How good are airlines at marketing communications in a crisis?

Not very good apparently. Thousands of stranded passengers have complained in various news outlets over the weekend of the lack of information coming from their chosen airlines as to what the plan is to get them up in the air.

What are the airlines doing in terms of communicating to passengers?

The volcanic eruption in Iceland is still causing havoc in European airspace, despite reports that several airlines have sent up test flights with no problems begging the question: Can we go now?

British Airways

Severe flight disruption notice features on the company’s website prompting passengers to click in for brief updates.

“All British Airways flights to and from London airports are cancelled on Sunday 18 and Monday 19 April… We are keeping our flying schedule under constant review and will aim to give you as much notice as possible once we receive more information from NATS.”

Virgin Atlantic

The flight notices is featured in the bottom right hand corner of the page. Not exactly prominent positioning. The notice says:

Flying through an area, or near to volcanic ash is prohibited for safety reasons. Therefore, UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) have extended the closure of UK Airspace until at least 07:00H (UK local time) on Monday 19th April 2010.

Following this decision we have cancelled:

All flights in and out of the UK on Saturday 17th April 2010.
All flights in and out of the UK on Sunday 18th April 2010.
All flights in and out of the UK on Monday 19th April 2010.

As there are no flights departing the UK, the subsequent return flights into the UK will also be cancelled.

Ryanair

Ryanair has done the best at communicating so far. In the middle of its web page under it’s ‘Latest News’ section, it has the headline: Severe Flight Disruptions due to Volcanic Ash

Upon clicking in, passengers can read detailed information about all the flights that are cancelled. A second link leads to a news release about the extent of the cancellations, which will continue until Wednesday this week. There’s even a quote from CEO Michael O’Leary. He says:

“This spreading cloud of volcanic ash is unprecedented in Ryanair’s experience, and we are continuing to work around the clock to minimise its effects on our schedules and passengers. 

“We hope that by cancelling all Ryanair flights over the above affected countries until at least 1300hrs on Wednesday 21st April next, we can give passengers as much notice as possible to allow them plenty of time to apply for refunds or rebook alternative Ryanair flights.”

Easyjet

The easyJet website features a big, bright blue button directing passengers to updates. Upon clicking the button, passengers are prompted to enter their flight information into a ‘status checker’ allowing them to know the exact status of their flights.

The responses from the big international airliners are a little impersonal, unsympathetic and read like a corporate dribble. Aren’t airlines supposed to be superior in delivering customer service? Well, not always in their marketing communications it seems.

As every airline has a website, the extent of how much information these airlines could be delivering to their passengers and customers is endless. So why has only one stepped up to the plate?

Meanwhile, Dubai based international airline Emirates is updating its information on its website every five minutes.

Australian airline Qantas lists every individual flight that is cancelled and all flights that are still scheduled and Singapore Airlines are offering several news updates on its homepage.

Airlines will be enjoying the increase in visitor numbers to their sites. They could seek to cash in further though by doing what Emirates is – updating the information constantly. This really is a chance for airlines to set themselves aside from the competition.