Should the airline industry be much more proactive?

[Rossair]

Should the airline industry be much more proactive?

By this I mean proactive in supporting the key Covid management messages and getting them over to the public ?

Unfortunately the messages coming from the UK Government are lackluster and are clearly not powerful or engaging enough to change public behaviour to the required level.

Many people seem to believe that Covid is someone else’s problem and it does not effect them nor will it effect them. (“The Edwardses are healthy and are being careful and so are we, why shouldn’t we share that lovely big turkey we ordered when the Government originally said three households could meet on Christmas Day?)

If the behaviour of a certain portion of the public does not change quickly, we coud find that, in the delay, another new variant of Covid could develop which cannot be not prevented by the current Vaccines. Another year or more could be wasted while a new vaccine is developed

I am suggesting the Aviation / Airline industry should use its considerable marketing skills to create some powerful and engaging short videos to be shown across social media and TV. There are a number of different ‘markets’ to address and messages to give ranging from the funny /uplifting to the brutally frank.

One of them might be like the Virgin Atlantic or British Airways Safety videos.

Perhaps respected and engaging Celebs could give the messages. We need to dispel the idea Covid won’t happen to us, or if it does, we will not pass it on to anyone else.

What do you think?

[Less Hair]

Covid rules must be made by governments or international organizations. The more standardized the better. Inventing company rules on airline level will only ad to the confusion.

[wiggy]

Unfortunately the messages coming from the UK Government are lackluster and are clearly not powerful or engaging enough to change public behaviour to the required level.


No argument from me on that point but are you really expecting the airlines to start producing videos asking people to, for example, consider whether their journey is really necessary?

[Dannyboy39]

You mean airlines coming together rather than attempting to screw each other in a race to the bottom?

[PilotLZ]

wiggy

Spot on. Government policies and messages discourage mobility to the greatest extent possible. This is the reason why testing requirements were replaced with blanket quarantine for all arrivals in many European countries over the festive season. Governments don't want people to travel unless absolutely necessary. In many countries, even domestic travel comes with so many curbs that it's almost impossible. Germany is one example - overnight hotel stays for non-essential purposes are banned, even though hotels are not closed. The same goes for Austria, effectively putting non-essential travel within the country off the cards, unless it's out and back within one day.

[homonculus]

Governments don't want people to travel unless absolutely necessary.

That is because the science shows travelling / mixing / sociallising increases risk. An excellent paper in Science shows how much suppression is produced by each restriction

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/15/science.abd9338

While there is little evidence closing borders has much effect once the receiving country has significant occurrence, the general advice to not travel is based on science. Are we really suggesting airlines help clarify the mixed confusing messages from government and actively discourage people buying tickets?

[Planemike]

Maybe I am missing something but I thought the business of the airline industry was to transport people and goods not to preach to them...
Why do you select the airline industry? Why not have the supermarket business or construction industry turning out videos? Makes just as much sense!!

[+TSRA]

Commercials of any length, especially those that employ celebrities or the like, are expensive. You're not talking a couple of people with a GoPro, but the hiring of a full-on professional production company. The cost is prohibitive for most airlines during the good times, nevermind when they're losing millions of dollars a day. Plus, from the time a commercial is planned, shot, edited, reviewed, and published, the guidance from the government has changed, voiding the message. Even if you get the commercial out with the same governmental message, it is now on the company to edit that commercial with every mood swing. Just to add fuel to the fire, the message on a BA or Virgin flight departing Heathrow would not be the same message as the return flight. You'd have to shoot a variation for each country that you operate into. Heck, even different provinces and states within those countries have different messages, so you'd have to have a specific message covering the requirements of New York versus California, Ontario versus British Columbia, England versus Australia.

Until the governments of the world can come to a central and consistent message on the issue, there is no sense for any company to put their dwindling resources into something that won't be valid by the time the first meeting is over with.