Slowly but surely, airlines have started to dip their toes into the blogosphere. Some have done better than others. Let’s take a look at who is doing it right and who is doing it wrong.
The Best: Nuts About Southwest
Southwest has not only been doing it the longest, but they’ve also been doing it the best. They have a bunch of contributors from all different parts of the airline. This includes pilots, PR people, and yes, even the CEO Gary Kelly. When news breaks, you can usually get more of an in-depth explanation of what’s going on if you go to the blog.
The Next: Delta Airlines Under the Wing
Delta surprised me by starting a blog in the summer of 2007, and things started off really well. They gave a lot of information on things like in-flight entertainment and the airport experience, and they proactively asked questions to get feedback from customers. After its fast start though, it’s starting to falter. The recently announced merger with Northwest? All they had was a list of articles from various news sources. There’s so much more they could and should be doing, so hopefully they’ll find a way to rebound.
Up and Coming: Open Skies
The new British Airways subsidiary Open Skies hasn’t even begun to fly, but the airline has been very proactive with communications on its website. Managing Director Dale Moss has been updating the blog about once a week, and he’s been passing along a ton of information about the development of the airline. Even more impressive, he’s been specifically addressing comments on previous posts in each new post, and he has just the right tone for a blog. My only complaint? There’s no RSS feed. Come on guys, get that fixed!
Needs Help: American Airlines AA Conversation
Oh boy, this one needs a ton of help. The blog was quietly rolled out a few weeks ago in the middle of the MD-80 problems. First, let’s start with the cheap blogspot.com url and combine it with the basic templated design. Yikes. Now four posts in, things have been rocky. There really hasn’t been anything blogworthy. It’s just been a handful of stiff PR messages. Maybe they’ll find their voice over there, but it may be an uphill climb.
What other blogs are out there from airlines around the world? Name your winners and losers here.
