CorpComms Magazine

Mark Hutcheon, director, ReputationInc

Let us start with who had a 'good volcano'? Bus (right until they doubled their prices), train and shipping companies for one. The media got a corking story that pushed the election off the front page and countless previously unheard of boffins and academics got airtime predicting what would happen next.

Naturally, one would expect airlines to be on the flip side of the ledger having a 'bad volcano'. But I think other players suffered worse in perception terms as a result of their handling of the crisis.

The European Union counted for nil as nobody took central charge of coordinating access to transport gateways, evaluating the apparent danger or communicating to transport departments. If it cannot do this, then really, what is the point?

Worse still the regulator, and civil aviation authorities, who called the risk by grounding fleets and closing the skies - only to reopen them - never seemed to have unambiguous evidence to support their decision. Hence, we come to making sense of who is at fault, which often determines whose reputation suffers; the concerted and assertive action of the airline industry to focus on the regulator's delays (and passenger inconvenience) ensured they largely survived the blame game.

Multiple reputations of airline brands were challenged by the impact of the crisis but against form, I believe they managed to isolate themselves from public anger. Poll the public and most will say the blanket ban on air travel was excessive.  I presume they treated stranded travellers well given the vast experience airlines have in crisis management. I liked [BA chief executive] Willie Walsh's dramatic cameo - flying a jet into the airspace. He raised the stakes and got what he wanted - open skies. And he achieved a temporary distraction from the strikes. His reputation has had a good few months.

For the airlines, you could actually argue it was a powerful reminder to politicians and society of how dependent we are on air travel - and to investors how unpredictable the sector is.

Ronel Lehmann, chief executive, Lehmann Communications

With the benefit of hindsight, the ash crisis that swept the UK and the rest of Europe last month was, in my view, handled expertly by both the airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority. Members of the public were under no illusion that the threat was being taken seriously throughout, and yet that every effort was being made to get passengers moving as soon as the conditions would allow.

The airlines gave updates extremely regularly, and though travellers may not have liked what they heard, they could not complain of being ill-informed. The vast majority were being told what was going on every six hours, and were advised how to react accordingly.

Of course it was Willie Walsh, the ever-outspoken chief executive of British Airways, who ultimately took the initiative from a PR perspective. Taking to the skies on a test flight was brave and showed true leadership, as did his apparent decision to put planes in the air heading for London before the official all-clear to land had been given.

Ryanair did not immediately emerge so well, stating publicly that it had no intention of reimbursing customers in line with EU regulations. But its subsequent climbdown will be as well remembered and is, in truth, nothing more than consumers would expect from the thrusting low-cost operator.

The industry is well within its rights in asking the European Commission for financial aid in the wake of the crisis, because this was an extraordinary situation coming at a difficult time for the sector, and was in some ways equivalent to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the US.

The airlines have portrayed themselves as the victims here, and have won passenger sympathy by responding efficiently to a crisis that was not of their making. The only party to emerge shouldering any blame is Mother Nature - a healthy reminder that she alone is the most powerful communicator.

Richard Griffith, head media strategy, Ketchum Pleon

To anyone not aware of the consequences, the television pictures showing the continuing plume of volcanic ash billowing into the skies suggested something almost of beauty.

But the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull's volcano left millions of airline passengers without a way to get home and an aviation industry having to deal with an unprecedented type of crisis. Tired and emotional passengers left airlines facing public opprobrium and, with the planes left idle, it meant hundreds of millions of pounds being lost in an industry already under severe pressure.

In these highly charged situations, communicators need to align closely with those working in the operations side of the business to ensure the information they are sharing is up to date in a constantly changing situation. Careful management of the media is crucial however and the following principles should be remembered:

• Monitor, evaluate and respond across multiple media channels - this crisis was perfect for passengers to use mobile media to share frustrations

• Make sure the company website is constantly updated with the latest information

• Have a fast approvals process for corporate responses - responding fast in crises matters

• Senior executives must be visible in a serious crisis - when the first planes took to the skies to check the seriousness of the volcanic ash, BA's chief executive was on board

Airlines were generally spared the wrath of the media in this crisis because they engaged with them. In this crisis, what passengers needed was communication and the media, particularly the pan-European broadcasters were perfect channels to reach them. While easyJet was one airline that initially stayed out of the press to focus on getting its operations right, when their PR took to the airwaves they displayed the right level of useful information for passengers, calmness and commitment to getting things right. The latest signs from Iceland are that airline communicators will continue to be tested.

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