A couple of months ago we had a quick look at the impact of the Unite strike on BA.  In the past month, the airline has made a couple of key announcements including news on its proposed merger with Iberia and forecasts it would break even by the end of the year, despite posting a Q1 loss.  There have also been several comments on, and about, Twitter.  So it’s been a good time to revisit the UK’s leading airline to gauge the mood in social media.

A bit of social media monitoring using Sentiment Metric’s system helped us to make sense of, and measure, the key drivers of the BA discussion during July.  We monitored thousands of mentions in real-time.

The research was tailored to buzz volumes, the BA discussion, trending topics and the key drivers of positive and negative sentiment.  We also added a human touch to our research to interpret and assess the valuable information generated by our system.

Figure 1: Buzz volumes for the BA discussion – 1/7 to 31/7

Figure 2: Sentiment expressed towards BA in social media – 1/7 to 31/7

So, what’s the mood been like in social media?

In terms of sentiment, there were a couple of stand-out peaks during the month, which generally mirrored the significant spikes in buzz volumes.  These included positive comment on news-driven topics such as EU approval of BA’s merger with Iberia (14/7) and excitement that passengers could for the first time check in using an iPhone app (19/7).

On the merger, BA CEO Willie Walsh said: “We await the DOT’s final decision, but welcome this important and vital step forward.” (CNN 14/7)

airnewz (19/7) tweeted: ‘Wow… blogger gets all excited because british airways passengers can use iPhone to board’.

Figure 3: Topic cloud for the BA discussion – 1/7 to 31/7

Looking at the topic cloud, we noticed Twitter was a trending topic in itself.  BA’s move to add details of its micro-blog account on boarding passes was one of the key drivers of mentions (20/7).

But, there were also negative mentions, reflected in a spike on 5 July.  These included furious tweets from cricketer Shane Warne.

Warne said: “I hate British airways, way to arrogant and rude towards people!! Will not be flying with them again after my return from Vegas.” (Sky News 6/7)

The failed strike negotiations (20/7) and prospects of passenger disruption also generated less favourable mentions.

The airline’s quarterly loss (30/7) sparked a mixed response.  The negative sentiment score by our system was high regarding its £122m Q1 loss.  However, this was countered by a positive message from BA that it was in recovery and forecast to break even by the end of the year.

Alistair Osborne on Telegraph.co.uk (30/7) pointed out the strike action had cost the airline £150m during the quarter: ‘No business can carry on like that’ and talked of recent ‘carnage’.

On the flipside, Osborne acknowledged that striking staff might eventually pick up on the fact ‘… they are working for a business finally going somewhere’.  BA posted a ’surprisingly strong’ hike in revenues from seats at 13.5% and the outlook remained positive buoyed by its merger with Iberia, a deal with American Airlines and its non-reliance on a cyclical recovery.  There could well be blue skies ahead for BA.