CEB attracts fast-growing following on Chinese social media websites

Creating a buzz on Chinese social networking sites,
CEB amasses tens of thousands of mainland fans in just 14 months

The Philippines’ leading national flag carrier, Cebu Pacific (PSE:CEB) has established a powerful online presence on the Chinese mainland and now ranks between 5th and 17th most popular airline on the country’s top three social media websites.

In just the first 14 months since it connected with Chinese social media communities, CEB has attracted over 60,000 fans and followers, according to an August survey by independent digital marketing company, NetBooster Asia.

CEB came 5th out of 91 public listings for aircraft services on Kaixin (http://www.kaixin001.com/) . It had the 13th most popular page out of over 500 aircraft listings on Renren Network (http://www.renren.com/) and was ranked 17th out of more than 500 aircraft accounts on Weibo (http://weibo.com/), the country’s number one microblogging site.

The low-cost carrier is now more popular online than many other domestic and international airlines, including those who have had a much longer Chinese social media presence. On Kaixin, CEB ranked higher than Hong Kong Airlines and Air India; it beat Singapore Airlines and Korean Airlines on RenRen; and its Weibo account has thousands more followers than other overseas carriers such as Air France and Qatar Airways.

“We are very excited by the warm welcome our Chinese fans have given us on social networking sites,” said Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific Vice President for Marketing and Distribution. “Our online popularity is a reflection of the great relationship that we have carefully built between CEB and our Chinese customers. We really value the chance to communicate on a personal level to our growing customer base in China and hope to further enhance this relationship by adding even more tailored services and special offers.”

The survey also showed that as of August 2012, CEB had 55,179 Weibo followers, 1,632 fans on Renren and 2,915 fans on Kaixin. Trailing CEB were Air France with 54,967 Weibo followers, Hong Kong Airlines with 2,298 Kaixin fans and Korean Airlines with 1,102 fans on Renren.

“Some of our competitors established their online Chinese social media presence more than a year before us, and the fact that we have amassed tens of thousands of online follows in just 14 months is truly a recognition of how CEB has been tailoring its services by adding more routes and offering our trademark low-cost fares to our customers on the mainland,” Iyog added.

CEB recently launched a new thrice-weekly route between Xiamen and Manila and also increased its Beijing-Manila frequency to four times weekly. The airline currently also flies from Shanghai and Guangzhou to Manila.

CEB currently operates 10 Airbus A319, 21 Airbus A320 and 8 ATR-72 500 aircraft. Its fleet of 39 aircraft – with an average age of 3.6 years – is the largest aircraft fleet in the Philippines. Between 2012 and 2021, Cebu Pacific will take delivery of 21 more Airbus A320 and 30 Airbus A321neo aircraft orders. It is slated to begin long-haul services in the 3rd quarter of 2013.

Sourced: etravelblackboardasia