Up In The Air, How Airlines Communicate Delays & Cancellations Can Make All The Difference

It is the email, phone call or text message every business traveler hates to receive – “there is delay/cancellation impacting your upcoming flight.”  Unfortunately this summer has seen an increase in cancellations with some airlines, due either to inclement weather or proactive cancellations in advance of forecast bad weather.  How airlines communicate these delays and their efforts to accommodate stranded passengers can shape customer satisfaction.

Seasoned travelers know to expect delays, oversold flights and travel plan disruptions.  What they don’t always know is what is really causing the delay, how long they will be forced to stand around the gate and how they will be re-routed to their destination.  Although delays and cancellations are always fluid situations affected by many different factors, airline employees often set false expectations.  It is not uncommon to see a delay initially reported as “only 20 minutes” extend into hours.   Instead of thoroughly explaining the delay, airline employees use standard company responses that don’t relay all the information they have at hand.

Not painting an accurate picture and setting false expectations only aggravates delayed passengers, often leading to epic confrontations at the gate.  In today’s digital age, passengers have more resources available to check the real status of a flight and often have as much, if not more information than many gate agents.  As delays become more routine, and preemptive cancellations more commonplace, airline executives need to realize that canned responses and unrealistic delay projections will not work with a more informed and sophisticated traveling public. 

Websites like Flightaware.com now give passengers more insight to what is really going on.  Open and transparent communication with customers in times of delay is needed.  Upgrading planes, in flight entertainment systems and eventually air traffic control systems will only go so far to enhance the commercial air travel experience.  Airline employees need to have their communication skills enhanced so that they are more informative, empathetic and helpful when delays occur.  Much like the rubber chicken entrees of the days of yore, rote answers that tell passengers very little about when they may get home get stale very quickly.