KLM confirms Facebook Messenger play

Dutch airline KLM has said it will offer booking confirmation and boarding passes for customers via Facebook Messenger by the end of the year.

The airline will likely be the first to  be active on the Messenger and plans to add additional services going forward.

Speaking at World Travel Market earlier this month Facebook head of travel Lee McCabe suggested the airline would also add a booking service and the ability to purchase ancillary items and upgrades.

In short, he said that Messenger could become the place for businesses and their customers to communicate with all interactions in one thread.

KLM is already experiencing significant growth in the use of messaging apps such as WeChat, Korea's KaoKaoTalk, and Messenger and views them as the "future of customer communication through social."

The airline said recently that when it activated Messenger it saw a 40% increase in the volume of questions from users.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, KLM emerged top of the Travel Social Media Benchmark from eDigitalResearch with the report measuring elements such as fans and followers as well as frequency of posts and engagement levels.