Critical communication mistakes by United Airlines

Résumé du document

On the morning of September 11, United Airlines saw their future change before their eyes. Overall, 18 United Airlines employees and 93 passengers were killed in the crashes. At 9:30 am, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all airplanes, closed all airports nationwide and diverted some of its air traffic to Canada. United Airlines was responsible for the crashes, the major shutdown of all their operations, and the passengers and crew members that were stranded across the country. As United Airlines struggles to emerge from bankruptcy, will they be able to repair their poorly managed relationships or fail like many airlines before them?

Extraits

[...] United began a pattern of poor communication during their first contact with the wives of the pilots. On the morning of the crashes, the families of the pilots aboard United Airlines flight 175 and 93 were notified of the crashes in several different ways. Miriam Horrocks, wife of First Officer Michael Horrocks who was piloting flight 175, received notification of her husband's death through a message left on her answering machine. Melodie Homer, wife of LeRoy Homer who piloted flight 93, found out about her husband's death on television. [...]

[...] Who are the constituencies? a. Primary constituencies are the families of the pilots, and the media when they hear about the way United Airlines is treating the families b. Secondary constituencies are the customers, shareholders, communities, because they may be affected by this information 2. Attitude of the constituencies a. Before United Airlines' communication problems with the widows, the constituencies probably had mixed opinions about the airlines b. After United Airlines' communication, the widows certainly dislike the airlines, which will affect any future communication c. [...]

[...] Be prepared before a crisis hits 1. Have a plan in place about how to notify families when a plane crashes or in any crisis situation 2. Have people trained and ready to notify families should a disaster occur, and be with them during the crisis 3. Define critical path: what are the priorities if a crisis occurs? 4. Assign a single point of contact for the families if they have further concerns and to update them with breaking news B. [...]

[...] According to company spokesman Joe Hopkins, “we're proud of what we have done in terms of compensation for all of the victims of both of the accidents. We've met everything that we're contractually responsible for, and we've gone above and beyond and done other kinds of compensation for them”. Creighton used the example of the Employees' Families Fund that United Airlines created after the attacks. United employees, customers, retirees, and vendors donated over $400,000 to the fund, while United kicked in $100,000 to assist people that lost family members in the crashes. [...]

[...] After continuously poor communication, image of United Airlines is poor in the eyes of the families B. Message/Image 1. Best communication channel a. For bad news, such as loss of benefits, United should use a rich media b. Face to face meetings with the widows would be effective c. United should have one person in charge of speaking with the widows so that they can receive accurate and timely information d. Good news can be sent to the widows using a leaner channel, such as a phone call or a letter 2. [...]