“We have to earn our stripes back.
- Tiger Airways Australia CEO, Tony Davis -

Photo: Paul Rovere
(http://www.smh.com.au/business/tiger-keen-to-rebuild-reputation-20110812-1iqyg.html)

Earn our stripes back? Yeah, that's simple terms for recouping consumer confidence in an airline that has been dogged by numerous problems in recent years. They have their work cut out given the debacle it has made but it must communicate a stern resolve for change to its customer base.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH Article), Tiger Airways resumed its flights between Melbourne and Sydney yesterday having been given the green light to fly. However, its wings remain clipped given that it is only allowed to fly a stipulated number of 9 return flights a day for this month (The Australian Article).

Tiger Airways & Crisis Communications
This has once again brought the importance of crisis communications to the fore. Should Tiger wish to regain the confidence of the public, it cannot afford to make the same mistakes it made when its flights were grounded.

(1) Timeliness
Firstly, given the 24/7 news cycle today, Tiger has to make sure its communication with its stakeholders is timely. Act and communicate immediately should a crisis develop. Many customers were annoyed previously that they were not informed that Tiger Airways' flights were grounded in Australia until very much later.

(2) Transparency & Truthful
Secondly, it is an essential component of crisis PR that Tiger always maintain an open, truthful and transparent reporting framework in its dealings with the public. If it has problems fulfilling safety standards, be honest about it and act on it. Hiding the truth is not the way.

(3) Broad Communication
Thirdly, Tiger should enhance its online presence by ensuring that information regarding flight cancellations are broadly communicated to the general public. Maybe it can utilize Twitter to tweet flight cancellations to its customers? I don't know what they'll do to improve its internet presence but the avenues are aplenty given the pervasiveness of social media today.

Improving internet presence also means that one must ensure that the positive reports surfacing on the Internet outweigh the negatives. This can be done be publishing more positive news to "bury" the negative news.

Moving ahead, although many other carriers have flouted the landing rule at Australian airports recently, Tiger's problems are far more serious than that. Pilot training and cabin crew fatigue are amongst the many issues it needs to resolve. I truly hope that Tiger can better manage its public relations by being truthful, timely and open in future about its problems and also cleaning up its act in accordance with the aviation authorities' guidelines.
(PS: Tiger can ill afford another grounding given that the financial losses were monumental!)

Everyone hopes that Tiger will continue to flourish as customers have benefited much from the competition it has brought into Australian domestic air travel.

Few carriers have recovered to its previous glory after such setbacks. Nonetheless, if Tiger puts its heart and soul into regaining public trust, this Tiger may well roar again into the future...ROAR!