But as as we have long suspected, the traditional press release is rather dead and buried. Granted, it’s not dead in the truest sense of the word; however, it is undeniable that social technologies have morphed press-releases beyond recognition. Gone are the boring, wordy releases that used to accompany every major announcement in the industry. Welcome to the new age of social engagement!

Social media for route launches

Airlines these days have begun smartly leveraging the power of social media while making new product and route announcements. Forget the one-page release announcing the nature and benefits of the new route. These days, there are dedicated campaigns being run by airlines (as well as airports) to draw attention to their new routes and planes.

Witness the wide-ranging strategies adopted – as illustrated in this new case-pack – there are examples of special discounts to Twitter followers, elaborate “guess the route” contests on Facebook, contests that challenge the artistic abilities of fans and followers, even “name the plane” contests. All these attractive engagement campaigns are managed wholly online. Some airlines have gone as far as spending nothing on traditional advertising for new route launches. The benefits of social engagement campaigns are for all to see:

1. Immediate access to a very specific group of target audience that is responsive to incentives.
2. Online engagement offers the benefit of two-way conversations that enable easy sentiment-tracking and real-time feedback analysis, rather than one-way broadcasts.
3. The ability to attract and engage the audience where they are most likely to be at (eg. Facebook) makes it more easy to make them willing listeners and customers.
4. The ability for engagement programs to become money-spinners (ie, revenue drivers) is plain to see because of the viral nature that such campaigns can don. Your fans will talk to their friends who will talk to their friends and so on.
5. The ability to fill up the seats sooner for a new route – through all of the above.

With these points in mind, we present to you our new case-pack on the Top 10 Route Launches by Airlines & Airports via social media. Special thanks to Mark Scourse from 3Sixty for his inputs on how airports do it. You can hear both Shashank and Mark speak at the World Routes Forum in Berlin in Oct, 2011.

Let us know what you think of the case-pack. Thought we missed someone? Thought we nailed it? Tell us in the comments or tweet us @simpliflying.

• Top 50 case-studies of airlines and airports excelling in social media
• The Big Flight: How Malaysia Airlines is using social media to launch their new A380
• Branding 2.0: Top 10 Facebook Contests by Airlines
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• The Top 10 SimpliPresentations – Celebrating 200,000+ views on SimpliFlying’s SlideShare channel

This is bound to get the message far-and-wide for AirAsia X, and hopefully they’ll be flying to Sydney sooner than later. It’s good for us, consumers

• Virgin Atlantic’s Airphoria is just the start, VP of Marketing Jim Mezoff reveals
• What can airlines learn from the Obama marketing machine?
• Why Virgin Atlantic Airways is not “on the brink of collapse”
• Virgin Atlantic’s Vtravelled gets into social gaming – Interview with Lysette Gauna
• Talking airline business with Virgin Atlantic VP, Paul Charles

AirAsia X has been selling seats for as little as £99 each way, though after making a series of test bookings it seems a more likely one-way fare is £200. In true low-cost fashion, “you’re only buying the flying”. Checked luggage costs £12 each way for a 20kg bag, with meals a further £7 per flight (and you get a discount if you book before-hand).

But…AirAsia X is different

Did you know that to optimize aircraft utilization, AirAsia X planes will land in London at different times on different days? And though that’s out of the norm, as a passenger, I only care about my flight timings, not the next day’s flight timings. Hence, I personally quite admire this move.

Did you know that AirAsia X CEO, Azran Osman-Rani, regularly writes on the AirAsia blog, Just Plane Thoughts. And he does so in a very candid way too. Moreover, he’s not the only one, but part of a much larger team of bloggers (many first-timers) formed of people from all over the airline.

In my interactions with Azran, he mentioned that AirAsia X is not taking the existing low-cost model long haul, rather it’s unbundling the current full-service long haul model and trying to figure out where costs can be cut and money made. Increasing aircraft utilization, a great example of this thinking. And it’s this willingness to question everything, to not take anything for granted, that makes AirAsia X different, and poised for success.

Why it’s unlikely to go the way of Oasis HongKong

Very simply, because low cost long-haul carrier has the support of AirAsia and the blessings of Sir Richard Branson. Moreover, Oasis HongKong and most other airlines that went bankrupt last year did so amidst record-high fuel prices and a shortage of talented staff. AirAsia X has the advantage of low oil prices, and is probably spoilt for choice when it comes to hiring people in this current economic climate.

And AirAsia X knows how to make money!

The airline is not leaving any stone unturned when it comes to ancillary revenues. It’s charging people for baggage, for food (you can’t bring your own on-board) and has even got an XL-class, which promises to offer Business Class seat comfort at a price just a bit higher than Economy class on full service carriers. In the future, you can expect many more in-the-cabin innovations from AirAsia X, which would charge the customer for value addition. I don’t see them going down the Ryanair-way, but certainly be a Southwest, when it comes to building a LCC brand.

Hear it from the horse’s mouth

Here’s Azran himself, speaking about the importance of branding for low cost carriers, and revealing some exciting developments at AirAsia X.

The most important reason why I think AisAsia X will be a success – the team is having fun while running the business!

What do you think? Is AirAsia X poised for success? Will the long haul low-cost model work? Or will it fail, yet again? Let’s hear it in the comments section.

• How business lessons from AirAsia can rescue the battered Air India brand
• The business of business class
• Five reasons why budget airlines in Asia are successful
• Is Premium Economy here to stay? A brand review of All Nippon Airlines
• CAPA’s Airlines in Transition conference, and what I learnt from five airline CEOs about the future