Delta Air Lines Named Top Airline Online Brand in North America

Delta Air Lines Named Top Airline Online Brand in North America

By James Shillinglaw
July 04, 2012 1:22 PM

Heardable, Inc., a company that measures online brand performance, released a new benchmark report on the"Top 10 Airlines in North America," which assesses the online performance of the top 10 airlines in North America.Delta Air Lines was named to the top spot among all U.S. airlines.

Delta's brand health score of 739 out of 1,000 possible points beat its nearest competitor, United Airlines, by 17 points, and surpassed third place American Airlines by 66 points. The gap between Delta and lowest-ranked Aeromexico was 195 points.

According to Heardable, Delta became the online brand leader due to its proficiency in sharing and syndicating content, social media participation and search optimization. In addition to its website, delta.com, Delta maintains a strong social media presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It also publishes a blog, offers a version of its site that is optimized for mobile smartphone browsing, and publishes a text-only version of its website.

"Delta has accomplished what few brands have been able to do in the digital era," said Jon Samsel, co-founder and CEO of Heardable. "Not only have they finished number one in two consecutive Heardable research reports profiling the effectiveness of the airline industry, but they've manage to make their brand synonymous with a quality online experience -- which in an of itself requires a spirit of listening and a knack for delivering."

According to Heardable, the top airline online brands in North America, in order are Delta, United, American, US Airways, Southwest, JetBlue, WestJet, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Canada and Aeromexico. Notably missing from the survey are Virgin America and Alaska Airlines, both of which would appear to have strong online brand presence.