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:

Airlines are using Twitter more than ever before. The number of tweets increased by 51% from March 2011 to July 2011.
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.
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 …

SimpliFlying is back with the Monthly Twitter Report (in partnership with Eezeer) for June 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:

Airlines are using Twitter more than ever before. The number of tweets increased by 39% from March 2011 to June 2011. That’s a rather impressive jump!
However, most of the tweets are being sent out by a small number of the airlines on Twitter. To be precise, 26 airlines account for 80% of the tweets.
Delta Airlines is the breakaway champion in terms of receiving tweets addressed to them. They received almost twice as many tweets as the airline with the second-highest inbound tweets.
Airlines are listening to travellers more than ever. They follow almost 600,000 people on Twitter as compared to the nearly 7 million people following airline Twitter accounts.
Airlines receive almost 6x as many tweets as they send out. Why do you think is there such a disparity? Are airline having difficulty managing their resources or do most inbound tweets not merit a response (eg irrelevant rants, indirect conversations etc)?

For more insights, check out the infographic below and let us know what …

Delta Airlines landed in some hot soup early June 2011 when they charged $2800 to US soldiers returning from a mission, for excess bags. According to policy, three bags are allowed to be checked in free for soldiers traveling Economy Class, and the fourth bag for each of the 34 soldiers had to be checked-in.

While the soldiers would have been re-imbursed the amount, the charges obviously upset them and they posted a video on Youtube shot in-flight, which hit 200,000 views in a few hours. The issue was covered on mainstream media, and received an angry emotional outburst from thousands over Twitter and community forums.
In the end, Delta Airlines relented by posting on their blog that the charges will be refunded and policy changed. They still kept getting angry comments on their blog.

So we’ve now done an independent analysis of the situation, mentioning the key facts, analyzing the tweets (using a cool sentiment analysis tool). We also assessed Delta’s response to the crises management framework we released after the ashcloud last year. And we’ve shared it all in the slide deck below for your benefit….

So, we all know that Japan Airlines has filed for bankruptcy, is de-listing from the Nikkei Stock Exchange, will be selling all 30 Boeing 747s, shedding 30% of their staff and has hired a new CEO who used to be a monk. But what is the impact of all this? And where does a potential deal with Delta Airlines and Skyteam fit in the scheme of things? What happens to Oneworld? I answered these questions and more during my Live interview with CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange today. I’m sharing the 5 min interview video below and would love to hear your thoughts on my take. (Click here if you cannot view the video)

I bet anyone who’s got anything to do with flying is now well aware of the incident that happened on-board Northwest Flight 253 over Christmas, where a bomb was almost set off.

Reading through my airline branding lense I could tell the confusion the event was causing among travelers, especially in this peak travel season. And this went through the roof when FAA/TSA came up with knee-jerk measures to beef-up security on US-bound flights.

It’s difficult for most passengers to distinguish whether the inconvenience they’re being put through is something the airline has initiated or is it something beyond their control. These are what I called Brand eXternalities in my 6X model – where the customer has the tendency of forming an impression about the brand, even when the events are beyond the airline’s jurisdiction. At this time, the airline needs to ensure that it nullifies any adverse impact on the brand. Here’s how.
Prepare for the confusion – It will arise, even for Finnair!
I was browsing through Airliners.net the day after the incident and chanced upon an interesting comment. Take a look:
…

As a number of you who follow me on Twitter and tracked my travels on TripIt know, I’ve traveled from Singapore to London to New York to Atlanta in the past one week. My Singapore to London flight was on the brand new Singapore Airlines’ A380 (my 2nd time on this “whale” in one month!), I flew from London to New York on Virgin Atlantic B747 and the last leg was on a Delta B757. I was excited like a kid in a candy store! And took away some lessons from each airline in branding too!
Singapore Airlines – there’s a reason why they are the best

As I boarded the A380, the first words in my head were, “Recession? What recession?!” It was a full-load double-decker aircraft from Singapore to London I was getting on, with more than 450 passengers on-board. Yet, I was personally led to my seat by an Singapore Girl. My coat was neatly hung in the cabinet, and she helped me with my hand-luggage too. The in-flight service was impeccable as ever, and the quite, new aircraft was like an icing on the cake.

Just a day …

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 …