Crisis Lessons Learned from Southwest Airlines

In this episode, Southwest Airlines' Linda Rutherford joins On Top of PR host Jason Mudd to discuss her take on current airline crises and go into depth about Southwest’s crisis communication plan and how they’ve managed their past crises.

Tune in to learn more!

Brief Guest Bio

Linda Rutherford is the Chief Administration Officer for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest airline in terms of domestic Customer boardings. Linda is known for creating and leading powerful teams that equip, empower, and engage the business to serve its people and customers.

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5 things you’ll learn during the full episode:

1.  Linda’s take on current airline crises
2.  Southwest’s communications department and response plan
3.  How Southwest has responded to past crises
4.  How to manage the media and consumers’ perception of a crisis
5.  How to balance your message post-national crisis

Linda Rutherford Bio

After graduating from Texas Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Linda Rutherford embarked on a career journey fueled by a passion for storytelling. This journey led her to the esteemed Dallas Times Herald, where she served as a beat reporter, honing her skills and connecting with the airline community.

During her time at the Dallas Times Herald, Linda had the privilege of crossing paths with the team at Southwest Airlines. The people and the company left an indelible impression on her, and she soon found herself drawn to Southwest's vibrant culture and ethos.

In 1992, Linda embraced the opportunity to join the Southwest Family as a Public Relations Coordinator, marking the beginning of a longstanding and impactful career with the airline. Over the years, she has ascended through the ranks and currently holds the position of Chief Administration Officer.

As the Chief Administration Officer, Linda oversees the Enterprise function, a comprehensive domain that includes Culture & Communications, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Internal Audit, People (Human Resources), Talent and Leadership Development, Total Rewards, Technology, Southwest Airlines University, and Artificial Intelligence & Data Transformation. She takes immense pride in collaborating with the best talents in the industry, fostering a dynamic and inclusive work environment.

Quotables

• “Today, communications represent the pace of media. Before, it might’ve seemed a little slower and more leisurely, and today, I would also say that public relations represents a lot more responsibility for brand reputation and issues management.” - Linda Rutherford

• “Certainly, the role of journalists has changed significantly, much like our roles in communications have.” - Linda Rutherford

• “Obviously, first and foremost, it is the safety of our passengers and employees on the affected flight. It is what we need to do to get them safely on the ground, and then what do we need to do to understand what happened so we can go about learning how we prevent it from happening in the future.” - Linda Rutherford

• “We like to say that we're in a deregulated environment, but we're regulated in the air and on the ground.” - Linda Rutherford

• “I also like to say that we fly the general public, and we operate in weather. So what could possibly go wrong daily? That's why you spend a lot of time preparing and understanding what your contingencies are.” - Linda Rutherford

• “My analogy is when Taylor Swift tickets went on sale, and Ticketmaster had a brownout, that's basically what happened.” - Linda Rutherford

• “We did have a union, which we were negotiating with at the time that was perpetuating the story by calling crew, scheduling technology, antiquated. So that storyline was out there, and a lot of media were picking that up.” - Linda Rutherford

• “There's a lot of demand to say everything at once, but we didn't necessarily have the credibility to say everything at once.” - Linda Rutherford

• “We did tell the whole story. We had our chief operating officer give congressional testimony before a Senate subcommittee and told the whole story like I'm telling you.” - Linda Rutherford

• “I tell people all the time that PR is about building up that equity so that when you have an issue, people already know that you're trustworthy and honorable and that you do the right thing.” - Jason Mudd

• “The first thing you need to do is respond to what's right in front of you, and then you can begin to build on the story as you go and as you learn more, admit mistakes, be honest, and then be very transparent about what you're doing to fix things.” - Linda Rutherford

• “Culture is not throwing a party or giving a gift. It really does come from the people who are willing to work as hard for one another as they are to serve the customer.” - Linda Rutherford

Resources

• Visit Linda Rutherford's website.
• Connect and learn more about Linda Rutherford on LinkedIn.
• Visit Southwest Airlines for more information.

Additional Episode Resources:

• Crisis communications management
• 11 crisis management tactics to avoid or prepare for a PR disaster

Additional Resources from Axia Public Relations:

• Crisis communications management
• 11 crisis management tactics to avoid or prepare for a PR disaster
• Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR podcast.
• Find out more about Axia Public Relations.

Episode Highlights

[01:19] How did Linda get into PR?

• She started her career after college working for a magazine.
• She covered the transportation beat at the Dallas Times Herald.
• When the Dallas Times Herald went under, she was asked to apply for the Southwest PR position.

Linda: “Today, communications represent the pace of media. Before, it might’ve seemed a little slower and more leisurely, and today, I would also say that public relations represents a lot more responsibility for brand reputation and issues management.”

Linda: “Certainly, the role of journalists has changed significantly, much like our roles in communications have.”

[08:39] Linda’s take on current airline crises 

• As soon as the in-air incident on the other airline occurred, Southwest Airlines internally evaluated if they had a part similar to the part that malfunctioned on that plane, which they didn’t.
• Her first question was, “How will this impact us?”
• Her next thought was, “What questions might customers ask?”
• As a result, they updated their FAQs and prepared their employees for customer and media questions about their transportation.

[10:37] Southwest Airlines' communications team and response plan

• Southwest’s communications consist of:
  • Media relations and external communications
  • Internal communication
  • Social and digital content creators 
  • Analytics group
• The communications department has prepared for all potential crises. 
• They all know their roles and responsibilities as emergency response team members.
• They have a section in their headquarters in Dallas, the Headquarters Emergency Command Center (HECC), for them to meet if needed.
  • They even have assigned seats there!
  • There, they determine their assigned spokesperson.
  • They also do a live media briefing and determine the type of communication needed for the scenario.

[15:20] How Southwest has responded to a past crisis

Linda: “Obviously, first and foremost, it is the safety of our passengers and employees on the affected flight. It is what we need to do to get them safely on the ground, and then what do we need to do to understand what happened so we can go about learning how we prevent it from happening in the future.”

• Southwest has had an in-flight depressurization event in the past.
• They know how to respond, but that doesn't take away the human aspect of the incident

Linda: “We like to say that we're in a deregulated environment, but we're regulated in the air and on the ground.”

Linda: “I also like to say that we operate, we fly the general public, and we operate in weather. So what could possibly go wrong daily? That's why you spend a lot of time preparing and understanding what your contingencies are.”

[18:00] When to take a crisis to headquarters

• Day-to-day operational disruptions are taken care of from everyone’s regular stations.
  • A weather delay
• The only reason a crisis needs to go to the headquarters emergency command center is when there are instances at scale.
  • A natural disaster 

[21:25] Crisis software Southwest uses

• Southwest uses typical collaboration tools.
• They use one system to collect all of their crisis information in one place.
• Externally, they use very typical distribution platforms you need to get news out.
• Internally, they use their intranet. They also allow employees to opt in to text messages for information.
• They use a file management system and Microsoft Teams to share information internally. 

[24:42] The December 2022 Southwest Crises 

• Southwest’s crisis in December 2022 was due to a weather event.
• The weather impacted two major airports for Southwest.
• They prepared for the winter, but when it struck those major airports, Southwest soon had to cancel flights due to the weather and lack of staff at the correct airport due to the delays. 
• This led to more delays and cancellations –– some even on the consumer's part, making things worse.
• This is when they began to see the stress and pressure on their existing technology, causing it to crash.

Linda: “My analogy is when Taylor Swift tickets went on sale, and Ticketmaster had a brownout, that's basically what happened.”

• To fix this, they took flights from 4,100 a day to roughly 1,500 to move crews and empty airplanes, also known as deadheading, around to get everything matched back up.
• On December 30, 2022, they could restart the airline and operate on a full schedule.

[28:48] Managing the media and consumers’ perception of a crisis

Linda: “We did have a union, which we were negotiating with at the time that was perpetuating the story by calling crew, scheduling technology, antiquated. So that storyline was out there, and a lot of media were picking that up.”

Linda: “We put most of our energy in what we call the immediate response effort, which was just every media across the country was calling, wanting to know what's the status of operations in Amarillo or Boise, Idaho or Newport, Virginia. And so, our priority was to make sure that everyone understood the current status of the operation. Then we needed to work on recovering.”

• After focusing on the immediate issue of addressing to customers what was happening, they went into a deep dive, asking, “What happened?” and “What have we learned?”
• They determined what investments they needed to make. 
• They invested in software to have an integrated solution for staff scheduling. When you are trying to fix a disruption, it fixes both the airplanes and the flight crews simultaneously, eliminating any lag. 
• They had to answer to regulatory agencies.
• They worked with the Department of Transportation and got some credit for everything they did to improve the crisis. They spent about $1.1 billion on refunding flights, delivering luggage, overtime, etc. This past December, they paid an additional fine to the agency to make up for the instance in total.

[32:30] How to balance your message post-national crisis

Linda: “There's a lot of demand to say everything at once, but we didn't necessarily have the credibility to say everything at once.”

• There’s an order to how you deliver your message.
• First, you need to be credible with the information you give on the status of the operation.
• Second, be credible on how you’re going to restore and restart.
• Third, be credible in how you will investigate what happened and articulate the lessons you learned from it.
  • Southwest followed this order in their message, letting people know what would happen to them, their flight, and how they would fix it. Then Southwest told their story and continues telling it to the media. But they didn’t just tell their story; they adjusted their technology, software, and efforts to prepare for December of the following year. 

Linda: “We did tell the whole story. We had our chief operating officer give congressional testimony before a Senate subcommittee and told the whole story like I'm telling you.”

Jason: “I tell people all the time that PR is about building up that equity so that when you have an issue, people already know that you're trustworthy and honorable and that you do the right thing.”

[37:11] Linda’s tips for dealing with crisis communications

Linda: “I've been asked this certainly a lot in the last year, and it comes down to preparation. You need to make sure that before you're in the crisis, that you've taken the time to think about what could go wrong here, what would be the implications of something going wrong, and what should my priorities be when I am going to respond?”

• It comes down to preparation. Prepare before the crisis occurs so you can take action immediately. 
• Understand the page principles from a communication standpoint. Linda says, “You need to tell the truth as if the company’s reputation depends on it.”
• Utilize all your resources.
• Understand it's an iterative process.

Linda: “The first thing you need to do is respond to what's right in front of you, and then you can begin to build on the story as you go and as you learn more, admit mistakes, be honest, and then be very transparent about what you're doing to fix things.”

[38:55] Southwest’s “culture of kindness”

Linda: “I think it has to start at the top. So the first thing you must have is an intentional CEO who intuitively understands the power of a strong organizational culture because it creates talent that feels free to perform at their best.”

Linda: “Culture is not throwing a party or giving a gift. It really does come from the people who are willing to work as hard for one another as they are to serve the customer.”

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About your host Jason Mudd

On Top of PR host, Jason Mudd, is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands and fastest-growing companies. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002. Forbes named Axia as one of America’s Best PR Agencies.

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