Business Platform
Air France
Improving performance with messages on WhatsApp at every stage of the customer journey
Brand
WhatsApp Business Solution Provider
The global airline improved customer care and business performance by implementing marketing messages to promote offers and upgrades, service messages to answer customer questions about their trip, utility messages to share boarding passes and flight updates, and two-factor authentication to securely verify customers.
4.5X
Higher click-through rate for best offer newsletter messages on WhatsApp compared to emails*
85%
of all customer care conversations on social took place on WhatsApp*
*Results are self-reported and not identifiably repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
Their Story
France's largest airline
Air France is the country’s largest airline, with flights to nearly 200 destinations around the globe. The company estimates that it sells one ticket every five seconds on its digital platforms.
Their Goal
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Keeping pace with global travelers
To keep pace with the habits and preferences of busy modern customers, Air France sent messages on WhatsApp at every stage of the travel journey.
“At Air France, we believe every customer touchpoint represents an opportunity for engagement and growth. We’re using messages on WhatsApp to drive value across the customer lifecycle. WhatsApp plays a pivotal role, unlocking cost savings and new avenues of revenue while emphasizing retention and long-term engagement.”
Gauthier Le Masne
VP, Digital Marketing, Air France
Their Solution
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Messages for every stage of the journey
Air France promotes its WhatsApp channel across all its digital surfaces, including its website, social accounts and emails. It also routinely promotes its WhatsApp travel offers newsletter via ads that click to WhatsApp. After opting in to receive marketing and customer communications from Air France on WhatsApp, customers are sent messages at every stage of their journey.
Marketing messages: Air France partnered with Meta Business Partner Alcmeon to send its “best offers” newsletter promoting the latest promotions and exciting destinations to its customer list via marketing messages on WhatsApp. Air France also used marketing messages to send seat, meal and luggage upgrade offers to travelers who had already booked their trips.
Utility messages: Once travelers have booked their flights, Air France sends boarding passes and important flight information such as gate changes, check-in times and other time-sensitive updates via utility messages on WhatsApp.
Service messages: Air France uses WhatsApp’s service messages feature to respond to clients’ specific questions about their trip. When a customer sends a message on WhatsApp asking about their traveler miles, luggage or any other need, Air France responds right away. Customers typically answer a series of automated questions before being transferred to a conversation with a live service agent if needed.
Authentication messages: When a customer forgets their password and needs access to their account or needs to confirm that they have opted in to receive messages on WhatsApp, Air France uses two-factor authentication to verify their identity. As part of this process, Air France sends one-time passwords (OTPs) using authentication messages on WhatsApp. Customers have five minutes to copy and paste the code before it expires.
Their Success
Strong customer engagement
Air France exchanged more than 33 million messages on WhatsApp with its customers during a one-year period (April 2024–April 2025). During that time, the team saw:
- 4.5X higher click-through rate for best offer newsletter messages on WhatsApp compared to emails*
- 85% of all customer care conversations on social took place on WhatsApp*
- 10 million utility messages sent (WhatsApp Manager, April 8, 2024–April 8, 2025)
- More than 3 million authentication messages sent (WhatsApp Manager, April 8, 2024–April 8, 2025)
*Results are self-reported and not identifiably repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
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