How Swiss airlines is harnessing the power of social media to inform stranded passengers

Following our story yesterday, How good are airlines at marketing communications in a crisis?,we came across this story on Swiss newspaper site Bazonline about how Swiss Air is dealing with the crisis.

They seem to doing quite well actually, employing the power of social media in order to communicate with disgruntled passengers that are fed up with having to wait for up to two hours on the phone to speak to a representative.

Reports out early this morning suggest that a new ash cloud could further delay the opening of airspace over the EU. But others say that airports will open this morning – the influx of information from all European countries and various news outlets means that passengers are relying on their chosen airlines to update them with correct and up-to-the-minute information.

Swiss Air is delivering updates via its Facebook page – and at the same time winning praise from passengers. 

The Facebook page of the airline has transformed itself in the last couple of days from a marketing and advertising platform to a “Helping Hand Service”.

The requests from desperate passengers come from all over the world while an anonymous employee sends replies. The employee even apologies for the delay in response.

The airline’s Facebook page also allows fellow travelers to pass on information and tips.

swissair’S Facebook fan page has close to 7,000 fans.

The airline is actually pretty good at social media so it’s not surprising that its staff are on board with Facebook.

It’s website actually has a dedicated social media website where passenger can find Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, Flickr pictures and FriendFeed updates.

Here is the latest Twitter feed as displayed on the airlines homepage: @nique88888 Thanks! And now we have good news – we will start flying again!