More airports have invested in social media this year, and are set to increase their budgets in 2014, according to Airport Social Media Outlook 2013/ 2014 – a research survey conducted by SimpliFlying with 46 of the most active airports online across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

While most airports faced the same challenges from last year with insufficient resource allocation at the top of the list, there is a higher level of optimism to increase budget for next year with European airports leading this front.

Pictured left: Kuala Lumpur International Airport”

According to SimpliFlying, a consulting firm in aviation marketing, 51% of airports stated they would be increasing their social media budgets for 2014, with European airports leading this front. A year ago only 38% of airports were confident of increasing their budgets.

The report also found that marketing departments have been contributing more budget to social media, while corporate communication departments have contributing more manpower.

“Currently, most airports’ social media budgets are centred around marketing activities. However, things may take a change next year as attention shifts potentially towards customer service,” said David McMullen, SimpliFlying’s vice president for airports.

Other key findings:

• 15% of airports invested more than US$50,000 into social media this year.
• Two-thirds of the airports invested at least one day of social media training for staff.
• The top social networks used by airports globally are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube except in North America where the dominant platform used by airports is Twitter.
• Brand awareness is the number one business goal that airports are driving through social media, followed by Customer Service.
• The biggest challenge faced by airports on social media is the insufficient allocation of resource, as cited by 60% of the airports.

More statistics are in the infographic below: