London City airport has launched a new service enabling passengers to be sent real-time information about their flight via Facebook Messenger.
Travellers simply need to send a Facebook message containing their flight number on the day of travel, and they will then receive personalised flight information including flight status, departure and arrival time, and boarding gate numbers.
The service can also be used by those waiting for passengers to arrive on flights into London City.
The initiative coincides with analysis from the airport showing that the proportion of under-35s travelling through London City airport in the first quarter of this year reached 35 per cent.
Commenting on the new service Alison FitzGerald, chief information officer at London City Airport, said:
“The majority of our passengers are connected to social media and many of these are business travellers, so it makes perfect sense to offer flight updates directly to their smartphones via Facebook Messenger.
“We already offer free wifi and a check-in time of 20 minutes or less, and this is another way of ensuring a hassle-free, personalised customer experience.”
Facebook users can access the airport’s flight info service at facebook.com/LCYflightinfo. London City also provides a personalised Twitter update service at twitter.com/LCYFlightinfo.
There are currently one billion active users of Facebook Messenger worldwide, and travel companies are increasingly using the service to provide information to their customers.
Skyscanner recently launched a Facebook Messenger bot as an alternative to its traditional search engine, and Dutch airline KLM has also launched a Facebook Messenger service, allowing users to get up to date flight information and receive their boarding passes through the app.
