The Communication Process in Airlines’ Crisis Management
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Abstract
T
he objective of this research is to study airlines’ crisis communication, before,
during and after a crisis. The research is conducted using a mixed-method that combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study consists of two parts. The first focuses on the Public Relations (PR) of value of airlines during 2010-2014 by collecting data of airlines’ PR value from newspapers. The second part involves in-depth interviews with airline executives and staff as well as crisis communication management experts in social media.
The results of part one show that the three highest number of airline PR values were found with Thai Airways, Air Asia and Bangkok Airways. The in-depth interviews in the second part present the airlines’ crisis communication management activities during different time periods. To prepare, prior to a crisis, they will prepare a crisis plan, communication tools and connections; train employees; simulate the plan; form a crisis team and practice safety drills. During a crisis, actions included implementing crisis analysis and management, data collection, arranging internal meetings to give updates, establishing a PR operation center, determining targeted audiences, choosing content designs and communication tools, controlling news sources and providing media updates. Finally, following the crisis, the procedures consisted of crisis summary, situation recovery and crisis management evaluation.
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