Airlines online: the good, the bad and the ugly

At the time when Sergio Leone was producing his movie “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” social media as we know it today did not exist; however, if it had been adapted to our modern day, the scenery of the desert and old taverns would be represented by the internet and various online platforms. For airlines, the realm of social media can indeed be compared to the Wild West, where angry customers shoot tweets and comments soaked in agitation. Needless to say, most airlines try to respond with thoughtful and timely replies, but, as we all probably know, being reactive in any business nowadays usually constitutes the second best option only. Yet, what are the alternatives, if any? According to Anca Merfea from the External Relations at IATA, responsiveness and contingency planning are the most often overlooked parts of social media communication.

The showdown at high noon

A classic scene from most Westerns portrays two gunmen preparing for the shootout, waiting for each other to draw the gun. In the case of an airline online, it is a Crisis Communication expert preparing to deal with any sort of calamities. Two such experts, John Bailey and Ernest DelBuono, share their experience and knowledge on how not to get hit and what to do if the bullet of crisis has pierced without any warning.

John Bailey is currently the Managing Director at Ketchum. With more than 16 years of experience in airline crisis communications, John is a veteran who has worked with more than 60 airlines, was employed by the Kenyon International Emergency Services (the world’s largest disaster management company), had his own PR agency, and helped IATA to develop the first “best practice” guidelines for Crisis Communications in the Age of Social Media.

Ernest DelBuono, the Senior Vice President and Chair of LEVICK’s Crisis Practice, boasts over 25 years’ experience as a crisis manager. After the 9/11 attacks he worked with American Airlines as a first responder at the Dulles Airport. He also assisted in setting up and managing the family assistance centre, which provided care to the families of those on Flight 77 who died at the Pentagon.

The good

Just like in a shootout, a timely reaction is the key to surviving a crisis. Not unlike Blondie, who understood the situation and made mutually beneficial decisions, airlines that monitored the winds of social media, grasped the floating ideas and reached out to the people achieved outstanding results. Indeed, social media can become a powerful tool in airlines’ communications, if used professionally.

John Bailey provides an example of an airline which used social media effectively in a mini “crisis”. Singapore Airlines once had been forced to make a diversion and emergency landing of an A380 flying London-Singapore into Baku, Azerbaijan after the cabin slowly depressurised. The passengers were stranded in the transit area of the airport because they did not have visas to enter Azerbaijan, so they could not be accommodated in a hotel while Singapore Airlines found another A380 to fly up to Baku and collect them. The airport had free wi-fi, so many of the passengers took to social media to upload photos of themselves wearing oxygen masks in the cabin, or posted complaints about the lack of services and facilities in Baku. The social media team of Singapore Airlines engaged directly with the passengers via its Facebook page and kept them informed about the progress in despatching another flight and what had been done to protect the connecting bookings, etc. The SQ posted so much information on Facebook that they did not have to issue a press release, because journalists followed the story via the online posts. The SQ did not receive a single media enquiry about the incident whilst other customers and SQ online “fans” posted numerous supportive comments on the Facebook page which were very positive towards the airline.

The bad

Just as Angel Eyes sought his own merit, without consideration of the value to others, airlines can slip if they use social media narrow-mindedly. “Communicators often fall in love with a tool and stop thinking about when, where, and how to use it. It’s like using a sledge hammer to hit in a finishing nail,“ says Ernest DelBuono, giving an example of the recent event:

„When the MH370 disappeared, Malaysian Airlines used Twitter to efficiently communicate general information to families. They provided info such as the locations and times of press conferences, family briefings and counselling sessions. However, using Twitter to notify all the families who had been deprived of their loved ones presumed dead felt cold and seemingly thoughtless. The action subjected them to considerable world-wide criticism.“

Furthermore, expert tells, the most overlooked component in a crisis plan is taking the time, in advance, to identify the social media outlets airlines can tap into to relay information. „While the entire universe of online sites need not be identified, ensuring that you communicate with high-influence bloggers is essential, “he points out.

An advice Mr. DelBuono gives is to think about the appropriate channels for different phases of a crisis. „Effectively leveraging social media as an airline depends on which audience you are trying to reach and selecting the appropriate social media platform to reach them, “says the SVP of LEVICK Crisis Practice, „Twitter is a tool to communicate in real time and, therefore, tweeting and messaging in the initial stage of a crisis is different from messaging and content of a later stage. Social media tools have to be recalibrated to meet the requirements of each phase.“

And the ugly

Differently from Sergio Leone’s Tuco, unprepared and inattentive behaviour will yield far from funny results in the context of online communications. If an airline fails to react fast in a crisis situation, it is not unlike getting a nasty rattle-snake bite and just waiting for the poison to spread. “The benchmark is to issue the first acknowledgement of an accident or serious incident via online channels within 15 minutes,” says Mr. Bailey.

“The most common problem when it comes to online crisis communications is that most airlines either do not have a specific plan for communicating via social media platforms in a crisis, or their crisis communication plans do not consider online channels at all,” says Ketchum’s Managing Director, adding that “if the communications department does not manage the “owned” social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook, there can be a lack of coordination internally in a crisis.”

To illustrate the point, John gives an example of Qantas after the QF32 incident in November 2010. The airline did not use its social media channels until after the aircraft had returned to land in Singapore two hours after the engine had exploded. But there had been an online social media “storm” while the aircraft was still airborne, during which some news media reported that the A380 had actually crashed. Qantas was silent during this period, and two of its Twitter feeds (owned by the US commercial team) had no information about the breaking story. After the QF32, Qantas introduced a new social media policy and started its Twitter feed which was later merged into a 24/7 online newsroom.

Into the sunset

All in all, modern technologies have brought a myriad of communication tools, but at the same time they have left too little room for businesses like airlines to make a mistake. Airlines have to be prepared for the worst, confident in their message and consistent in their online communication to stand strong in the future.