follow on Twitter, however please feel free to suggest others in the comments (or if you tweet on things that fly, leave your own Twitter info – for individuals only, not companies). These are in no particular order.
And you can certainly start with this list if you’re looking to follow my 11 suggested steps to lead the social media strategy for your airline!
Of course, if you aren’t following us on Twitter yet, we’re @simpliflying.
11 airline Journalists/Bloggers …
We all know United Airlines broke Dave Carroll’s guitar, and got caught stunned like a rabbit in headlights, when the video became a hit. But worry not, SimpliFlying has The Answer to United’s troubles. This song provides United Airlines with 10 solutions to dealing with this “PR mess” in a fun, innovative way. And in turn, engaging its passengers too.
For the vocally inclined, lyrics are included in the video. Enjoy the song, and the video. To have even more fun, try counting the number of unique planes seen in the video, and state your answer in the comments. The backstory follows.
The Backstory
When Dave Carroll came out with his first United Breaks Guitars video, I wrote an article that explained why Dave has become the de-facto Chief Marketing Officer of United Airlines. The article was a huge hit, even getting a mention from the revered Chris Brogan.
After the first song, there was a huge hue and cry in the media about the PR disaster United faced. So when Dave came up with his …
Three airlines, three rockstars
Heard of Morgan Johnston? On Google, “Morgan Johnston Jetblue” produces over 37,000 results, as compared to “Dave Barger jetblue”, which returns 26,800 results. Dave Barger is the CEO of the airline, and Morgan Johnston leads JetBlue’s social media branding strategy. Morgan was into video production, before he joined JetBlue’s Corporate Communications department in early 2007.
Heard of Christi Day? She was voted the Employee of the Quarter earlier this year at Southwest Airlines, because of her tremendous efforts in leading the airline’s brand on various social networks. It’s not very often that a personin the PR dept. of an airline gets such a prestigious award.
Heard of Elliott Pesut? He was featured as the Geek of the Week, in one of Seattle’s leading daily this summer. Why? Because he is the “Head Twit” for Alaska Airlines. Elliot is a trained pilot, who was earlier at Flight Operations in Alaska Airlines. He volunteered for this new role, when the opportunity arose.
Why should YOU lead social media branding for your airline?
See a common thread in the stories above? All these people have no background in IT or new web technologies, yet have created an …
Inspired from my earlier article about legacy airlines being dead, I’ve come up with this graphic to represent which legacy airlines we can look out for, and those which need to work very hard to survive the next decade. What do you think?
At the Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney early this month, where I delivered a keynote on airlines + social media branding, the first day was mostly doom and gloom whereas the second day was much more up-beat. Not surprisingly, executives from legacy carriers like Qantas, Air New Zealand and the European Commission spoke on the first day, and up-beat executives from rising stars like AirAsia X, Oman Air and Gold Coast Airport spoke on the second day. That got me thinking…are legacy airlines dead? I now believe they are. Here’s why.
1. Legacy airline brands come with legacy baggage
Unions, legacy systems, government bureaucracy, old planes, old workforce, high costs, bankruptcy… these are all words that can be easily associated with Air India, Alitalia, Japan Airlines, Air Canada and many more legacy airlines. And these are all aspects that do not allow these airlines to function efficiently in the current climate.
The airline industry has evolved drastically in the past decade. With each new shock (9/11, SARS, H1N1…) we see new stars emerging, which have streamlined costs, efficient operations and specifically targeted markets they go after. And they beat the hell out of monolithic airlines that legacy carriers have become. Just read …
Last week, I was in Sydney at the Aviation Outlook Summit and on the first day of the conference, I sent out this Tweet:
Right in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, Turkish Airlines had this flagrant display of teenagers in red, visible not just to all the conference attendees but also to those passing by the hotel (see pic below). And they had totally stolen the thunder from Malaysia Airlines, which had paid thousands of dollars for being the official sponsor of the conference.
Turkish Airlines had announced its presence, and in quite some style. After spending some time with Dr Temel Kotil, the airlines’ humble CEO, I feel other competitors should be vary of the rising star from Turkey.
Why’s Turkish the atypical Middle Eastern airline?
Dr Kotil mentions a number of points in the video interview below which prove that Turkish Airlines in not yet another Middle Eastern airline with global ambitions. …
I’m not suggesting Emirates should become the national carrier of India. I’m asserting that it is already the de-facto national airline of the sub-continent. And Indians need to tell their politicians to get over the rescue-Air-India-at-any-cost fever, save some tax rupees and let the market decide which airline survives and which doesn’t.
Game over, Air India
As I mentioned in a previous article, Air India contributes 10% of global airline losses with just 0.35% of global traffic (stat. from Bangalore Aviation). To rescue the airline, hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ rupees are required over a long period of time. And even then, a profitable airline cannot be guaranteed, especially one that is mostly run for, and by the government and bureaucrats.
Even if you can gloss over the fact that lots of money is required to rescue Air India, the ideas for the turnaround that have been proposed till now have been far from convincing. Repositioning Air India as a low-cost carrier, with sky-high employee-to-plane ratio, aging fleet, poor plane utilization and lethargic execution, is at best an ill-conceived dream.
Till date, Air India has filled its planes either with politicians, or by selling dirt-cheap tickets that hardly cover …
Dear SimpliFlyers,
Yesterday, in Sydney, at the Australia Pacific Aviation Summit, I gave my keynote on airline branding and social media a different touch. I emphasized on the fact that airlines and airports need start moving from broadcasting messages to their customers, to having conversations about their brands with their “cult”.
Featuring case studies of over 25 airlines on social media, this was the presentation that I used for my keynote on 6 Aug 2009. It was very well received by an audience of experienced senior aviation executives. And I’d love to have your feedback on it. What do you like most? What’s the biggest challenge?
Keep Flying, SimpliFlying,
Shashank
Recently, I had a very interesting email exchange with Anthony Prakasm, who lives and breathes aviation as much as I do, if not more. The conversation was about Singapore Airlines’ brand strategy for their new First Class Suites on board the A380 and whether that’s succeeded or not. Anthony had some very unique insights into the situation, and I asked him to share his views for SimpliFlying’s readers. I personally think he’s dead on target in his conclusion that SIA missed a trick or two in the execution of a seemingly great brand strategy. What do you think?
- Shashank
———
Singapore Airlines Suites - A Class Too Far Beyond First
Singapore Airlines launched the “Singapore Airlines Suites” product in October 2007, in conjunction with the new on-board product launch that came with the A380. Featuring an “unparalleled level of luxury” in the “widest seat in the sky”, and sleeping on a “standalone bed that was not converted from a seat”. The airline promised the Singapore Airlines Suites to be “truly a class that is yours alone”.
Regular First Class travellers who wished to travel on the SIA Suites soon found that they had to pay in the vicinity of 50% to 60% more for …
A picture speaks a thousand words, so I’ll share with you the screen shot of an email by Virgin America that was posted by a blogger last week. Three words to describe this marketing effort – appropriate, effective and spreadable.
Don’t you think?
