Blog 
At SimpliFlying Airports/AirGate Solutions, we’ve just completed our most recent update of Airports Using Facebook. We now are tracking 130 airports, including the Top 30 International Airports, as defined by Airports Council International (ACI). In this update, we focused on airports that use Facebook as a social media platform, as defined by an active Facebook page.
What is truly surprising is that is over 50% of the 130 airports, many of them top international airports, either do not use Facebook as a social media platform or we were unable to locate their site. Equally surprising, is the fact that we also found most airport websites do not provide a link to their social media pages (Facebook or Twitter).
Measured by an airport’s total number of Facebook Fans, we see that 60% of the airports in our Top 10 category are large international airports (in CAPS), as categorized ACI, ranked by total numbers of passengers.
The Top 10 Airports Using Facebook (total Fans)
- Cleveland (CLE)
- Akron-Canton (CAK)
- SINGAPORE (SIN)
- Oakland (OAK)
- ATLANTA (ATL)
- Budapest (BUD)
- BOSTON (BOS)
- ISTANBUL (IST)
- DENVER (DEN)
- BANGKOK (BKK)
As with our previous Twitter analysis, we felt there was another to look at the results – as a metric of customer engagement. For this, we use a ratio of fans to total passengers using the airport. We felt that this was perhaps a better method to measure Airports Using Facebook. We felt that if airports had a higher ratio, it would suggest that those airports tend to be more engaged with their traveling customers. The results are shown below, and include some from the table above.
The Top 10 Airports Using Facebook (ratio Fans to Total PAX)
- Cleveland (CLE)
- Akron-Canton (CAK)
- Outagamie (ATW)
- Yeager Airport (CRW)
- Eugene (EUG)
- Long Beach (LGB)
- Flint (FNT)
- Tri-Cities (TRI)
- Harrisburg (HIA)
- Burgas (BOJ)
Comparing the ratio metrics of the Top 10 Airports Using Facebook with our previous Top 10 Airports using Twitter, there are 4 airports that appear in both lists:
- Akron-Canton (CAK)
- Eugene (EUG)
- Harrisburg (HIA)
- Tri-Cities (TRI)
From this we would suggest that these airports are making a very significant effort to engage with their customers. Our next study is to measure how well airports utilize this customer engagement, as measured by our social media metrics tool set. We’ll undoubtedly start with these 4 airports.
Airports are well positioned to provide, not only information, but a range of services and facilities to their traveling customers. It is an opportunity for airports to increase their “non-aeronautical” revenue stream. Of course, these services would be available to all passengers, as customers of the airport.