Airlines conducting crisis management on the ground as well
There has been much ado about Boeing’s crisis situation following the grounding of its 787 Dreamliners, but what about early adopters of the aircraft, like Japan’s All Nippon Airways?
In a recent Bloomberg article, Chris Cooper and Kiyotaka Matsuda spoke with ANA’s in-house crisis management pro, who explained the company’s initial response:
“(ANA president) Ito-san immediately told me to stop all 787 flights,” said Matsuda, 51. “I called the operations center at Haneda airport and gave the order and hopped straight in a cab,” he said, recalling the Jan. 16 incident that led to the global grounding of Boeing Co. (BA) 787s.
With 7 percent of its fleet grounded, Matsuda, the airline’s chief crisis manager, and his staff had to craft a solution while canceling the remaining Dreamliner flights with 6,000 waiting passengers. They set up an emergency center at the airport, staffed with pilots, engineers and logistics specialists operating 24 hours a day to minimize disrupting a network of more than 1,000 daily flights and 175 routes.
As the largest operator of 787’s, ANA has been forced to cancel nearly 800 flights since the incident Feb. 12, but the fallout could have been much worse. Thanks to a willingness to commit fully to crisis management, the airline has been able to make various changes, from plane swaps to delaying cosmetic repairs like paint jobs, that have enabled it to maintain service on every route it flies.
By persevering in the face of crisis and doing its very best to guarantee that, while the company may be facing trouble, travelers can still get to where they need to be, ANA has actually bolstered its own reputation. In the end, ANA’s story may turn out to be the perfect example of turning crisis into opportunity.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/