It might seem like an anxious start to the new year for AirAsia X, which recently announced that it would be introducing a daily KL-Sydney service and terminating all its flights to Europe and India. Far from being in the doldrums, it’s all part of the airline’s strategy to refocus and strengthen its brand, as its CEO Azran Osman-Rani shared with SimpliFlying in our latest airline strategy podcast.

Listen to the exclusive podcast below.

(c) 2012 SimpliFlying Podcasts

Note: The HTML5 player above should work with most modern browsers including those in mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone. However, if you’re having trouble playing the file, please use the flash player at the bottom of this post. Please also note that the podcast above has only a snippet of the interview with Azran. To delve deeper into the mind of an industry stalwart and gain some exciting secrets to the success of AirAsia and its future plans, click the Buy button above and get our premium podcast at an introductory price of only $19. You can get the free, significantly abridged, SimpliFlying Podcasts on iTunes as well!

When AirAsia X began its operations in 2007, you could practically hear the skeptics sharpening their knives as they waited – and waited – for the long-haul budget carrier to fold.

No doubt those knives were whipped out once again when the airline recently announced that it would be terminating its services to London, Paris, New Delhi and Mumbai – flights to Europe and New Delhi will cease in March while operations to Mumbai ended in January.  Despite all the I-told-you-so’s, chief executive Azran Osman-Rani remains unflustered. In fact, he maintains that the long-haul, low-cast business model is one that can work – if done right.

Of Scale and Profitability

While Europe’s weak economy, high fuel prices and taxes, as well as the visa restrictions imposed by the Indian and Malaysian governments ultimately prompted the airline to halt services to those destinations, Osman-Rani says that markets such as Australia and China are proof that AirAsia X’s model is one that can, with the right scalability and economization, turn a profit.

“The model can definitely work but the ingredients to build that success require scale. What we have proven is that in markets [where we] have built sufficient scale, they have been very profitable. In fact, [our] profit margins are higher than even some of the disclosed profit margins of the leading full-service airlines in Asia.”

Indeed, despite the disruptions caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, the airline’s performance remained steady, netting it an on-site performance rating of 88 percent, which according to Osman-Rani “is much higher than some of the leading full-service airlines in the world.”

“Our engineering reliability rates [are] just about higher than everyone else…and if you go to the Skytrax website and look at the customer satisfaction scores for AirAsia X, we’re the highest among any Asian LCC and comparable to some of the top so-called 5-star airlines in Asia,” he continues. “We’ve developed a product that is very popular. It’s operation-sound and we can make it work and deliver profitability when we have scale and market.”

The Art of Strategizing

If there’s anything that the airline’s European and Indian sojourns have taught it, it’s that one has to prioritize. “If we want to compete, we have to let go of markets that are weak,” says Osman-Rani, adding that the airline will not be entering any new markets for the next two years but will instead focus on building up its brand and customer engagement platforms in Australia as well as Japan, Korea and China either by adding new cities to its network or increasing flight frequencies within its existing markets. “We’ve deliberately chosen the markets where we have a [strong] market leadership position and scale, by which we mean having multiple destinations in the market and strong frequencies that will connect well.”

However for many observers, it will be interesting to see if AirAsia X can maintain that position, especially when Singapore Airlines’s new low-frills carrier Scoot takes to the skies in June. The latter’s announcement that it would be operating direct Singapore-Sydney flights certainly played a significant role in putting pressure on the Malaysian government, which had been safeguarding Malaysian Airlines’ (MAS) interests up till then, to relax its restrictions on the Sydney route so that AirAsia X could be the first Asian LLC to operate to and from the Australian city starting April 1.

But what does he make of the competition? “The best way [of viewing the situation] is to look at what happened in 2004-2005,” says Osman-Rani philosophically. “Air Asia was a much smaller airline then and the entry of Jetstar and Tiger Airways into Southeast Asia made us wonder what’s going to happen to AirAsia with more competition and choice.” Fast forward seven years and it’s clear that those fears were largely unfounded.

That said, what’s going to determine which airline dominates the market isn’t a matter of who has the strongest network leadership. “The strength of the brand’s reach to customers is going to be the defining factor and it’s ours to lose if we can’t maintain that leadership position.”

In addition, there’s also the question of how fierce a rival budget airlines such as Scoot and Jetstar will turn out to be in the long run, given that much of the focus of AirAsia X’s growth will be on the north and south of Southeast Asia, which puts it in competition with larger full-service carriers such as Etihad Airways.

Entertaining Global Ambitions

Apart from strengthening the airline’s network and brand platform, Osman-Rani has grander ambitions as well and these include ideas for what he considers to be a truly global airline network hub. “The only model today is the global alliances – Skyteam, One World et cetera – and it isn’t a very strong consumer one because no one is going to say they’re going to fly SkyTeam. Everything’s still associated with the individual airline brand,” he explains. “In our model, what we’ve seen is the opportunity to create a global model anchored on one single brand – the Air Asia brand – and one single platform – AirAsia.com.”

Apart from AirAsia’s landmark tie-up with MAS, which will see both airlines capitalizing on each other’s resources in areas such as catering, ground handling and maintenance, Osman-Rani also points to AirAsia X’s collaboration with Japan’s ANA as an example, he points to how an airline can build on the same common brand platform rather than just having a loose alliance and code-sharing. “In this respect, one of the unique things that AirAsia is pioneering is how to roll this out globally. LCC is pretty much regional whereas the difference with AirAsia is AirAsia X. It is the trunk that can provide the link between the regions. For example, if AirAsia Japan establishes a very strong short-haul network, it provides AirAsia X the opportunity to come in to provide long-haul routes from Japan.”

Keeping His Eye on the Bigger Picture

For AirAsia X, 2012 is going to be a crucial one in terms of strengthening the foundations for its network, and that according to Osman-Rani means completing the task of reassigning the 30,000 passengers affected by the European and Indian flight cancellations, adding frequencies to “a couple of other existing routes” and making sure that the Sydney service goes off without a hitch.

More importantly, he is also hopeful that if everything goes according to plan, the airline won’t have to wait too long to file for an IPO. “I think if we succeed in [what we’ve set out to do] and hopefully with global equities picking up, we’d love to carry on with our plan for an IPO hopefully later in the year.”

When that happens, you can be sure the critics will be eating their words yet again.

In case you weren’t able to listen to the HTML5 version above, or if you wanted to listen to the podcast after you read the article, here it is for your listening pleasure in Flash.

(c) 2012 SimpliFlying Podcasts

Note: This is the free version of the podcast and contains the latest industry updates followed by a small snippet of the interview with Azran. If you want to listen to the full interview with Azran and gain some exciting insights as well as secrets to the success of AirAsia get our premium podcast at an introductory price of only $19. Just click the button below and you’ll be listening to it in minutes! The premium podcast also entitles you to a free copy of the complete podcast transcript. Just email us at podcasts@simpliflying.com to get it.

• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Pillars of Aviation – sneak peek into the future of aviation, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• How AirAsia is rocking it in India, and how airlines in India can leverage their entry
• Estonian Air crowdsourcing ideas to engage travelers as Tero Taskila takes over as new CEO

With about a day still to go for voting (and trust us, a lot of votes come in on the last day), the total number of votes has already crossed 30,000. Moreover, votes have come in from 4500+ cities across the world. How incredibly awesome is that?

1. Freshness and innovativeness are the keywords you need to keep in mind if you wish to drive a really successful social media campaign.
2. If you’re able to engage the interest of the customer, it’s possible to overcome certain price-point barriers. e.g. KLM’s new Economy Comfort option was a hit due to the viral video of a levitating magician.
3. People are looking for instant engagement online – if you’re looking to provide customer service online, don’t do it half-heartedly. Throw everything you’ve got into it and your customers will appreciate you for it. eg. AirAsia’s AskAirAsia.
4. To a certain extent, building emotional bonds with customers will drive long-term loyalty and revenue. eg. KLM Surprises and JetBlue’s glass half-full video.
5. Being “controversial” or disruptive is also a great way of driving buzz, receiving eyeballs and getting new customers as long as it is done right. eg. Air New Zealand have been brilliant in their “provocative” social media endeavours such as “Nothing to hide” etc.
6. Leverage the latest technology as and when it becomes available to engage more customers and to appear to be at the cutting-edge of innovativeness. eg. the Chrome web app by Virgin America, Groupon route-launches etc.

With that said, here’s the case-pack. We hope you enjoy going through it!

• The Best Airlines Driving Revenue Through Social Media – Introducing the Top 5 nominees for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines – Vote now!
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels

The buzz is palpable! After a heady round of nominations (69 nominees in 10 days) we’re down to the fun bit – the real voting to shortlist the Top 3 who’ll be invited to Amsterdam on October 10th for the 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in Social Media. Amazingly, we received more than 5000 votes in the first 36 hours from more than 1400 cities across the world. Huge, huge numbers! And they’re growing astronomically each day!

To acquaint you better with the nominees in each category of the awards, we’ll be posting case-packs on our SlideShare channel for each of the 5 categories of awards detailing what makes each nominee so special and why they’re in the final list of nominees (the initial list had over 60 candidates!). The campaigns that clinched each airline its position of prestige will be illustrated in detail. We hope you enjoy going through them and revelling in the reflected brilliance of their innovativeness, cleverness and sheer chutzpah.

The first case-pack has 5 case-studies, each illumninating the campaigns of Top 5 nominees in the category “Best use of Social Media to drive Revenue”. As you’ll see, some, like Virgin America jumped onto the latest trends and technologies to make a killing, while others such as Estonian Air were just plain clever in employing social media to drive revenue. Similar flattering things can be said of the other nominees: Air Asia, airBaltic and Malaysian Airlines. But it would be best if you experienced them yourselves. Enjoy!

You can see the current poll results below. Hurry! Voting closes on 15th September.

• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Nominations now open for airlines, airports and hotels
• SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines – Vote now!
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels

It’s official. As of July 2011, there are 191 airlines on Twitter, while only 179 airlines have loyalty programs. The first loyalty program came into existence 30 years ago, in the form of AAdvantage by American Airlines, while the first airlines on Twitter joined just 5o months ago: jetBlue and Delta in May 2007. And what a journey it has already been!

SimpliFlying is back with the Monthly Twitter Report (in partnership with Eezeer) for July 2011 in continuation with our coverage and analysis of the dynamic social media landscape for airlines.

A number of facts are immediately clear from this report:

1. Airlines are using Twitter more than ever before. The number of tweets increased by 51% from March 2011 to July 2011.
2. However, most of the tweets are being sent out by a small number of the airlines on Twitter. To be precise, 30 airlines account for 84% of the tweets, which is up from 26 providing 80% of the tweets in the May report.
3. Delta Air Lines still sends and receives the most number of tweets, which has been the trend since the first report. However, while the response rate to public tweets may seem like a paltry 20% of the tweets, we’ve confirmation from Delta Air Lines that when we include Direct Messages, the airline responds to over 50% of the messages!
4. Over a hundred airlines still don’t seem to have a strategy for Twitter, as only 82 out of the 191 airlines tweet actively
5. In South America, TAM Brazil is the most followed airline, with over 225,000 people following the airline’s tweets.

For more insights, check out the infographic and let us know what you thought about it. Is there something you agree with? Disagree? Are there any figures that you’d like to see in next month’s infographic? Tweet us @simpliflying and let us know. You can also view our previous Monthly Reports for June ’11 here and May ’11 here.

The airlines on Twitter report is produced by eezeerdatalab in association with SimpliFlying.

• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for August 2011: Cebu Pacific joins the big league and scores high!
• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for November 2011: increasing engagement but 30 airlines produce over 80% of tweets
• Airlines on Twitter in June 2011: Delta Airlines is the breakaway “listening and talking champion”
• Eezeer and SimpliFlying launch airline monthly twitter report – Delta leads Twitter use, and customer service is in!
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)

AirAsia’s rise in the social media sphere has been meteoric to say the least, with the Malaysia-based airline hitting one million fans on its Facebook page at the end of May 2011, becoming the first airline outside the US to do so. This monumental number, which is second in the world only to Southwest Airlines, is attributable in large part to the efforts of Karen Chan, AirAsia’s Interactive Marketing Manager, and her team (photographed below), which is led by their visionary Commercial Head, Kathleen Tan.

For her efforts in leading AirAsia up the ladder of success in social media, and setting an example for other airlines in the region to follow, we’re proud to award Karen the SimpliFlying Hero award for June 2011.

The AirAsia team. From left: Karen Chan, Derik Chew, Swee Ping, Vilon

Tentative beginnings for an Asian upstart

AirAsia’s beginnings in social media were modest. The journey started with a blog that aimed to provide an open platform for AirAsia Allstars and AirAsia customers to share travel stories and feedback, regardless of whether it was good or bad.

At the time, the main fear for the team was the potential for negative backlash. Since social media is real-time, instant and can make opinions go viral, the stakes were high. Quite simply, anything negative would reflect poorly on not only the team but AirAsia’s brand as well.

What Karen learnt over time was that the best way to counter this potential problem was to form a team with the “right” kind of people. For her, a passion for AirAsia and its brand is just as important as social media expertise.

“A lot of people claim to be social media experts but when it comes to integrating social media with the brand, it can become a real challenge. To be successful in social media requires a lot of hard work, a lot of thinking; strategizing needs to be done to ensure that you are building something that is relevant and useful for the brand and the fans in the long run.”

Indeed, Karen believes that the main factor behind AirAsia’s significant lead over competitors in the social media space has been the excellent team she works with. Not only are its members social media savvy, they are also passionate about AirAsia and its brand, and therefore make an extra effort to keep all social media campaigns relevant to consumers and, as a result, beneficial to the brand as well.

The road to success

These qualities in the team members allowed AirAsia to emerge as a leading regional player on Facebook and Twitter. When the team first approached these platforms two years ago, they did not have much prior experience or knowledge to count on. They mostly relied on lessons learnt from trial and error, and slowly figured out what worked and what did not. The passion and dedication displayed by members of the team, and the “blood, sweat, and tears” that they put in, is what has made AirAsia’s present success possible.

Along the way, Karen has learnt much about what it takes to launch (and keep afloat) a social media campaign.

First, knowing what fans want, and giving them what they want, and getting them to spread the word, is paramount. In Karen’s words:

“Social media is like having a housewarming party. First you create the most innovative, creative invite so that the recipients will want to share it with their friends to attend the party. Once you have all your guests at the party, you will need to know what you’ll be serving on the table, the kind of music you are going to spin, and the activities at the party so that everyone will go back happy and rave about what a great time they had at your party.”

Second, having a clear objective is essential. An objective is precisely what differentiates an individual who gathers a fan-following by uploading videos on Youtube, and a company that uses it for its benefit. One has a clear objective, and therefore a clear strategy, while the other does not. That is why only one can maximize the potential of the medium and all real, measurable value to the brand and business.

Last, social media is not a billboard, but rather an engagement platform. While it might be tempting to announce everything over Facebook or Twitter in order to market the airline, there is a fine line that shouldn’t be crossed. Social media is a unique two-way channel and therefore fan feedback should be given equal priority.

Sky is the limit, even online!

In the future, Karen sees social media expanding and taking more of a hold on consumers’ lives: first, in terms of technological advancement in mobile, handheld devices; second, in the form of growing popularity amongst people to participate on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This is advantageous for any organization looking to build its brand and it provides greater opportunities to increase brand awareness and to drive customer engagement.

Karen feels that ultimately having such a huge fan base is a double-edged sword. While it means that more interest, trust, and revenue will be generated for the airline in the long run, it also means that negative news can spread faster and further. Hence, the achievement of hitting one million fans also comes with the increased responsibility to engage them in a positive way.

Nevertheless, SimpliFlying is certain that Karen and her team will continue to reach new heights and we wish her all the best as she continues to lead AirAsia to even greater heights on the social media mountain.

Know someone who’s worthy of being a SimpliFlying Hero?

Simpliflying Heroes are individuals recognized for outstanding social media use in the world of aviation. Do you know of somebody who uses social media effectively in their airline or airport to achieve specific business results? Or do you think you fit the bill?

Then go ahead and fill up the SimpliFlying Heroes nomination form. By filling out the nomination form, you bring them a step closer to being recognized by SimpliFlying for their efforts.

• AirAsia takes customer service to social media with AskAirAsia
• For leading KLM into social media, Lonneke Verbiezen is the SimpliFlying Hero for Feb 2011
• [PRESENTATION] How Airlines Dedicate Resources to Social Media – delivered at #omtravel in Miami (June 2011)
• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• AirAsia X taking branding tips from Virgin Atlantic?

I have to admit that I’m a big Singapore Airlines (SIA) fan, and when someone says “you’re a great way to fly”, I can almost sing the SIA melody in my head.  But even I was surprised when SIA announced that they will be launching a low-cost long-haul airline, on the lines of AirAsia X and Jetstar.

Yes, Singapore Airlines is no longer the most profitable airline in the world (Cathay Pacific took over that title), and yes they’re losing market share to the likes of Emirates and AirAsiaX (to a lesser extent), but to go with a business model that’s hardly proven was a surprise move for a brand that’s been risk-averse of late.

While the initial reports stated that a good amount of analysis has gone into the decision and a “largely untapped market” exists, it’s safe to say that SIA is playing catch up in a market carved out in its backyard by AirAsia X and Jetstar. While the key success factor for SIA till date has been its endearing Singapore Girl brand, that’s exactly the dilemma they need to address – whether to extend the brand to the low cost airline or not.

Will the Singapore Girl fly budget? Probably not.

One big question everyone is wondering about is whether the Singapore Girl would fly this new airline. For those who’re familiar with SIA, they know that the airline is very protective of its brand icon. And multiple questions will be raised if the same Singapore Girls walk the aisle of the new airline.

1. How to ensure that people know SIA and the new LCC are different, yet have the same flight attendants?
2. Will service failures like flight delays or cancellations be dealt in an SIA manner, or Tiger Airways manner?
3. Will SIA Economy Class passengers transferring on to the LCC be offered free meals and amenity kits?
4. What baggage allowances will people get if they are transferring from one airline to another?

Close brand association between the two airlines might prove to be too risky for both brands. Hence, it’s likely that SIA will dis-associate itself completely from the new brand. For example, when things went bad for Tiger Airways in Australia, no one boycotted SIA – the latter still holds its reputation for impeccable service. SIA’s greatest leverage will be that they’ve run a long haul airline successfully, with a very low cost base.

Learn from the competition, then fight on your own turf

While SIA’s track record is an asset, it is also a reason for concern. The airline already has a very low cost base – how would they reduce it further, if operations are to be based in Singapore? One of the reasons for the success of AirAsia X and Jetstar have been the feed from their short haul operations. Interestingly, SIA is a purely-long haul airline, hence feeding the network for this new long-haul airline would depend on SilkAir and Tiger Airways. These and other factors will require SIA to re-think its commercial strategies for the new airline, learning from the competition.

1. SIA till today only sells airline tickets on its website (trying to book a hotel will take you to an external site). Whereas on AirAsia’s RedTix website, I can even buy Justin Beiber concert tickets! So the new LCC SIA sets up must re-evaluate what businesses it gets in and how best to leverage the brand
2. SIA’s frequent flyer program, Krisflyer, also currently only allows burning or miles on SIA flights. This is in stark contrast to Qantas’ Frequent Flyer program, where I can redeem and earn miles by shopping for groceries! Krisflyer will also have to evolve, just like Jetstar has been introduced into the Qantas’ program.
3. SIA’s new long-haul LCC can expect very stiff competition from AirAsia X and Jetstar. Moreover, the competition has one year to sharpen its knifes before SIA launches the new airline. While Jetstar would want to start routes Melbourne-Singapore-Athens flights sooner, the Malaysian government has even more reasons to grant AirAsia X coveted routes like Sydney. SIA needs to run two steps ahead to out-think the competition.
4. SIA also needs to learn from mistakes made in its Tiger Airways venture – running the new airline like a Ryanair may not work, especially in long-haul. They need to ensure high customer service standards, like they have with themselves.

A golden opportunity to co-create the brand with the customers

To provide exceptional customer service, SIA will also need to understand that the customers of the new airline more like those of Tiger Airways’ than its own. And they need to deal with them in a different manner. What do I mean?

Currently, SIA has no official Facebook fanpage. No official Twitter account. Or any other new medium engagement channels. All this when AirAsia, right next door, has become the first airline outside the US to reach 1 million Facebook fans. Tiger Airways’ social media interaction isn’t something to speak of either.

SIA needs to hire manager who believe that the brand is no longer about control. Rather, it’s about influencing a certain behaviour, and engaging with customers using mediums they’re familiar with (I still have to fax in certain requests to Krisflyer!). They can no longer be in a state of educated nonchalance about these new ways of building a brand, as I had mentioned earlier.

Singapore Airlines has a rare opportunity to involve the potential customers in the brand creation process of its new low-cost long haul airline brand. For starters, they can look at how the best airlines in the world are crowd sourcing ideas. And then wholeheartedly embrace the customer.

Given their track record, I think Singapore Airlines is going to do a good enough job setting up this new airline – what remains to be seen is whether they are able to sustain profitable operations in the face of changing customer realities and fierce competition. Exciting times ahead! What do you think?

(Special thanks to Khoa Huynh and Anthony Prsakasam – my two aviation geek friends who helped seed some of the ideas in this article)

• Australia’s Qantas Airways – the world’s most agile airline brand?
• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• Five reasons why budget airlines in Asia are successful
• Malaysia Airlines launches FireFly to Singapore – a community airline brand. Interview with Head of Marketing
• Is Premium Economy here to stay? A brand review of All Nippon Airlines

We’ve all seen how @DeltaAssist is helping travelers out on Twitter, and now on Facebook too. Then we learnt that 93.8% of all tweets to airlines in March 2011 were about customer service issues [see infographic]. Seeing these trends, it was only a matter of time before we saw more customer service functions go social. And the latest airline to make this move is AirAsia.

Airline Customer Service on Facebook and Twitter

AirAsia, which is already the airline that replies to the highest percentage of tweets in the world (>40%), has created an AskAirAsia account on Twitter, and also a “tab” on Facebook. They’ve taken a dig at travelers’ frustrations with the call-center and asked them to direct questions to the CEO, Tony Fernandes (though the photo looks a few years old!). Quite a neat way to connect with the customers – or “guest” as they call them on AirAsia.

On Twitter, you can simply tweet a question and expect a quick reply during Malaysia working hours. What will be interesting to note is that the AskAirAsia twitter account doesn’t reply to any issues publicly – every single one of them is handled using Direct Messages (DMs).

This is an intriguing trend. On one hand, the airline is obviously respecting the privacy of their guests’ issues, and avoiding the public sharing of negative comments, while on the other hand, if there is a passenger with a problem at the gate, in all likelyhood 150+ other passengers are affected by the same problem. And Twitter comes in handy at that point to calm the nerves of many such people – an aspect AskAirAsia might miss out by strictly using DMs.

Nevertheless, great effort by the AirAsia team – and I know that the impetus comes right from the top from the likes of Azran and Tony, and is executed very well by Karen and team. Hope other airlines are watching and learning!

• Airlines on Twitter in May 2011: AirAsia and TAM Brazil hot on the heels of Delta Airlines
• [Infographic] Airlines on Twitter – April 2011 data reveals the need to focus on Customer Service
• Welcome to Branding 2.0, Singapore Airlines. Now what? Twelve tips to do social media right
• Eezeer and SimpliFlying launch airline monthly twitter report – Delta leads Twitter use, and customer service is in!
• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for July 2011 reveals that more airlines have Twitter accounts than loyalty programs

The Backstory

These are very exciting times in the airline industry. Last month, I shared a number of vital statistics about airlines’ twitter usage at a keynote in San Francisco [view presentation]. While those gave a good overview of how the industry is using the platform, one key aspect was lacking – the social media landscape for is constantly evolving, and a report produced once doesn’t do it justice. While we felt we should produce an ongoing report on that, we didn’t really have a data source for all the latest and greatest statistics.

That’s when Arnaud from Eezeer got in touch [remember? Eezeer = real-time airline reviews], and mentioned that they’re looking to produce a monthly twitter report from all the data they’ve been gathering from travelers. One thing led to another, and the end result was this first infographic that you see below – full of startling data about how airlines (and travelers) use Twitter. The best part is that this report will be released monthly – so look out for this every month in our infographics section (latest by the 5th of each month).

Airlines on Twitter – Oh…the stories data tells

While you drool over the data in the infographic below, I thought I’d highlight some interesting stories, which may not stand out on first glance:

1. You’ll see that twitter use among airlines is spread out globally – with Top four airlines featuring Delta, TAM Brazil and AirAsia (Malaysia!)
2. While there are 168 airlines on twitter, only 77 are actively tweeting, and 80% of all tweets come from just 30 airlines (17%)!
3. While Delta Airlines replies to the most number of tweets, it’s AirAsia that replies to the largest percentage of tweets to an airline – over 40% of tweets are replied to – that’s some serious effort, and this is way above the industry average of 24%
4. While customer service is the most important function being addressed on Twitter (due to its real-time nature), it’s comfort & security that’s on the rise – remember how @TimF10 was helping American Airlines passengers with security setup at AA terminal at LAX?
5. Long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X has come out ahead of legacy carriers like Cathay Pacific and Asiana in the quality of customer service provided on Twitter. And it’s Azul from Brazil that’s leading in the “comfort and security” space.

The conclusion from all this – twitter use is on the rise. Some airlines are adapting quickly to travelers’ increased use of social technologies. But not all have a strategy for this, and we’ll figure out in the upcoming months who are the flukes and who are the real deal.

Exciting times!

• Airlines on Twitter in May 2011: AirAsia and TAM Brazil hot on the heels of Delta Airlines
• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for July 2011 reveals that more airlines have Twitter accounts than loyalty programs
• [Infographic] Airlines on Twitter – April 2011 data reveals the need to focus on Customer Service
• Airlines on Twitter in June 2011: Delta Airlines is the breakaway “listening and talking champion”
• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for August 2011: Cebu Pacific joins the big league and scores high!

As I passed through the US Immigration recently, when the official asked what I’m going to the US for, I replied, “I’m delivering a speech at an airline loyalty conference”. To which he casually exclaimed – “loyalty for airlines? I just go for the cheapest fare man!”. That gave me even more impetus to try and find the answer to the loyalty puzzle at the conference.

In late February, I spoke at the Loyalty11 conference, where a majority of the leading airline loyalty executives gather annually. This year, it was held in Dallas, and I managed to round up some key experts in airline loyalty business – from the stalwart AAdvantage program, to the soon-to-be started AirAsia’s loyalty program. And asked them just one question – what will have an impact on the future of airline loyalty. Here’s what they had to say:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What does the future of airline loyalty programs hold?

Looking through my notes from the conference, here are five indications towards the future (including some quotable quotes from the conference):

1. “Loyalty is no longer defined by the repeat customer” – Tom Klein – President, Sabre
2. There are three customer segments: the satisfied customer, the dis-satisfied customer and the loyalty customer. It’s the first airlines should try to convert to the last
3. Airlines will only get a share of wallet if they have a share of heart
4. The feedback airline loyalty programs get from social media channels than traditional feedback forms – Ryan Green, Southwest Airlines
5. It will be interesting to sort loyalty members by their Klout scores (twitter influence) – Gabi Kool, Voila Rewards

• [Infographic] The future of loyalty programs will be powered by social media
• Five lessons from the most innovative loyalty programs in the world – Inspired from Loyalty 2010
• Three keys to making loyalty programs work for the airline brand of the future
• Is social loyalty the next phase of development for frequent flyer programs?
• The future of airline loyalty – here is what it looks like

After 12,000 votes in just over a week were received, the top 3 most voted airlines made their presentations to the panel of judges before the winners were decided, for the inaugural SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence for airlines.

These presentations were made at the SimpliFlying-Airline Business ‘Social media for the aviation industry‘ conference held in London on Oct 1, 2010. You can view all the Live activity from the conference here.

Categories and winners

• Best Social Media Campaign - Lufthansa’s “innovative” MySkyStatus
• Best Use of Social Media for Crisis Management - SAS Scandinavian Airlines - for communication during the #ashcloud chaos
• Best Use of Social Media to drive Revenue - Malaysia Airlines’ 72 Hours Merdeka promotion
• Simplyflying Hero of the Year - Aurelie Valtat, Eurocontrol’s online communications manager for her social media management of the ashcloud chaos to the aviation industry

View more presentations from Shashank Nigam

Moments from the conference

Congratulations once again to all the winners, and thanks to the attendees and organizers for their participation. If you weren’t able to join us this year, there’s surely the next time!

Special thanks to John Norris for contributing some of the photos above

• Exclusive Interview: How Eurocontrol battled the ashcloud crisis through social media
• Simpliflying Hero, May 2010: Aurelie Valtat from Eurocontrol
• Presentation on airlines and social media from FTMA & Freddies 2009, now available
• Crises Management for airlines and airports in the age of social media- Presentation from ACI Europe
• SimpliFlying and Airline Business launch social media conference for airlines and airports [Plus: how you can win two passes]