Crisis Comms Lessons from Southwest’s Flight Cancellation Calamity
Had Southwest followed its own advice, the company could have avoided flying into a head-on communications crisis.
When Chicago PR expert Kathleen Connelly stepped into the middle of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster in 1979, she had a simple formula for crisis communications: “Tell it all, tell it accurately and tell it fast.”
Connelly died in 1998, but her advice would have come in handy for a more recent meltdown — Southwest Airlines’ near-shutdown of operations last month.
Southwest’s story began on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, when Winter Storm Elliott’s huge snowfall and bitter cold forced all airlines to cancel thousands of flights nationwide. But Southwest continued canceling flights — more than 16,000 flights in late December — as its competitors resumed regular schedules. The cancelations were a sharp reversal for a company that’s proud of its customer service, which has helped cultivate a devoted base of customers.
In 2017, Linda Rutherford, Southwest’s chief administration and communications officer, offered her own formula for crisis communications. At the time, a computer outage hampered operations for three days. She said: “Explain the cause, the effects and what you’re doing to make it right.”
By most accounts, the airline fell short on all three: failing to provide details of its antiquated computer system, not fully explaining the effects of that system on its operations and offering little about how they would fix it.
The silence, delays and lack of detail come as a surprise. The Dallas-based carrier has a highly regarded communications department and its views on how it handled the crisis would be valuable. However, the media relations team did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment. Perhaps it’s too soon.
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