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JETBLUE AIRLINES: THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Alice Barbieri
Intro to Communication Studies
May 5, 2015
Dr. Ted Gournelos
“On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this
work.”- Alice Barbieri
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Abstract
One of the best low-cost air travel companies in the United States is JetBlue. However,
the company underwent a crisis on Valentine’s Day in 2007 due to weather problems and lack of
information. The weather conditions didn’t change as the prediction did and in February 2007,
more than a thousand passengers had a bad experience for five consecutive days, with hundreds
of flights canceled. JetBlue was able to confirm its value as an airline, only thanks to accurate
messages towards media and customer commitment. Rebuilding the image of the JetBlue company after the crisis led to more benefits for customers than before. After analyzing scholarly
sources regarding this crisis communication effort, this paper looks at the different methods JetBlue used to change their bad image during and after the crisis.
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Introduction
The crisis of Jet Blue started on Wednesday, February 14, 2007. An ice storm affected
every airline flying on the East Coast and most airlines canceled their flights and sent passengers
home, but JetBlue confident in a possible change of weather and in their ability to fly forced passengers to spend up to six hours waiting on the airplanes during the collapse. JetBlue continued
to reschedule flights, and made numerous internal connection errors until Monday, February 19.
The confusion led angry exchanges between passengers and employees, and customers were upset and disgusted about the company behavior.
The JetBlue crisis started after these days as a consequence of an inadequate communication system. More than 1,000 canceled flights happened in five days and pilots and flights attendants out of scheduling order, and passengers kept waiting on the completely absence of
communication. Passengers publicized complained on blogs and the media criticized the company behavior.
JetBlue was able to overcome this 2007 crisis and rebuild their image with apologetic
strategies, honesty, innovation and compensation for passengers.
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Background
JetBlue was founded in January 1999, by David Neeleman (JetBlue History, n.d.), as a
low-cost airline based in Long Island, New York. In 2002 the company announced the initial
public offering of its common stock becoming one of the most popular airlines stocks. During
the years the company received awards such as” Best Cabin Ambiance” in 2010,” Best Airline”
in 2011 and “ Best Domestic Airline” in 2012 ( JetBlue Awards, n.d.). JetBlue concentrated their
attention towards the satisfaction of customers and in their history different improvements in
their flights in order to accomplish this goal are seen. This help us understand that the crisis that
impacted the company in 2007 was not due to a lack organizational, contrary JetBlue was a
strong and reliable presence in American airlines. JetBlue had, during the week of February
2007, a bad combination of communication problems (Coombs 2007, 121). The chaotic situation
happened from Wednesday, February 14 to Monday, February 19 when an ice storm hit the East
of the United States. Instead of canceling flights, sending passengers home, and rescheduling
flights, JetBlue thought the weather could get better, keeping their revenue. The basic problem
was the communication system. More than 10,000 pilots and flights attendants were far from
where they needed to be and reservation system were overwhelmed, but employees were unable
to reach work due to the weather condition. At the peak of the crisis, nine airplanes full of passengers waited for six hours on the JFK runway without fresh air, water, food, and information.
JetBlue demonstrated an incapability to organize schedules for pilots, to shift passengers to others flights, and give accurate information. During this week, JetBlue lost their credibility in front
of all the United States. They were attacked from all media and the CEO and founder of JetBlue,
Dave Neeleman, took his responsibility in front of all Americans. During an interview, with a
cracking voice said “I am humiliated and mortified”, and he asked passengers to forgive them.
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He promised for the future to pay penalties to all customers who remain on planes waiting for a
long time. He promised to organize programs to educate employees, organize different emergency plans, and gave his support for the organization of the passenger Bill of Rights. During
this interview, he apologized for what happened, but also he put forth new ideas for the future, he
tried to rebuild trust and respect for his company. Despite of the 2007 crisis, he achieved his goal
rebuilding a trustful airplane company.
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Literature Review
In Two-Way Symmetrical Communication: Past, Present, and Future, Grunig explains
the function of the two-way asymmetrical and the two-way symmetrical communication patterns
when relying public information. The function of the asymmetrical two-way pattern is persuasive and manipulative; contrary to the two-way symmetrical pattern which best combines the interest of the two parties. Profitable businesses generally rely on the two-way asymmetrical, but it
is to be hoped for a business to use both alternatively or balancing both.
In order to follow Grunig study, a company has to balance strategically the public relations campaign between symmetrical and asymmetrical way of communication in order to support their product. In the JetBlue crisis the company used the two-way symmetrical pattern in
order to accomplish their goal.
Scholar Maureen Taylor on the other hand, examines in her text the decision to use internet in crisis communication. Internet during a crisis can dispense information both using one and
two-way devices between the organization and the public. Each online user can interpreter information and accept or reject it. The study Taylor did compare the effectiveness of two categories that can use or not internet tactics during crisis. The first category defined Traditional Tactics (Taylor 2005, 211) does not require internet use, such press releases and news conferences,
while Innovative Media Tactics (Taylor 2005, 212) are accessible only by internet and use media
tactics. The five tactics they use are: 1) dialogic communication, intended as an encouragement
of the visitor, 2) connecting links that permit to connect journalist to internet sites, 3) real-time
monitoring, that update hour- by- hour information during crisis, 4) multi-media effects offer
images and photos, 5) online chats which involve people in all situations (Taylor 2005, 212).
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Internet use can increase the benefit it displays during crisis as it comes directly in contact with customers and the real time news (Taylor 2005, 213). Also Heat (1998) in Taylor’s
study supports the potential of technology during crisis as an interaction method with public difficultly or impossibility to reach the audience (Taylor 2005, 214). JetBlue used all possible
methods to extend his sentiments and his frustration to all his customers.
Social media is the most powerful mean for monitoring public perception, control the social reputation of the company, and for the spread of bad news. Park, Cha, Kim, Jeong in their
study Managing Bad News in Social Media: A Case study on Domino’s pizza Crisis, argue the
danger of online networks such as Twitter can create due to the fact anyone can produce bad
news, spread it and start a crisis for company. Before the advent of social communication, the
diffusion of bad news bore company in a bad reputation and CEOs have to state public apologies
in a few days by traditional media. Nowadays, with the social media development, bad news are
spread faster and with a bigger diffusion, consequently CEOs of companies have to apologize
promptly in the first 24 hours, and directly in social media.
This study from Park, Cha, Kim, Jeong, give three contributions: the benefit of analyzing
social media on crisis situations, the understanding of sentiments during crisis, and the influence
of the corporate apology in social media. In this scholarly source, Park et al considers Twitter as
the most important social media outlet to impact the news. Sentiments such as future intent, persuasion, and perception are divulged by Twitter users during crisis. People interact with others
and share feeling; a CEO apology “causes a significant decrease in negative sentiments” (Park et
al, 289). For them companies should have conversation in social media also before crisis, in order to understand the feeling of consumers about their product. JetBlue a few months after his
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Valentine week crisis, decided to join Twitter, understanding the importance of social media for
messages divulgation.
Crisis is unpredictable and it is impossible to generalize a plan to afford it; this is Matthew W. Seeger opinion in Best Practices in Crisis Communication: An Expert Panel Process.
Every crisis is unique and can evolve in unexpected ways, but Seeger suggests ten general practices named best practices, to afford all kind of crisis, confirming the unicity of each crisis. Starting from the point of view that crisis in communication is generally associated with public relations, it becomes important to repair damaged images after a crisis (Benoit, 1995). The most important principles are 1) policy development, 2) pre-event planning, meaning having a plan in
place in case of outbreak, for example employee procedures and emergency contacts. Thirdly,
having the public as a partner giving them accurate information about crisis, 4) listening to the
public concerns means building credibility prior and during crisis. 5) honesty, candor and openness. Honesty is necessary to build credibility, crisis communicators have to be candid, openness
refers to the accessibility during crisis, 6) collaboration with credible sources develops a precrisis network to coordinate plans. Breakdown and contradictions show confusion, and create
additional uncertainty (Seeger 2006, 240). Lastly, meeting the needs of the media and remaining
accessible means to use all media to reach public and give honest communication, 8) communicate with compassion, concern, and empathy. The spoke person has to shows his concern and
compassion in order to legitimate his message, 9) accept uncertainty and ambiguity 10) messages
of self-efficacy in order to reduce harm (Seeger 2006, 242).
Seegers work particularly focuses on honesty, integrity, and respect for the public. The
public has to be informed about everything that happens during a crisis also if the reality can induce panic (Tierney, 2003) because without information the public respond to the crisis inappro-
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priately. The first approach managers of JetBlue did towards their crisis was panic, but after the
first impact, with honesty and candor they achieved the goal of their credibility. The owner and
CEO in person took care of the company, rehabilitating his credibility.
The scholarly source, European Business Forum written by Dominique Turpin pointed to
the attention the possibility to change crisis into a competitive advantage, for companies, if the
situation is well managed. Turpin thinks all companies have to be prepared to a crisis, because it
can happen in every moment. Her proposition is structured in six steps: know ones own vulnerability, prepare responses in case of crisis, all executive members have to be prepared to speak,
corporate executives have to know which journalists and media are reliable and which is not, rehearse actions, and prepare recovery plans very quickly. “Shock and defensive retreat” (Fink et
al., 1971) can be the first reflex reaction to an unexpected crisis, but managers have to push emotions aside and take care of the problem.
Each crisis is unique for Turpin, but all crises have common procedures. The most common mistakes is to have emotional reactions and lose the control. When the emotions are too
high it becomes difficult to think logically. Speed plays a very important role because consumers
become impatient and demand explanations and actions. Before speaking with media, Turpin
suggests to evaluate all situations and speak with honesty about it. The most important thing is
to speak, keep the attention on the media, and don’t leave the media without news. The emotions
submerged JetBlue during the ice storm and for this reason they lost control.
The article information from W. Timothy and Sherry J. Holladay compare the efficacy of
apology, in response to communication crisis, and equivalent form of strategies such as sympathy, compensation, and information. In the article there is also a survey analyzed done to stu-
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dents between the ages of 18 and 56, comparing different strategies used in crisis communication: sympathy, compensation, apology, and information. The results show these participants are
not necessarily interested in information, but there was no significant difference between the
sympathy, apology or compensation conditions (Coombs and Holladay 2008, 255). Nevertheless, an organization that accept their responsibility and use an apology in front of their customers should be exposing to a potential lawsuit, then a bad unfavorable investigation. Contrary
compensation and expression of sympathy can put the victim ‘needs in center of the crisis, reducing the negative vision of the crisis. The second strategy is more convenient for organizations.
Anger is another variable that appears when a communication crisis happen. “Anger is a
driver in negative word-of-mouth intentions (Coombs and Holladay 2008, 255). In order to decide which strategies the company can use to resolve a crisis, we need to take in consideration
the level of anger victims have. Due to the higher costs of apologies, companies generally prefer
to offer compensations and express sympathy; but it is also morally correct to express an apology
if the responsibility is evident. “It is unethical to evade responsibility when it is known (Coombs
and Holladay 2008, 256). JetBlue decided to follow the strategy of apology, sympathy and compensation action, as Timothy and Holladay suggested.
In the scholarly source Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication written by
William L. Benoit he describes the strategies in order to restore the image of a company after a
crisis. His theory is focused on “message options” (Benoit 1997, 178) and offers five categories
of image repair. The first three: denial, evasion of responsibility, and reduce offensiveness are
not correct behaviors a company needs to use, because they try to elude their responsibility about
the accident or crisis by putting all their responsibilities on others, or elude information , or min-
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imize the compensation reducing offensiveness. The last two proposed by Benoit are proposed in
order to repair image, because with “corrective action” and “mortification” the company promises to correct the problem originated by the crisis and both confess and beg for forgiveness from
the customers. This theory is supported by several studies that support the potential it has.
The suggestions, Benoit gives for crisis communication is to “organize under
three topics, preparation before the crisis, identification of nature of the crisis, and suggestions
for coping with crises” (Benoit 1997, 182). Having a plan can reduce response time and prevent
organizations from falling under pressure. Understanding in which kind of crisis they are, is important to identify who the audience is in order to deliver correct and not contradictory messages.
Repair discourse has to be rhetoric, persuasive, and effectiveness, so has to avoid disputes. Nevertheless, companies have to realize that the power of persuasion is limited if it is not followed
by correct programs. Mortification and corrective action have been the actions JetBlue performed in order to rebuild their image.
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Effectiveness
For JetBlue this was the first crisis the company underwent and his founder and now
CEO David Neeleman reacted promptly and in first person in order to defend his company and
enlace a plan to rebuild their image. JetBlue decided to put in first line the CEO to rebuild their
image. To pursue it he chose first to admit their responsibilities, then apologizing and asking forgiveness. Second take a corrective action in order to prevent crisis and organize a contract with
passengers, bill of rights.
Jet Blues in name of his CEO repeated in dozen television news and talk show apologizing for what happened during the Valentine week. Also, he posted in YouTube a video in which
he said he was “humiliated and mortified”, for the service his company did, he asked forgiveness, and explained his plan for the future. He didn’t lose time, first apologized and secondly
took care of the future of the company for the customers’ satisfaction.
The JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights is the most important plan redemption
Neeleman did .In this contract between customers and JetBlue there is monetary compensation in
case of delays or in case of canceled flights. On February 20, 2007 when the Bill of Rights was
released, JetBlue posted it on Facebook, and they joined Twitter a few months after the storm.
Neeleman understood the importance of social media ‘public for the future of his company.
Despite the good management of rebuilding the image of the company, the founder and
CEO David Neeleman resigned his position in 2007, but JetBlue was able to rebuild their image
and continued to win Awards of Customer Satisfaction Honor in 2014 and in 2008 they were
recognized for excellence in design.
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Implications
JetBlue has demonstrated to put in the center of their interest the needs and satisfaction of
customers. They rebuilt their image after the valentine week crisis using different strategies and
different media, to attract more attention, the CEO in person took his responsibility. The customers appreciated these strategies and confirmed their loyalty. JetBlue not only took their responsibility in front of the crisis, but was able to turn the crisis into a growth. His program proposed
first, new concepts never presented on airlines before, and secondly placing in the center of the
attention the customers, was key to rebuilding the company image.
Nowadays, JetBlue is completely rehabilitated from the Valentine week crisis, and it is
projected to new success.
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References
Bailey, Jeff. New York Times. 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/business/19jetblue.html?pagewanted=all&-r=0
Benoit, William, L., 1997.”Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication.” Public Relations Review Vol.23 (2): 177-186.
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Coombs, Timothy W. 2007. “The Handbook of Crisis Communication”
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Jaram Park, Meeyoung Cha, Hoh Kim, and Jaeseung Jeong. n.d. “Managing Bad News in
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http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM12/paper/viewFile/4672%26lt%3B/4994
JetBlue Airways Corp. History. n.d.
http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/history.aspx
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