Airports connect us.
They are our starting points for creating vacation memories, business meetings, visiting family and friends, hellos, goodbyes, and many unique personal journeys.
When you work in airport communications and public relations, it is easy to love airports for these very real, human-connection reasons. Your airport is the gateway to your community and beyond, and your team takes pride in helping provide safe air travel and great passenger experiences while celebrating industry wins along the way.
It is natural to focus on the many positives in the industry; however, every airport communications team must anticipate, prepare, and practice how to manage communications for incidents and scenarios that may escalate from routine weather delays and cancellations to aircraft emergencies, accidents, natural disasters, power outages, active shooters and more. On these difficult days, your airport stakeholders, passengers, and the public will rely on your teams to keep them informed with clear, timely information and help protect their safety during what will become a very difficult, trying period.
To be prepared for worst-case scenarios, airports are required by the FAA to conduct annual table-top drills, full-scale triennial drills, and publish Airport Emergency Plans (AEPs).
Airport directors and their communications teams work hand in hand with municipalities, fire chiefs, law enforcement, elected officials, emergency preparedness professionals, and responders to react in an instant with a tried-and-true, well-written, and practiced Crisis Communications Plan. This plan becomes their critical guide during incidents where emotions and stress are pushed to their highest limits.
The reality is not if an incident will happen at your airport but when, and is your team prepared with a thorough Crisis Communications Plan they can lean on?
- Without a Crisis Communications Plan, what does your team do first when an incident occurs?
- Who has the authority to activate emergency communications, and who serves as the backup if that person is unavailable?
- Do the right people have access to passwords for social media accounts and the training to post updates timely or when access to normal daytime technology is suddenly unavailable?
- Without pre-written messages, social media templates, draft press releases, or an emergency microsite process, how quickly could your team share accurate incident information with passengers, employees, media, and the public? Do they have the website tools, media lists and internal notification system?
- Where would your team find current contact information for the internal notifications to airport employees and how would you provide local media with where to gather for media briefings?
- Have you defined how communications should change from routine operational disruptions to major incidents that may impact airport operations for hours or days?
- If a Joint Information Center (JIC) were needed, who would lead it, where would it operate, and what staffing, supplies, approvals, and coordination processes would be required?
Is your airport prepared?
If you don’t have a documented Crisis Communications Plan or haven’t dusted off your plan in a while, now is the time to start. Well documented communication tasks for your team as they relate to incidents and emergency management are critical, and preparation is key. Failed communications should never become part of the emergency storyline. Employees, passengers, and families affected by these incidents rely on your team and the successful execution of your plan for trusted guidance.
Aviatrix Communications is comprised of airport communications professionals with decades of experience to help your team draft, develop, and build a Crisis Communications Plan tailored to your airport’s needs. Whether you are starting without a plan in place today or need assistance formalizing unorganized pieces into one reliable plan that prepares your team for the worst-case scenarios no airport wants to face, we can help.
Together our team will work as an extension of your airport communications team to develop a clear scope of deliverables, review your current processes, gather the information needed to build an actionable Crisis Communications Plan specific to your airport that is reliable, adaptable, and can guide your team for years to come.
Aviatrix Communications can help you build a comprehensive crisis communications plan. Learn more on how to get started today (https://aviatrixcommunications.com/crisis-communications-for-commercial-and-general-aviation-airports/ ).