Low cost airlines e-reputation
Here is a good overview of what you can read on low cost airlines on the Web. This study is fairly thorough yet not exhaustive and I apologize in advance if information or key figures were omitted.
Method:
I decided to check several media such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other sources such as forums and airline review web sites. This overview only concerns the main LCCs, which are Southwest, Ryanair and easyJet. When I decided to conduct this little study, I had initially planned to analyse other budget airlines, but it appears that Wizzair, Air Berlin, Germanwings and Flybe are not airlines people talk much about…
About Twitter, I proceeded in a very organic manner, picking up information that seemed relevant to me and of course other basic data such as the number of followers, etc. Most of the time, Twitter is just a way to spread and share what we’re thinking of at a given moment, which resembles blogging; that’s why blogs and Twitter have been grouped together and share the same icon on the map.
About Facebook, I really focused on the numbers of fans or members of a given group. I looked at the main groups or those that were interesting to mention, because they reflected what I read elsewhere on the Web.
Main trends we observed:
Forums:
Ryanair is the company, which gets people talking the most. Usually they are as much pro as anti on the forum. Most of the time people react to O’Leary strategy or advertising stunts. A lot of these forums also discuss the low cost industry and related news as well as compare the standard and low cost airlines’ business models.
Airline reviews: The Good (SouthWest), the Bad (Ryanair), and the one stuck in the middle (easyJet)
Internet is full of airline reviews and Ryanair passengers mainly relate bad experiences. The main complaints are: delayed/cancelled flights, unhelpful and rude crew, hidden taxes, disrespect towards passengers… The low fares are the most expressed Ryanair advantage.
easyJet, on the other hand, is much less criticised than Ryanair. Most of the complaints are related to usual no frills airlines practices: no seat allocation prior to boarding, poor customer service…
Southwest managed to provide good in-flight experiences to its customers all the while offering low fares. Southwest is the best rated low cost company of the study. Southwest’s customer service is routinely ranked by leading US industry reports as being one of the best, with a very low level of complaints.
Blogs and Twitter:
Two main trends emerge from this mapping.
Internet key opinion leaders are neutral. Neutral, probably because, they simply “broadcast” news. While they sometimes give their opinion, the latter often matches with that is being said in the headlines. In fact, it seems to really depend on the circumstances. For example, if Ryanair were to increase their fares, their articles would be neutral-negative, if, on the other hand, Ryanair were to order 50 new jets, they would be neutral-positive.
On the other hand, there exists an amazing community of people who are openly attacking low cost airlines. This community is large, but less influential, mainly because the content is more personal and hence spontaneous.
Compared to the Internet opinion leaders, I don’t think they communicate and exchange information. Therefore, we have a constellation of bloggers, which are sometimes really angry and who want to let us know, but who are unfortunately disconnected from one another. The community is indeed mostly composed of disappointed customers and sometimes well-informed bloggers, passionate about low costs or the aviation market. They mostly criticise budget airlines’ practices.
Facebook: More hate than love for Ryanair, while Southwest has the biggest fan community
Ryanair has the largest group of haters, with sometimes very expressive group names such as “Ryanair bastard” or “Don’t pay to use a Ryanair Toilet – piss in their seats for free”.
easyjet has more fans that detractors, and Southwest is by far the big winner with the largest group of fans.
O’Leary is the only Chief Executive to have a fan club on Facebook, but he also has group of people who deeply hates him.
One thing that really surprised me was the number of websites that criticise low costs such as Ryanair or easyJet. A significant number of web sites like “I Hate Ryanair”, “Ryanair Customers service” , “Worst of low cost”, “Ryanair Campaign” and “I hate easyJet” are very active in promoting anti-Ryanair or easyJet campaigns.
To conclude, If you have any advice or ways to improve this article please let met know.
Also, if you had mentioned wanting to be on the map, please remind me as I was not sure.
In relation to the mapping, I plan on updating it every two months. So, if you have any recommendations to improve it that would be great!!
It’ll be great to work with you and I look forward to improving the article together as to publish the best possible one.
related article :
Here’s a story that might make the heart just a little bit fonder of easyJet –
http://insidetraveller.co.uk/blog/?p=349
Roman
I look forward to the first update in a couple of months when the effects of the timetable changes have had time to work their way through. A number of questions spring to mind:
Is there a geographical distortion to the distribution of “lover/hater”, ie Spain loves easyJet but France cannot stand them?
Is there a demographic distribution that can be identified? I would guess yes, with more mature passengers less happy with the LCCs.
Is there a time element in the comments, school holidays?
I it possible to put numbers against either category, as a percentage of passengers carried/average load factor, it would be extremely interesting to see a similar iunvestigation on the flag carriers. I have been party to discussions where the World’s Favorite generates as much heat as Ryanair.
As I said it will be fascinating to see the changes over time.
I Roman, I also would like to get answers to the questions above. Thanks
I love that you took the time and backgroud data to look into this! The graphic is great. Is there anyway that it can be published further down the page- so it does not bleed into your twitter interface. It is such interesting data, would love to see the whole thing clearly!
Hi – I’d love to discuss your infographic in depth and ways to improve and expand upon the visualization. Email me if you’re interested in collaborating on this. I’d really like to understand how you define a Key Opinion Leader vs. Internet Influencer. Also, the upper left and lower right quadrants are less crowded which could be an interesting indicator of online social behavior of critics and enthusiasts as it relates the Y-axis.
Cheers,
Ajay
What about airlines web-site’s reputation?