Flying into turbulence?

The Australian reports that it is 20 years since actor Dustin Hoffman did for Qantas what the airline could never do for itself: named it the safest airline on the planet.

Hoffman, playing the role of an autistic savant in the film Rain Man, baulked at getting on a plane after citing crash statistics, before suddenly declaring Qantas the safest airline in the world. “Qantas,” he says in the movie, “Qantas never crashed.”

The declaration was manna from heaven for the airline, branding it in the eyes of a global audience and forcing rivals to have the line cut from the film when shown inflight.

Hoffman’s assessment of the airline that has never lost a passenger may still be true, but 20 years later the brand is under siege after a series of engineering faults in the space of a couple of weeks sparked debate about safety at Qantas.

In the most serious of a half-dozen incidents, a packed Boeing 747 jet was forced into an emergency landing in Manila after an exploding oxygen bottle blew a hole in the side of the aircraft. The images have since been on regular media rotation, with marketing experts saying every incident further undermines Qantas’s hard-won reputation as the world’s safest airline.

The marketing of safety in the aviation industry is seen as a minefield. Every airline wants to boast it, but to do so is to invite disaster. And so for two decades Hoffman’s pronouncement about Qantas has been worth its weight in gold, a marketing line no other airline can compete with, until now.

Michael Morrison, a lecturer in marketing at Melbourne ‘s Monash University says he has been consistently asked about the damage to the Qantas brand since the Manila incident.

“I think in terms of the brand there is an impact,” Morrison says. “Because of that movie 20 years ago everyone remembers that Qantas was the safest airline. Every conversation you have about Qantas safety, that movie is mentioned. So there is no doubt there has been damage to the brand.”

Morrison claims the damage created by the incidents is further fuelled by the emotional investment Australians have in Qantas.

“The brand is pure Australian, and so there is this incredible emotional feeling about this Australian brand,” he says. “Travel is an emotional experience and the big emotional connection with Qantas was safety.”

While safety is the word that dare not be mentioned in airline marketing, those who have been close to the Qantas brand say it is something that has always been subtly worked into the communications.

One advertising executive who worked on Qantas advertising in the 1980s says it was vital to hint at the airline’s safety record in ads: “In the early Qantas ads back in the ’80s we always used to get the camera to linger on the uniformed pilots, showing them as the man in charge and giving the perception that you were in safe hands.”

Another trick was to have the camera dwell on the Rolls-Royce logo on the plane’s engine cowlings, drawing a safety inference from the prestige and heritage of the Rolls-Royce brand.

Morrison says another serious issue facing the Qantas brand is that it is held to a higher standard than other airlines because of people’s emotional attachment.

“It has that sense of being put on a pedestal. I think that Qantas is held to a higher standard, both in terms of engineering and from a staff perspective,” he says.

“They are expected to smile and to make it a nice experience.”

The seeds for the challenge presently faced by the Qantas brand have been sown over a number of months.

The airline had been involved in a prolonged dispute with its engineers, allowing unions to question Qantas’s commitment to safety. Stories about planes flying with long lists of unresolved defects have littered the press, undermining confidence in the brand.

Australian Licensed Airline Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas says the erosion of confidence in the Qantas brand has been under way for three years, and the media has played a role by reporting incidents that would not attract attention had they happened on other airlines.

“Five years ago the only thing that would have been reported in the news would have been the explosion of the oxygen bottle,” Purvinas says. “We have seen a lot of incidents that would not have been reported.”

But he has little doubt that Qantas’s reputation is being damaged.

“Qantas has still certainly got to be one of the safest airlines in the world,” he says. But self-regulation and a push for adhering to minimum standards is having an impact.

He cites the crash of a jumbo in Bangkok in 1999 that was finally blamed on a directive from management for pilots not to use reverse thrust on landing in order to save fuel.

“I think (the brand) is irrevocably damaged right now,” he says. “It will take a long time for it to be held so far above any other airline.

“They are still seen as one of the safest airlines in the world, but may not be the benchmark any more. There is no doubt, no doubt,”

Mark Champion worked in communications at Air New Zealand when Ansett was under siege and says the way in which stories have been appearing is eerily similar to what Ansett was faced with prior to its demise.

“You have got to believe that Qantas has safety at the very, very top of its list of priorities,” Champion says. “But airlines are like banks, they run 80 per cent on confidence and it is very easy to knock that confidence.

“At Ansett there were a couple of very serious issues, but then that led to coverage of a lot more minor stuff.”

John Borghetti, executive general manager of Qantas Airlines, says the seriousness of the Manila incident cannot be downplayed, but he believes the brand remains strong.

“I think that when you have a brand or a reputation that is as highly regarded as Qantas, no matter what industry you are in, you are always open for criticism.

“Clearly while we are going through some turbulent times in the media, the bottom line is our brand is still strong.”

Borghetti says media attention on the airline has created an environment where any defect, such as malfunctioning airconditioning, becomes news even when safety of the aircraft is not otherwise affected.

“Qantas is safe, was always safe and continues to be safe and we will not allow it to be otherwise.”

He cites 88 years of flying and 38 million passengers as an endorsement of the brand. “Our reputation speaks for itself in terms of safety,” he says.

Borghetti admits the Rain Man reference has a powerful legacy for Qantas, but he also agrees that safety can never be used as a marketing tool.

“To me, if you think you can address questions of safety issues with an advertising campaign it is trivialising it and you are not going to see us trivialising safety.”

“I have been here 35 years and seen many things in Qantas and safety has been etched in my mind from day one.”

Borghetti also says that reassurance in the Qantas brand is not something that is undertaken in isolation, but is something that all brands do constantly.

He also notes that airlines around the world report hundreds of incidents such as the ones reported in Australia in recent weeks without attracting any press coverage.

“I look out my window every day and see planes of all airlines aborting take-offs and landings,” Borghetti says. “But that never gets reported.”

Just how much damage the Qantas brand has suffered in recent weeks is open to debate, but each passenger delay, cancelled flight and report of planes flying with outstanding maintenance issues will continue to create a perception the airline might find hard to erase.

Another advertising executive who has spent more than a decade working hand-in-hand with the brand admits it is impossible for there not to be fallout from recent reports, but it is not terminal.

“I think there is a short-term hit,” he says. “But the brand is still pretty strong and Australians love it.”

The very image of an ageing plane with a gaping hole in its side sits as a constant reminder of how close the airline came to the ultimate disaster.

But Monash’s Morrison says now is the time for Qantas to get on the front foot and start speaking to the public.

“There has not been much comment coming from Qantas to smooth things over,” he says. “They are trying to continue to live on reputation and that is dangerous.”

Late last week Qantas finally announced the arrival date of the new Airbus A380 super-jumbo in September.

Borghetti denies the timing of the announcement was a bid to deflect attention from the negative press, but the arrival of the new plane will bring a welcome relief from the onslaught its brand has suffered in recent weeks.

Has it lost its mantle as the only airline Hoffman’s Rain Man character would fly?

“You tell me who the world’s second safest airline is,” the adman close to Qantas asks.  

A Report by The Moel from The Australian