Airline Industry Report

Q2 2020

Academy: Industry in Q2 2020

The following report will give you a quick overview of the airline industry in Q2 2020. We’ve analyzed 50 airlines across the globe to provide a quick social media analysis of the industry.

Thousands of social conversations about airlines are taking place every day from passengers sharing flight experiences, to the airlines themselves using social channels to promote new deals and campaigns.

You’ll be able to see where your brand stands in the industry as well how the airline industry is performing online. You can compare brand share of voice, sentiment, demographics, and know which hashtags were used most in Q2. • The table shows you the airline brands ranked on social and online channels.

• Total engagement for airlines was 85 million, half as much as Q1 2020. Total reach was also down, at 66T.

• had the most engagement and reach. Delta, Southwest and also had strong engagement.

• Airlines had the most results, at 874K, followed by .

3 Share of voice is shown in a more visual way. Malaysia Airlines having the highest share of voice, followed by Air India and .

4

• The week of June 15th saw a controversial brand mention for AA, Delta, and Southwest, from a retired football player. This unwelcome attention comes on top of months of bad news due to CoVid-19

• Elsewhere people reacting to cuts to routes, inflight service, and mask policies was the story for the toughest quarter in memory for airlines

• Negative stories around jobs cuts, repatriation flights, and more CoVid-19 related news drove engagement across the industry.

5

• Delta’s generous middle seat policy is clearly appreciated by customers, as it has the highest sentiment of any airline in the Top 10 with 20% positive

• Southwest, and SAS are other notable standouts.

• Most negative % of sentiments was towards Malaysia Airlines.

• The airline with the least negative sentiment was .

6 • Activism on social media is clearly portrayed here as the British public stands up against proposed jobs cuts at British Airlines.

• #MH17, the of a Malaysia Airlines plane that was shot down in 2014 was used during a related trial at The Hague.

• Stranded customers in need of repatriation, and petitions to re-open certain routes & countries told the story as the global pandemic ravaged airlines.

7

• has 59.8% online results from the US and just 5.2% share from the UK, down over 30% from last quarter.

• Across the board foreign mentions of airlines have decreased.

• One exception is British Airways which still has 37.5% share from the USA.

• You can dig deeper into the results and posts by country, and compare with other brands.

8 In summary

• The Covid-19 pandemic was the most prevalent theme in the airline industry in Q2 2020.

• Sentiment has plummeted in response to service cuts, economic shutdowns and mask policies.

• One exception is airlines that have blocked off middle seating to help accommodate social distancing. This has been well-received by passengers, and online.

• One bad mention of the brand from a large account can make life miserable as Delta, Southwest, and American Airlines learned when a Hall of Fame football player mentioned them by name.

• That’s all for this quarter. We’ll be back next quarter with more insights and results!