EgyptAir's Social Media Team Keeps Cool as Tourists Flee the Country

August was a bad month for Egyptian tourism.

Tourists fled as the military murdered hundreds of ousted President Morsi's supporters, Cairo went up in flames, and curfews were instituted in cities.

Thousands of European tourists staying in Red Sea Resorts left the country in a matter of days and arrivals at Egypt's airports dropped more than 40 percent in one week.

All this is on top of the estimated $400 million a month that Egypt was already losing in tourism revenues due to ongoing political conflicts.

Despite all of this, the country's flag carrier EgyptAir is keeping its cool on social media and going about business as usual.

In a travel update posted on EgyptAir's website on August 25, the airline announced that all international and domestic flights were operating as normal with zero planned cancellations.

More Active Than Ever

According to Skift's social data dashboard SkiftSocial, EgyptAir sent an average of 10.5 tweets a day for the past two weeks. This is higher than the average number of daily tweets, 4.2, that it's sent since the account's launch

EgyptAir doesn't comment on political strife. It promotes autumn sales, plays travel trivia, and assists customers.

Ninety-one, or 62 percent, of the 147 tweets it sent over the past two weeks are replies or retweets. The account points followers to airport hotels available for flyers arriving after curfew, sends them relevant phone numbers, and relays complaints to the "relevant department," which some customers think means the garbage.

EgyptAir also talks to customers on its Facebook page where it replies 90 percent of customers' posts within 3 hours.

EgyptAir posts and replies in both English and Arabic, although English is primary language on Twitter.

Below are some typical tweets from the airline that keeps tweeting despite plummeting air traffic and a national crisis:

Good morning, coffee in the sky has a special feeling, Retweet if you agree ! pic.twitter.com/dHmG3Sjdxx
— EGYPTAIR (@flyegyptair) September 5, 2013

Good morning. Which Egyptian city do you want to visit this summer? pic.twitter.com/PVM0UxfOaz — EGYPTAIR (@flyegyptair) August 27, 2013

@aswanbcn it's free Dear Helena :)
— EGYPTAIR (@flyegyptair) September 5, 2013

@jamw Cairo airport will provide you with places to stay in till 6 am
— EGYPTAIR (@flyegyptair) August 21, 2013

kindly note that all #EGYPTAIR sales offices are open today and ready to offer all reservation and ticketing services.
— EGYPTAIR (@flyegyptair) August 17, 2013