A few weeks ago it seemed that the turbulent times for Qantas were over. The airline had weathered a media storm surrounding a number of safety incidents – but today, new trouble has shown up on the airline’s radar as a further incident looks set to damage the Australian brand even further.
Headlines in the Australian press read “Qantas 747s collide”, referring to an incident that involved two planes that were being towed at the carrier’s Australian heavy maintenance base at Avalon Airport crashing into each other.
The jet involved in the Manila emergency in July had been close to being ready to fly again before the ‘crash’.
While no one has been injured, the brand will now bear the brunt.
No airline brand ever wants to see the day where its name is in a headline with the term ‘crash’, the word attracts a vulture of readers who will always remember the ‘incident’.
For airline brands it’s hard to shake an ailing reputation. Many people already have a fear of flying and recent accidents and incidents also surface in the consumer mind when handing over payment for airfares.
Take for example China Airways. It is responsible for 799 deaths since 1970 and has averaged 3.21 fatal events per million flights, while the worldwide average is under 2.0.
The Chinese airline has the worst safety record in the world and actually “scares” away customers according to the Chinese press.
After 30 years, the carrier began to standardize and reform its flight procedures, the first step to improve flight safety, in 2000. In addition, the company has spent huge amounts on recruiting new blood and has adopted strict standards in training recruits.
China Airlines has only just now begun to shake its dodgy reputation, and it has taken a long eight years and million of dollars in investment and training, not to mention positive PR.
It may seem unfair to compare Qantas, which once had the best safety record in the aviation world, to China Airways. But one incident that spirals into many will only add to passenger unease.
The airline, dubbed the Spirit of Australia, needs to act now to rectify its brand reputation before it becomes any worse. After all, the world of air travel brands are taking quite a hit in the current economic climate and brands that can’t keep passengers in the face of stiff competition will fail.
We have already seen XL, Silverjet and Zoom collapse and Alitalia looks set to be next. Can the Qantas brand hold up and see through the tough times?
No advertisement, no children’s choir, no sporting sponsorship has done for Qantas what Dustin Hoffman did with one line in his role in Rain Man 20 years ago. His character’s declaration that it was unsafe to travel with any airline but Qantas – because it “never crashed” – helped create a reputation which it has been trading on ever since. Two decades later that reputation is under threat – what will save the brand now?
Back to the good old days?
November 19, 2008 at 10:58 am |
To be fair, other airlines have many incidents on the ground and in the air that are not publicly reported.
Qantas is an easy media target because of it’s record, and as such, will continue to be.