A viral video, damaging headlines, condemnation from politicians and celebrities and calls for a boycott – Ryanair’s reputation has endured a severe nose-dive this week.
The budget airline found itself in crisis media management mode after a video emerged of a man launching a racist tirade against another passenger on one of its flights.
The footage sparked outrage after the airline responded by telling the man to ‘calm down’ and moved the victim, an elderly woman, to a different seat. You can see it by clicking on the video below, but we must warn that it contains offensive language.
The damning video has been viewed 6.3 million times since being published on Facebook. And it has resulted in some undesirable headlines.
Ryanair passenger unleashes racist ‘ugly black b****d’ tirade at woman sat next to him – but she gets moved Mirror
Man launches into racist rant on Ryanair plane – but keep his seat CNN
Ryanair passengers’ fury as man unleashes vile racists abuse at woman next to him – and then she is moved The Sun
Shocking moment Ryanair passenger unleashes torrent of racist abuse at woman sitting next to him Daily Mail
Ryanair under fire for failing to take action against a passenger who launched racist tirade The Telegraph
And the social media sentiment was equally damming with politicians and celebrities among those to express their anger.
Ok boycott @Ryanair if they think it’s ok for a racist man to abuse an elderly black woman and remain on the plane. It’s 63 years since Rosa Parks said “No “ to sitting on the back of the Bus and we ain’t going back. https://t.co/IYczabgjMJ
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) October 21, 2018
Boycott @Ryanair. Please RT https://t.co/tHoOQtS2cQ
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) October 21, 2018
On @Ryanair flight from Barcelona, white man goes on racist rant because he doesn’t want to sit next to an elderly black woman.
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) October 21, 2018
He calls her an “ugly black bastard” & “ugly cow” and threatens: “if you don’t go to another seat, I’ll put you into another seat.”
Airline moved HER! pic.twitter.com/Y8UKOktXpy
A racist piece of trash onboard a flight decides it’s okay to go on a racist tirade and yell obscenities to an elderly black woman. Instead of @Ryanair removing him immediately, they made her to move her seat instead. Shame on the airline.pic.twitter.com/jAVJb31xU3
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) October 23, 2018
Ryanair was slow to respond to the crisis. But you would think that in light of the damaging headlines and social media traffic, it would get on the front foot and try to defend its reputation.
But its crisis media management response has, in fact, been weak and lacklustre.
On social media, it issued the shortest and simplest of statements. It read: “Statement: We are aware of this video and reported this matter to Essex police.”
Yes, that really was the full extent of its response, and even then it was buried among a range of promotional tweets.
Statement: We are aware of this video and have reported this matter to Essex Police
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) October 21, 2018
In many of the newspaper reports I read, Ryanair was quoted as saying: “As this is now a police matter, we cannot comment further.” But of course, this is untrue – proceedings are not active – and there is no legal reason why it cannot elaborate on its response. It is hard to see it as anything other than a cowardly response.
It did subsequently go a little further in some quotes given to the BBC. It said: “We operate strict guidelines for disruptive passengers and we will not tolerate unruly behaviour like this.
“We will be taking this matter further and disruptive or abusive behaviour like this will result in passengers being banned from travel.”
That addition was welcome, but it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. It was still missing key components of a good crisis media management response: empathy and action.
An effective response would have begun with a sincere apology for the appalling experience this woman suffered. It should also have included an admission that its staff should have acted differently.
So Mrs Gayle, who has found herself not only racially abused by a fellow passenger, but also going viral all over the internet, hasn't even had a phone call, let alone a bunch of flowers, from "Europe's favourite airline" @Ryanair
— Jess Brammar (@jessbrammar) October 22, 2018
Woman 'shocked and depressed' by racist attack on Ryanair flight. Disgraceful that the airline still refuses to apologise for it’s terrible handling of this incident. https://t.co/Sl8WdQAw7J
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) October 22, 2018
A strong response would also have included some condemnation of the man’s vile behaviour.
And then it should have revealed what action it is taking to prevent this from happening again and to ensure its staff know they should respond if it does. It could, for example, have taken a leaf out of the Starbucks crisis response from earlier this year and shown a commitment to change. For example, could it have talked about putting staff through training to better manage this type of situation?
The action part of its response should have also extended to outlining what it is doing to help police investigate the incident.
And such was the seriousness of the situation and the coverage it was receiving that the response should have come from its CEO Michael O’Leary.
He has displayed a certain flair for the media before and his involvement would have shown that the incident was being managed at the highest level.
This incident reminded me a little of the crisis United Airlines found itself in last year when footage emerged of a bloodied passenger being dragged off one of its planes. The airline did get a lot of things wrong in its handling of that incident, but its CEO Oscar Munoz did display visible leadership.
Ryanair’s response could have looked something like this:
“I am deeply sorry about the appalling experience suffered by one of our passengers in this video and I have been in touch with her to personally tell her how sorry I am.
“What we see in this video does not reflect our values and how we care for our passengers. I am disappointed with the way the incident was handled.
“We are now devising a training programme for all our staff to ensure something like this does not happen again.
“We are working with the police and are doing everything possible to help their investigation.”
That response should have been pinned to the top of its Twitter account and it should have put a halt to its promotional posts while it was managing the crisis.
In the modern digital world, where bad news can almost instantly go viral, organisations cannot afford to respond so weakly.
Incidents like this will unfortunately happen. But if they are managed properly with communications that show empathy, action, visible leadership and a willingness to change, a reputational tailspin can be avoided.
Find out more about preparing for a crisis by downloading our free crisis media management eBook. It includes a guide to helping you identify the right spokesperson, messaging templates and a risk register to help you identify your organisation’s vulnerabilities.
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