Watching the Frontier Airlines situation since January in terms of PR and media reputation management has been like watching a slow motion car wreck.
Particularly shocking was the tone deaf statement given by a PR spokesman for the airline in March, in regards to all the technological failings that have customer seeing red.
“Bottom line is there was a transition, and continues to be in many areas, as the old Frontier was a money loser … PERIOD,” airline spokesman Todd Lehmacher wrote in an e-mail. “This has been the best technology cutover in the industry in the past decade — look to other high profile cutovers … and you will see that.”
It is the rare moment when the public is so angered by a tone deaf statement like that, which so contradicts the customer experience, that someone takes the time to write a letter to the Denver Post’s editors calling for that PR person’s firing.
The time and energy is takes to do such a thing is a huge red flag for any PR professional and one must wonder what Lehmacher was thinking in issuing a statement like that.
I err on the side of transparency and believe a balance can be found among that and the pressures from stakeholders, legal and the C-suite in situations like this. indeed, just this month, the CEO came out saying the problems are “profoundly disappointing.” Nice to hear some acknowledgement in a situation where customers have angrily stated and aggressively so that they’ll never fly your airline again. Revenues are at risk, jobs and the airline itself in a tsunami of problems as Frontier has had.
What do you think? Please comment and let’s discuss!
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