Australia’s biggest airlines are struggling to get their digital strategies off the ground, with a new report revealing major gaps in website performance, social media engagement and online customer experiences.
A new study by Digital Index Lab (DIL), powered by Humo Rojo, has assessed Australia’s four leading airlines across social media, website performance, search engine optimisation (SEO) and digital innovation.
The September 2026 report found that while airlines are investing heavily in digital technology, none has managed to establish clear leadership across all areas.
Website performance emerged as a particular weakness, with the four carriers recording an average health score of just 70 out of 100, below the 75–90 range considered healthy for transaction-heavy travel websites.
The best-performing airline homepage scored 95, while the worst managed just 50, a whopping 45-point gap.
The report warned that poor website performance could lead to abandoned bookings, more expensive advertising campaigns and weaker search rankings.
Technical SEO was another area of concern. Two airlines passed all four basic technical checks, while one failed every test.
TikTok takes off as LinkedIn lags
When it came to social media, TikTok was the clear winner, recording the highest engagement rates across all four airlines.
The leading carrier achieved a visible engagement rate of 9.93 per cent on TikTok, nearly three times that of its next-best channel.
Instagram remained a key platform for visual storytelling, while Facebook attracted the biggest audiences, with one carrier boasting up to 1.7 million followers.
LinkedIn, however, was largely overlooked, recording engagement rates of just 0.09 to 0.23 per cent.
DIL identified the professional networking platform as a major untapped opportunity, particularly given the importance of corporate travel to the aviation industry.
Meanwhile, X (formerly Twitter) appeared to have been abandoned, with the airlines going between 170 and 719 days without posting.
Despite individual successes, the report found that none of the airlines had managed to create a cohesive social media strategy across their channels.
Airlines score highly on AI and innovation
It wasn’t all bad news for the carriers.
Three of the four airlines achieved a perfect score of 100 for digital innovation, reflecting their reported use of AI, automation and marketing technology.
The fourth scored 60, bringing the industry average to 90.
However, DIL found that airlines were failing to connect their digital capabilities into a seamless customer journey, from discovering a destination on social media to making a booking and joining a loyalty program.
Three carriers scored 80 out of 100 for their wider digital ecosystems, while the fourth trailed behind on 59.
“No airline has consolidated digital leadership,” the report concluded.
“The first carrier to integrate solid web performance, a connected social ecosystem, content-led SEO and applied technology into a single booking journey will set the digital standard for Australian aviation.”
The study assessed Australia’s four leading airlines by domestic market share, based on BITRE data to April 2026. Individual airlines were not identified alongside their scores in the published findings.
DIL’s website performance assessment focused on airline homepages, meaning potential impacts on booking abandonment were inferred rather than directly measured.
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