The document discusses how airlines abroad are effectively using social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to engage customers, promote special offers and build their brands, garnering large numbers of followers, while Indian airlines have less of a social media presence and could better leverage these platforms to interact with customers. It also outlines opportunities for growth in India's aviation industry through expanding infrastructure and increasing passenger traffic in the coming years.

1. Airlines in India

2. How will we go about it? Aviation Sector in India: the present and the future What are airlines doing abroad on social media? The Right? The Wrong? What we think and what should they do?

3. Aviation Sector in India 16 International airports Over 60 international airlines and around 12 domestic airlines 454 airports and airstrips Compound Annual Growth Rate – 18% Hyderabad International Airport amongst top 5 in the World! - Airport Service Quality (ASQ) passenger survey

4. Passengers carried by scheduled domestic airlines (in million) Market Share of Scheduled Domestic Airlines - Directorate General of Civil Aviation

5. The Future Create infrastructure to handle 280 million passengers by 2020 - Vision 2020 Statement – Ministry of Civil Aviation Investment opportunities of US$ 110 billion up to 2020 – US$ 80 billion in aircrafts - Investment Commission of India Domestic air passengers grew 7.68% in 2009 at 44.513 million to 41.271 million in 2008 outperforming world airline passenger traffic which fell 3.1% in 2009 - Ministry of Civil Aviation and International Civil Aviation Organization Photograph of the new Terminal 3 at New Delhi

6. Why do we care?

7. Promotional Offers 5,000 picture uploads! Online Reputation Management Customer Service 90,000 followers! Airlines abroad are using social media and have attracted great number of followers! Travel Videos 260,000 fans! 3 million video views! Building Relationships

8. Virgin America

9. Integration of Social Media on the Website

10. Virgin’s Face book page integrates flight searches and status checks

11. Virgin engages its followers in interactive conversations- builds a connect with them

12. Almost 140,000 channel views Over 1.4 million upload views 1800 subscribers Virgin’s Youtube channel features interviews with “Fly Girls”, safety videos, online promos , launch parties!

13. JetBlue Airways

14. 5,850 uploads Photographs of JetBlue aircrafts taken by passengers 264,000 fans Publicize blog articles, special offers, in-flight services

15. 18,500 channel views; 534,000 upload views! Videos about experiences on JetBlue aircrafts and activities undertaken by the airline “JetBlue” – 1.6 million followers! “JetBlueCheeps” – 60,000 followers JetBlueCheeps tweets last minute flights every Tuesday at great prices!

16. Delta Airlines

17. Welcome to Delta's official Facebook page! We're posting travel updates , promotions and of course, new routes all summer long. Where do you want to go next? Find all the new routes here: http://bit.ly/cPc1hc Delta’s opening post on its Facebook page Delta has largely used its fan page to promote their involvement in New York baseball

18. The in-flight safety video has 1.76 million views! Delta’s Youtube channel has a host of videos ranging from airline initiatives to in-flight services to travel guides. Delta manages 2 Twitter profiles, one exclusively to assist passengers flying Delta Airlines!

19. The first post on the blog Delta’s blog is updated regularly about everything in airlines from food to airports to their services and events. They’ve been up since August 2007!

21. What are they Doing right? Realized potential of social media as a branding opportunity Conversing with customers and connecting with them Using platforms innovatively to do customer service Diversifying content on their pages to enrich experiences of users

23. Need to interact with people, converse and build a rapport

24. Involve people in deciding new features on the airline. At least make it seem so

25. Run updates which will invite suggestions because people have opinions and they appreciate it if it is valued

27. What you should do? Building Associations with people on social media along with great flight experiences will result in greater brand loyalty Use social media as a genuine branding platform Official pages act as outlet for unhappy customers to prevent them from bad mouthing brands in the offline world Customers are present on various platforms. Converse with them! Flyers likely to forgive delays and other unpleasant experiences if airline interacts with them consistently and personally. Airlines should have official social media presence

28. Thank You! Contact Us: Rajiv Dingra Website : www.watconsult.com Mobile : +91 9820761167 |Office : +9122 65166429 Mail : rajiv@watconsult.com