Communicating in a Crisis: The Halifax International Airport response to Sept. 11.

On Sept. 11, 2001, while the world watched in horror at the devastation in the United States, Halifax International Airport employees mobilized to handle the logistical crisis that was unfolding on our own tarmac. At 9:40 a.m. Atlantic Standard Time, all flight operations were halted at U.S. airports for the first time in American history. At approximately 10 a.m., Halifax International Airport was notified to expect between 40 and 50 diverted aircraft.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is a community of about 350,000 located on the eastern coast of the country. On average, our airport handles approximately 150 flights a day. To receive nearly one third of that volume all at once was an unprecedented load on systems and personnel. We were faced with processing 8,000 passengers through an arrivals facility that has the capacity to handle 900 per hour. Security was also a major concern, as no one knew at that time whether other terrorist operatives were among the passengers diverted to the airport. Because of the attacks in the U.S., media interest was intense.

FROM CONCEPT TO ACTION

Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA) had recently taken over control of the airport from the federal government and had been operating the airport for a little over a year. Ironically, we were in the midst of developing our crisis communication plan and had scheduled a planning session for Sept. 20. The plan was still in the conceptual stages when we were forced to put it into action.

Soon after the first few planes hadlanded, our reception desk was inundated with calls from frantic relatives, friends and colleagues looking for immediate, accurate information. Our Visitor Information Booth logged more than 2,000 calls in 24 hours, and our web site was jammed with hundreds of e-mails.

At the time of the incident, the Communications and Public Affairs Department consisted of two full-time employees: Karen Sinclair, our communications manager, and me. We immediately called on Karen Kelloway, our consultant who was helping us with our crisis communication plan. As director, I participated directly in HIAA's Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), crafting messages from hourly EOC briefings and providing them to the communications manager and consultant to disseminate to all key audiences. We activated our media centre, and our president and CEO, Reg Milley, convened a news conference to deliver the initial briefing personally.

Following that first news conference, I acted as spokesperson, holding hourly media briefings after each EOC update and participating in one-on-one interviews as required for the duration of the four-day incident. The team handled approximately 300 media calls from all over the world--most requiring one-on-one interviews.

Our CEO held regular face-to-face briefings with employees and volunteer hosts. We used our urgent news vehicle, E-News Flash! to update employees and volunteers regularly via e-mail. Visitor Information Centre and reception staff were updated via regular information sheets. Time marked updates were posted on the web site as soon as new information was available. We answered e-mail requests, posted feedback on the web site and added photographs as they became available.

To ensure a coordinated approach, we also participated in conference calls with communicators from the Emergency Measures Organization, Transport Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Halifax Regional Municipality. The municipality and other organizations handled the enormous job of providing transportation, accommodations, food and essentials for all the passengers stranded in Halifax for four days. On Sept. 14, we organized a special ceremony to mark the three minutes of silence observed nationwide to mourn the victims of the tragedy.

In the end, Halifax received the largest number of aircraft in the country. A total of 250 aircraft were diverted to 15 Canadian airports, with Halifax playing host to 41 from as far away as Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany and Greece. We placed a special ad in the Sept. 18 local papers to thank the people who worked in our Emergency Operations Centre to handle the crisis.

In the weeks following the crisis, we received hundreds of thank-you letters from passengers, crews and their families. CEOs of international airlines and people in our own community praised the airport for its performance. Our web site received 2.1 million hits in the month of September, up from the typical 40,000 or 50,000 per month under normal conditions. The photos we placed on our web site were included in aviation magazines from Italy and Japan, among others, and graced the covers of the United Kingdom's flight industry magazine, Airports International; Canada's aviation magazine, Wings; British Airways' newsletter; and the RCMP's national news magazine.

Feedback from volunteers, tourism staff and employees on availability of information was extremely positive. Media coverage on HIAA's handling of the event was uniformly positive, and reporters repeatedly commended staff for their efforts to respond to media needs given the security challenges. Lufthansa Airlines named a plane "Gander Halifax," citing the hospitality their passengers and crew received from airport staff and community members in these two communities. This is a rare and significant tribute in the industry.

Though it appeared all had gone well, we did identify some crucial lessons learned through the crisis.

Lesson 1: Line up resources--or learn how to clone yourself. The biggest problem we faced was juggling multi-faceted demands with a small staff. We were fortunate to have assistance from a communication person from Transport Canada and our consultant from Bristol Communications, and several HIAA staff assisted us in distributing information to employees and the Visitor Information Centre. But clearly delineated roles would have saved us a lot of time and energy. We now have detailed job descriptions for a total of 12 communication positions, each with backup should shifts be required. We identified the skill sets required for each position, assigned roles and provided training for HIAA staff.

Lesson 2: Sleep does matter--pace yourself. Our department's offices were at one end of the air terminal building, the EOC was in the middle and the Media Centre was at the other end. We found we spent a lot of our time running. Since the media intensity remained high during the four days the planes were in Halifax, it didn't take long for the schedule to take its toll. I would start radio interviews at 5 a.m. (from the couch in my pajamas) and continue non-stop until about. mid-night the first two nights. Then I'd go home and watch TV to find out what was happening in the U.S., sleep from 2 to 5 a.m., and start all over again. Karen's schedule was just as hectic. We realized that a lack of sleep equals complete brain funk, and decided we needed to pace ourselves.

Lesson 3: Develop a good relationship with the media before a crisis. The airport had an active relationship with local media before Sept. 11. We had always helped them get their stories, but suddenly there were new security restrictions in place. We lobbied to get the media to a non-restricted viewing area in our old control tower. We brought in outside experts when possible, and our volunteer hosts provided the media with anecdotal passenger stories. Those efforts went a long way. Media reps followed the rules we put in place, and understood when we couldn't get them all the answers when they wanted them.

Lesson 4: Don't allow the media relations role to take over. Media relations is just one of the communicator's roles during a crisis, but it would be easy to do nothing else! We had to work hard to maintain communication with all audiences. Even after the planes had left, media interest was still incredibly high. We were repeatedly being asked to be "talking heads" on all kinds of industry stories. So we developed our own criteria: If we had new information to offer, we'd do the interview. If it involved confidence issues in security, we'd do it. If the media were looking for speculative interviews, we would not participate. We started saying no a lot.

Lesson 5: Think on your feet; trust your gut. In the midst of mayhem, lots of on-the-spot decisions must be made. You need to trust your instincts. You also need to stay sharp. During one live double-ender with a national television station, the anchor began the intro with "...and now we go to CBC reporter Gina Collins in Halifax. Gina?" I was tempted to answer with "Well, Nancy, the PR people at Halifax International Airport are simply outstanding," but I decided just to correct who I worked for and let the wrong last name go.

Lesson 6: Share the kudos. Throughout the crisis, the passengers were unbelievably cooperative and understanding, many of them wearing Canadian flags as they left through our airport saying they'd be proud to be Canadian. They tearfully hugged and thanked our volunteer hosts. We received many letters and e-mails from all over Canada and the world. We published the thank-you ad, and saw it as our job to share any kudos we received with our BOC members, HIAA staff and volunteers. We posted many of the personal notes on our web site and circulated copies to these groups. We also gave them each an aerial photograph of the runway with the planes. These efforts were much appreciated by staff, who were exhausted and trying to recover from the backlog from their regular jobs.

Lesson 7: When the crisis passes, the real work begins. Although the logistical and security challenges passed within four days, it took several weeks before normal operations resumed for our Communications and Public Affairs group. We continued to receive approximately 25 calls per day for about four weeks following the crisis, dropping to a level of about 12 per day for several more weeks. (Pre-Sept. 11 numbers were three to four calls a week.)

More important, however, we soon realized the devastating impact the terrorist attack was having on our entire industry, and on the role of airports as economic drivers in our communities. There was the immediate downturn in passenger traffic, followed by the bankruptcy of Canada 3000, the second largest airline in the country. Not only did this leave the airport in financial difficulty, but it also eroded consumer confidence in air travel. Now we had two issues to contend with: "Is air travel safe?" and "Is it reliable--if I buy a ticket, will the airline still be there when it's time to fly?"

We needed to do everything we could to respond quickly and rebuild consumer confidence.

FROM REACTIVE TO PROACTIVE

Our team actively engaged in a follow-up program of community speaking engagements and key stakeholder meetings to keep the community abreast of the impact of Sept. 11 and its aftermath on its airport. We consistently and proactively communicated our safety and security messages, and worked to bolster confidence in a struggling airline industry. We have also stepped up our marketing efforts to encourage people to fly.

We are slowly recovering as an industry, and we believe we will be back to pre-Sept. 11 passenger numbers by the end of the year. But the Halifax experience will stay with us forever. One particular image will always remain with me: looking out my office window the evening of Sept. 11 and seeing lined up on the runway 41 aircraft, many with passengers still on board awaiting processing, the tail lights of the planes flickering as the sun set behind them. It was an extraordinary sight, but one I hope I never see again. In the end, we are better prepared because of what we went through--and if required, I can guarantee we'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Gina Connell, ABC, is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and has 15 years of experience in communication. She has won several national and international communications awards for her work. Contact her at [e-mail].