Plane Conversations

When a community comes together around a common cause, real change can happen. In the small town of Charleston, West Virginia , everyone came together to support their community airport and created a big change.

According to a recent article in The State Journal by Ann Ali (http://www.statejournal.com/story/16333075/partnerships-community-focus-keep-north-central-air-fares-low)

Fares at the North Central West Virginia Airport in Clarksburg went down this year, from $539.02 in 2010 to $505.11 in 2011. Its comparable airports raised their fares, along with every other airport in West Virginia. Average domestic air fares went up 8.5 percent nationwide from 2010 to 2011, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, going from $341 in the second quarter of 2010 to $370 in the second quarter of 2011.

“We want the public to see the good deals that are out there,” Rock said. “We’re trying to provide good service to our community and take ownership of our airport. The best way is to educate them about what we have, and by doing that, we’re able to get people through the doors.”

Rock said the public thought the local airport’s prices were high, but his staff members has gone to great measure this year to do their own research to point out deals.

“We want regional parity, and our partners at Pinnacle (Airlines), we push them on that,” Rock said. “And they agreed and worked with us on that.”

Rock said his goal is to get members of the community to look to North Central West Virginia Airport when planning trips, rather than automatically booking flights from Pittsburgh or other nearby larger airports.

“We want people to at least check us out and see if we fit their budgets and schedules,” Rock said. “And I think people have done that, and we’re very thankful.”

Rock said his industry has a lot of volatility, such as fuel prices, but air travel remains competitive.

“We ask everybody to support their local airports,” he said.

We want all of the local communities out there to look at the problems the current air system and start to think local. Just because the big carriers are pulling out of your area, forcing you to drive 2 hours to the nearest airport to find a viable option doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Come together with those you live with and collectively make a better option for everyone.

With Social Flights Community Air Service Program, you will be able to create your own charter airline using the power of on-demand jets service and social media. The revolution starts with you.

Delta is in the Social Media Game

You can now book a flight on Facebook on Delta Airlines Facebook  page and tell your friends about it without ever leaving Facebook.

When you are on Delta Airlines Facebook page you click the “Book a Flight” Button, then click the get started button. Immediately Delta asks for permission to access your information on your Facebook page including your Friends, user ID, networks, gender, and profile picture. If you don’t allow it the process stops as far as I can tell.

I guess the assumption is that you must give up your data if you want to play the booking game through Facebook. So to figure this out, I let them have my information.

From there it is a fairly easy process and not much different than booking on their main site. You have the option to share the flight with your friends. I have not booked a flight on Facebook to see what happens next. If anyone reading this has used this application I would like to hear your thoughts.

I can see this being used for personal travel but not so much for business. I am not totally sure what the real value proposition to booking through Facebook is at this point, with the exception of the ‘Sharing” of my flight information, and maybe for the Faceobook junkies who cant leave the site it does something?

I wonder what Delta does with my information they now have access to? Will they use it to help me solve travel problems or use it to target me for advertising messages?  

Delta at the time of this posting has about 38,500 Fans on their page. Lots of comments:  some positive and and a lot of negative about service issues.

It is hard to tell if Delta uses Facebook to actually communicate to the market.

Delta has also gotten more active in the use of Twitter and now has a staff to respond to Tweets. When I go to their Twitter acccount  they have 78.000 followers, they follow 730 people and it looks like they don’t respond daily as there are lapses in their tweets on their corporate account.  They do have a Twitter account “deltaassist‘  that focuses on resolving customer issues. This account has 2300 followers.

The airlines are waking up to the use Social Media tools. What will be interesting to watch is how they use the technology. Will they enhance the customer experience, listen and react to the market of travelers needs, or will it just be another way to get more money from the traveler with no value added?  

Could Business Aviation and the Air Charter Industry use these same tools to reach the market in a postive and social way?

An Article  titled Six Ways the Travel Industry can use Social Media is a good read if you have the time.

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