Facebook Messenger gains its first airline bot

Facebook Messenger airline bot iPHone screenshot 001

Facebook on Thursday announced it is launching its first airline information bot within the Messenger app.

The social network has been enhancing Messenger’s functionality on a regular basis with new features beyond chatting and has recently added a Transportation tab that lets users in the United States request a ride from Uber.

Messenger’s airline bot lets KLM Royal Dutch Airlines customers manage their flights and browse their flight information within the app, without ever leaving their chats.

After booking a ticket with KLM, the bot will send Messenger users details like boarding passes, delay notifications, itinerary details and more. The bot is interactive so people can chat with it and even receive answers from a human KLM staff member.

Facebook has said that it will eventually enable airline bot functionality in more markets.

“This is starting to roll out today and will be more widely available around the world in the coming days and weeks,“ noted the social networking behemoth.

By the way, Messenger was refreshed yesterday in the App Store with an improvement that puts your call history and missed calls all in one place.

Messenger counted more than 800 million active monthly users as of January 2016.

Source: Facebook