Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has been named ‘Best Overall in Middle East’ at the SimpliFlying Awards 2015. The awards recognise excellence and innovation in social media and marketing campaigns in the aviation industry.
Winners were announced last week at a glittering ceremony during the Travel Distribution Summit North America in Las Vegas, which was attended by more than 350 travel and hospitality executives. An expert panel of industry experts selected Etihad Airways as winner of the Best Overall in Middle East Award, in recognition of the airline’s innovativeness, engagement and business impact in the social space over the past 24 months.
“We are delighted to win this important award, which is a great reflection on our commitment to delivering powerful, effective social media strategies and campaigns,” Shane O’Hare, Etihad Airways’ Senior Vice President Marketing, said. “Social media is an integral part of our communications mix. We will continue to raise the bar in the global travel industry by creatively integrating digital and social media into our overall marketing and business strategy to enhance guest experience.”
Shashank Nigam, SimpliFlying’s CEO, said Etihad Airways had made tremendous progress in the last year in using social media, especially for customer service initiatives like the Twitter channel for elite flyers. “It is a trailblazer in the Middle East, an innovative way to engage passengers,” said Nigam.
Etihad Airways implemented various initiatives on its social media channels including a best-in-class customer service strategy, with a 90 per cent response rate and with 80 per cent of all enquiries answered within 10 minutes. Guests can communicate 24-hours a day in multiple languages including English, Arabic, Mandarin, German and Italian.
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