The global airline industry continues to grow rapidly together with increased competition with new airlines joining the force yearly. However, profitability in the industry is actually one of the lowest across industries. So then, why is it that so many still choose to go into this industry? Even Michael Porter himself cant comprehend this.

In order for an airline carrier to survive a competitive environment, the key is for them to get a larger share of the market over their competitors in order to increase profits. To do this, airlines need to increase their brand awareness and better engage their customers.

Accordingly, the research questions are as follows:

1. How should a budget airline like Scoot increase its brand awareness on Facebook?
2. How should a budget airline like Scoot engage their users on Facebook?
3. What sort of content works on Facebook for a budget airline such as Scoot?

Through Facebook tracking of the posts on Scoot, AirAsia and KLM, the main findings through the comparison of these Facebook platforms revealed the following: Firstly, promotional posts and visually appealing posts increase both awareness and engagement for budget airlines. Secondly, advertorial posts and editorial posts that provide little value to readers are not effective for increasing awareness of budget airlines. Lastly, positive engagement can be achieved with prompt, accurate and sensitive replies.

Accordingly, here are the strategies a budget airline should adopt.

Firstly, budget airlines maintain their promotional deals and post content with visually appealing imagery to improve their awareness and engagement. Secondly, budget airlines must keep in mind to cater the content to suit budget travelers. Lastly, budget airlines should always work on increasing positive engagement levels.

Through these suggestions, hopefully, Scoot will be able to better manage their current advantageous social media position by boosting brand awareness and engagement and in the process, tide through the problems faced by the airline industry and increase its market share.

Jeslyn