Kenyon International Survey Reveals 60% of Airlines Do Not Train Public Relations Staff Outside Headquarters Regularly
2009-11-04 17:24:02 -
(Houston, Texas) The final results of Kenyon International Emergency Service’s crisis communications survey confirms that 60% of airlines who responded to the survey do not provide regular crisis communications preparedness training to their public relations staff outside of headquarters, including the airlines’ public relations agencies. Despite the facts that airline accidents typically occur away from headquarters, 86% of the surveyed
airlines still choose to train headquarter-based communicators at least more than once a year.
“The state of the world economy has taken a toll on the diminished return on crisis communications, said Jerry Hendin, vice president of crisis communications for Kenyon International Emergency Services. According to the survey, at least 65% of the airlines surveyed updated their crisis communications plan annually but not regularly.
The downward trend regarding crisis communications training is also reflected in other aspects of crisis communications. “The survey indicates 46% of airlines surveyed do not train their in-house communicators on a regular basis,” Hendin said. “In addition, 60% of airlines surveyed only train their PR agencies when it is necessary and not on a regular basis.”
The survey did indicate airlines do understand the importance of an up-to-date crisis plan. “Of those surveyed, 66% of the airlines who participated in the survey say that they update their plans at least once a year,” Hendin said.
The surveyed airlines know that in times of crisis, the station managers are often in the line of fire from the media and the travelling public because they are on the service frontline and 60% make it a point to provide training on crisis communications techniques at least once annually.
“When we examined the responses by region, we noticed that the American and European airlines have higher frequency of crisis communications training, at least on a quarterly basis but not airlines from the other region, where the most frequent training for their communicators is semi-annually,” Hendin added.
About Kenyon International
Kenyon is an international leader in worldwide disaster management, providing pre-incident crisis planning and post-emergency response services on behalf of the world’s foremost companies. Privately owned, Kenyon remains the only firm in its business with a hundred year history, comprehensive resources, and experience in every type of mass fatality accident including aviation disasters, natural disaster, and war and terror attacks. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, it has offices and facilities in Sydney, Australia, London, UK, and Hong Kong.
