Airlines and the Coronavirus - how are they responding?

Things will almost certainly have moved on since writing this article, however as ofearly March, this is how airlines were responding to, and in particular communicatingwith the wider public about, the coronavirus.

Cathay Pacific

One of the worst affectedairlines from the Covid-19outbreak is Hong Kong’sCathay Pacific, due to itsreliance on mainland Chinatraffic.

While most airlines arerelying on fairly functionaltext-based website pagesthat simply presentinformation on cancelledflights and restricted destinations,Cathay Pacifichas created a clear, easy tounderstand visual guideheaded ‘10 things we’redoing to reassure you.’

This includes thoroughdisinfection of personal television screens, meal tables, baby bassinet tables, and armrests across the aircraft after every flight, increased temperature checks on arrival and health declaration forms. The airline has also modified in-flight services on China flights.

As a piece of communication this is good. You can grasp what Cathay Pacific is saying within a minute, but at the same time it also looks detailed and credible.

Most importantly you can access this information directly from a link via the homepage. This is the right way to go. It’s on passengers minds, so you might as well be up front in providing reassurance.

Delta

We’ve in the past praised Delta for the way it presents information on it’s website (for example, its online media centre is best practice), and the covid-19 information is no exception.

Though there are fewer graphics and visual aids than Cathay Pacific, there’s a whole series of web pages designed to reassure travellers.

This includes a video from the airline’s chief experience officer, Bill Lentsch, giving a summary of what Delta is doing to react to the situation and keep passengers safe, and a very good ‘six ways Delta is supporting healthy flying’ article.

ANA

In contrast, Japan’s ANA also has a link on its website to its Coronavirus page, but here the information is quite dense, almost technical.

You have to scroll down quite far down the page until you get to information about how aircraft are being cleaned and disinfected. The page also has no visuals on it.

Qantas

Similarly, Qantas has a page largely about immigration restrictions in various countries. Only at the bottom do we get to a section about cleaning, much of it seems to be in boilerplate, corporate language, e.g. ‘We adopt the highest standard in cleaning and disinfecting our cabins.’

Again, our recommendation would be to have something that’s both visual, and that gives the impression as if the airline really is going the extra mile to keep the cabin environment clean.

Qatar Airways

On March 3rd, Qatar Airways released a video on social media showing staff (in full body suits) giving an aircraft a deep clean. Six months ago this isn’t the kind of video an airline would release, and it certainly wouldn’t be the sort of video to get 25k views in a day.

However, passengers want reassurance, and that includes showing how you are maintaining a hygienic cabin environment.

Alitalia

Given that the Italian national airline is exposed to one of the Covid-19 high risk spots, Northern Italy, we were surprised at the information on the Alitalia website.

Yes, it’s all there in terms of information, but it’s presented as a series of country by country drop down menus with a block of dense text at the bottom. While this gives information, it doesn’t reassure and it isn’t done in a user friendly and let alone visual manner.

Singapore Airlines

A number of airlines are now cutting capacity and asking staff to take unpaid leave. Any airline executive thinking of making an announcement like that could do worse than look at the example of Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines senior management took a pay cut with CEO Goh Choon Phong leading the way with a 15% pay cut. Further down the line, senior vice presidents took a 10% cut and senior managers saw their salaries decrease by 5%.

Leading travel and aviation blogger Ben Schlappig called it ‘impressive.’ Quite simply it shows leadership, it demonstrates that the very team, including the person at the very top is sharing in any sacrifices.

It turns what could be a negative story (airline cuts capacity) into a positive one (senior managers show solidarity and leadership).

Emirates

Contrast that to airlines like Emirates, which is also looking to cut capacity. It’s request for staff to take unpaid leave didn’t receive the same public response, because it simply looked like the airline was asking the lowest paid to take on the biggest burden.

Air New Zealand

To try and stimulate demand, Air New Zealand offered 1000 bargain basement fares at NZ$9 across 32 routes. The result? They sold out within an hour of going on sale. For now at least, if the price is low enough, it seems that people will still go for it.

Air New Zealand also released this video from its chief medical officer, on social media. As well as talking about what happens if a passenger falls ill, Dr Ben Johnston mentions aircraft filtration systems as well as cleaning procedures as a way of reassuring passengers.

Finally as a sign of how the virus is spreading, a passenger brought it back toNew Zealand on a Singapore - Auckland flight, from the other side of the worldin Northern Italy where she had been on holiday.

AirAsia Unlimited Pass

If you live in Malaysia, RM499 (c. US $120) would have got you a year’s worth of travel to Australia, Japan, Korea, China and India, provided you paid up before March 6th.

The announcement was quite clearly covid-19 related. According to AirAsia X Malaysia CEO Benyamin Ismail, “we want to restore traveller’s confidence amid the current sentiment towards flying. Travelling is still very safe as long as everyone travels responsibly and is kept updated by World Health Organisation (WHO) or respective government’s travel advice.“

Subject to terms, all AirAsia Unlimited Pass holders are empowered to take unlimited flights between Kuala Lumpur and Australia, Japan, India and more within a year’s time (travel period between 2 March 2020 and 2 March 2021) subject to government taxes and fees, add ons and other charges.

WestJet

WestJet has an excellent and user-friendly page, with a clear diagram showing ‘the risk to Canadians’ (at time of writing it was set to low). Again, graphics like this are important.

Air Transat

Finally, Air Transat was in the news, when it deplaned a family of five after an infant had a coughing fit on a Quebec City - Paris CDG flight. Though a Doctor on board had said the infant could fly, the airline still insisted the whole family get off after consultation with head office.

Without a doubt, it sounds harsh but arguably this was the point - to show that the Canadian airline takes a hardline against even the smallest chance of someone being infected.