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Strategy that delivers
CASE STUDY - GATWICK AIRPORT DRONE CLOSURE - DECEMBER 2018
Between 19 and 21 December 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled at Gatwick Airport, following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. Approximately 140,000 passengers and 1,000 flights were affected in the largest disruption since the ash cloud closed the airport in 2010.
There were also some delays to scheduled flights on 22 December, resulting from the displacement of crews and aircraft. Having caught the UK aviation sector unprepared, the near shutdown is estimated to have cost the airport’s partners and stakeholders over £50m.
THE IMPACT
The impact on easyJet was substantial with around 82,000 easyJet customers affected and more than 400 flights cancelled as a result. It cost easyJet £10m in customer welfare costs and £5m in lost revenues.
CRISIS RESPONSE
The first operations alert came through via SMS at around 21:00 alerting me to the event and projected impact.
Due to the time of the issue occurring, the impact to the operation to and from Gatwick Airport that evening was expected to be limited and it was projected that normal operations would resume the following morning.
Our operations team handled the disruption as they would any other disruption causing cancelled flights and I drafted a media statement in preparation of any media calls.
Limited media calls were received that evening.
At around 4am the next morning, our operations team were clear the flight schedule for that day would not be proceeding as planned and the disruption was expected to be significant given the airport was implementing a rolling closure.
A business disruption team meeting was called following which I activated our crisis comms response plan.
IMPLEMENTING THE CRISIS RESPONSE & ACTIVATING THE CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS AND OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE PLAN
I implemented our prepared crisis communications response immediately after the BDT meeting. I assigned roles and responsibilities to the comms team from our pre- determined operational resilience plan. I edited our prepared statement pack so we had media statements, Q&A, narrative, key messages and a spokesperson brief. I liaised directly with media throughout the three day crisis and ensured our key messages featured in all coverage. I corrected any inaccuracies as they appeared in coverage. We made the decision early on not to put a spokesperson up for interview and Gatwick Airport took the lead on that.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT &
WORKING WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS DURING THE CRISIS
I worked with numerous stakeholders throughout the crisis including the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Department for Transport (DfT) and Gatwick Airport who activated their own crisis procedures. Frequent conference calls occurred to ensure the response was informed, coordinated and effective. I also ensured our country directors and other key spokespeople across Europe had correct materials for media handling in their regions. I collated a running report for our Airline Management Board and senior stakeholders of media response and media coverage which I issued at regular intervals.
RECOVERY - CHRISTMAS OPERATIONS RETURNING TO NORMAL
Our crisis response had to factor in that this was occurring in the last few days in the run up to Christmas Day – one of easyJet’s busiest periods with thousands of customers travelling to see family and friends. I referenced this within our statements apologising for the timing of the disruption. As with all operational crises I worked very closely with our operations team which was especially important in this crisis so I could ensure our statements reassured customers and gave customers options for getting to their loved ones in time. We also deployed members of our head office to Gatwick Airport in order to assist customers and we bolstered the call centre for call handling.