How the top ten airlines in the world use Facebook

US-based Delta Airlines secured nothing if only bragging rights last week when it unveiled the world’s first airline booking engine within Facebook.

Obvious questions came over its effectiveness as a marketing tool, value to the consumer, impact on its existing booking channels and integration (or not) with existing social media features on Facebook.

The answers to all of these take nothing away from the fact that Delta is taking Facebook seriously and its move is likely to trigger a wave of similar applications being launched by other airlines.

But what of the other leading airlines around the world?

Here are the top ten global airlines, based on IATA figures for the number of scheduled international passengers carried in 2009:

Of course each has different passenger types, routes, online strategy – but what will be guaranteed will be that many of their customers will be members of the ubiquitous social network that is Facebook.

So what are they doing?

1. Ryanair

Ireland-based low-cost carrier Ryanair has famously shunned taking part in any form of social media, so it is difficult to establish if the two official-looking Ryanair pages on Facebook are genuine or not.

The first has laid dormant since December 2009 and contains just a handful of wall posts and a one-line piece of information about the company: “The best airline in the world! ” It still has 8,300 fans though.

The other site is very active, however, contains lots of messages and photos from its array of nearly 50,000 fans. Little interaction by the page administrator though.

2. Lufthansa

The German giant Lufthansa has an impressive 72,000 fans and has made plenty of effort with its official page, including competitions, photographs and a slideshow to show off some of the airline’s new features. Lots of good interaction between officials and customers, too.

3. EasyJet

Plenty of talk from EasyJet in recent months about its Facebook ambitions, including a booking engine. It is almost there, having integrated a search module in July 2010 and a social trip planning tool. With almost 33,000 fans, EasyJet is one of the more interactive of the major airlines on Facebook, conducting daily polls and quizzes and encouraging users to get involved with the page.

4. Air France

Air France uses its page for a combination of interaction and showing off its brand values as an airline. Plenty of conversation with its 22,500 fans (mostly, understandably, in French) but also some informative videos embedded into a dedicated channel on the page, including a day-in-the-life of a cabin crew member and footage of the maiden flight of the airline’s Airbus A380.

5. British Airways

Confusion all round when it comes to BA‘s effort, with an official-looking page with 12,000 or so fans but very little interaction and the official page simply saying fans need to contact customer service with any questions.  The unofficial page has a pleasant selection of aircraft photographs though.

6. Emirates

With almost 75,000 fans, Dubai-based Emirates is in the Air France mould when it comes to entertaining customers. It has a good mix of interaction and informative posts alongside high quality videos extolling the virtues of its fleet and, of course, Dubai.

7. KLM

Sterling effort from KLM, making good use of the real estate available with plenty of content and things to keep its 65,000 fans interested. Rather unique tools include a widget to create luggage tags with a user’s own photographs and a handy map tool to redirect users to its smaller country pages.

8. American Airlines

Almost 70,000 fans on the American Airlines page with a high volume of users commenting on services (negative and positive) but much visible interaction from the airline. It also uses the page to plug its wifi services and iPhone app. Plenty of video content, too.

9. Cathay Pacific

The only airline in the top ten which uses its Facebook page to push how fantastic it would supposedly be to work for the carrier. Cathay Pacific Airways has Meet The Team and Join The Team sections as well as channels for photos, videos and questions – some of which are answered by staff.

10. Singapore Airlines

Standard offering from Singapore Airlines to entertain its 65,000 fans, with the page offering photos, videos and a wall for discussions, albeit predominantly one-way. Decent video showing off its in-flight entertainment system.

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4. EasyJet tantalising close with Facebook bookings, but still not there
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