Qantas to media: Don’t be twits
The dangers of Twitter in alerting news organisations to breaking news were exposed by the incident involving a Qantas A380 over Singapore last November, the airline says.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said media organisations should check the facts before running Twitter-created stories.
Joyce said the events of November 4 last year escalated to crisis level when Twitter reported that a Qantas A380 had crashed after one of its engines exploded over Indonesia.
“We first noticed a problem when our share price started to collapse, and that’s because of these reports coming out of Twitter,” Joyce told The World Today.
“They were reported by one mainstream media outlet on the basis of the Twitter reports that the aircraft had crashed in Indonesia and that started to obviously cause a problem with the share price,” he said.
Joyce says Qantas quickly confirmed the A380 had not crashed but was still in the air, and the airline issued a media release to correct the Twitter report.
Joyce urged journalists not to believe everything that is tweeted.
“I think it is important that major media outlets don’t pick up on
Twitter commentary and report it as fact, which is what happened in this case, and I think that was a bit disappointing,” Joyce said.
As a result of the A380 issue, Qantas is now active in social networking and teams monitor both Twitter and Facebook and respond to comments.
“In this modern day and age with social media, you have to be responsive immediately.
“You have to be out there with the facts very fast, so it’s changing the whole dynamic and speed to market that organisations like Qantas have to respond to.”
Ian Jarrett
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Qatar Airways offers flexible payment options for European travellers
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt
Digital Travel Reporter of the Mirror totally seduced by HotelPlanner AI Travel Agent
Strike action set to cause travel chaos at Brussels airports
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025