Don't Scare The Passengers...

 

Seems like a fairly standard announcement no? There’s nothing out of the ordinary there? In fact it’s probably just the right about of information that you’d want before a flight, right? Well if you agree, I’m sorry to say, you’re wrong. That announcements has broken so many rules, I don’t know where to start. So let’s take a look at what makes a good passenger announcement.

 

Turbulence, Fog, Thunderstorms, weather we encounter most weeks of the year, that couldn’t be the bad part of the announcement could it? Well, it’s one of them anyway. Words like fog and turbulence ect. Have negative connotations in a passengers mind, so what do we say then? Well let’s replace some of those words, with less threatening ones. How about, bumpy or rough air instead of turbulence? And how about calling thunderstorms, rain clouds, it’s not incorrect is it? Fog you say? No such thing, what’s really at the airport is restricted visibility. You see, much less threatening, so far you’ve managed not to scare or threaten your passengers. You’re announcement is ten times better already.

 

You’ve just told us how the plane has everything working and is just out of maintenance, how reassuring, no? Well it’s not. As pilots, we should never mention the technical status of the aircraft to the passengers, or allow them overhear us talking about it. This is something that can make a nervous flier really uncomfortable, and as we strive to make our customers as comfortable as possible, it makes sense not to go putting any passengers into an uncomfortable position. We should never say things such as,

as passengers will think that they are at the most risky part of the aircrafts safety and maintenance cycle. Neither should we say

because some passengers don’t trust mechanics, and think that if this is the aircrafts first flight back on the line, then those clumsy engineers over in the aircraft hanger have probably forgotten to attach the wings.

Okay, but

, there’s no way that could cause someone discomfort, right, I mean, how could that put someone ill at ease? There’s no way someone in their right mind could feel threatened by that, right? Nope, that also should be avoided. By telling them that the aircraft is fully functional, you’re indirectly telling them a whole lot else. You’re telling them, that sometimes everything isn’t fully functional; in fact, you almost seem surprised that everything is fully functional. That statement is implying that we sometimes fly when everything isn’t fully functional.

you may say, we do fly with different parts deferred to the MEL, and that’s safe, so why not just say that? Well, as pilots we can appreciate just how complex an aircraft is, and how easily small things here and there can break. We understand the huge amounts of redundancy built into today’s modern aircraft. Most passengers however, don’t. Most passengers arrive under the impression that everything is fully functional and working and that we’d never leave the ground with something inoperative. Should something become inoperative in flight, they thing we divert at the drop of a hat

.

This obviously isn’t the case, but trust me, I’ve heard of cases where the cabin crew mentioned that one of the cabin lights was blown, only to have a number of elderly old ladies insist we change it before we took off, in case it was a short circuit that would cause the aircraft to go on fire, the wings to fall off and we’d all crash and burn... yes, because a light was gone. Now being the customer orientated airline we are, we did indeed have the bulb replaced to put their minds at ease. Funny thing was, they didn’t know that the APU generator on that particular flight wasn’t working, but we’d be leaving without changing that anyway. It was thought it best not to mention

to them. You can if you wish though, describe the aircraft using words such as “

and

 

So, are you saying then that the best sort of passenger announcement would be something like this?

Indeed not. In fact, overly simple announcements are also known to scare the living daylights out of passengers. It causes them to think you may not know what you’re doing, and that’s not good. However, neither do you want to be overly technical, as this can confuse the passengers, and confused passengers are scared passengers. It’s a skill right?

 

You should never sound rushed while making an announcement, passengers think, and rightly so in this case, that if you’re rushed, you’ll miss something and we’ll end up in a smoking crater at the end of the runway. This one makes sense. Neither however should you be so slow as to make them think you do not know what you’re doing, or aren’t sure what the plan is. Words like

and

should be avoided at all costs. In the beginning it may help you if you want to write down the points on a bit of paper before you make them. You should try never to sound too urgent in your announcements, but neither should you sound too relaxed. This is complicated right?

 

Try not to accept full responsibility for a delay, even if you are mostly to blame. Okay, this seems very sly, but as a commercial enterprise, passengers have a choice to come back to you or not. So let’s look for some nice scapegoats. ATC, The Airport, The Weather, all good examples of people you can lay the blame on, but that the customers have no choice over. Now this probably all sounds very sly and a bit unfair on ATC or the Airport, but you put your company first, and your passengers first. This isn’t to say you should lie, you shouldn’t, you should use the truth, to paint a picture that just seems like you’re not to blame.

Let’s say you were delayed because the engine needed to have its oil topped up. Well first things first, as we already mentioned, we don’t want to go off worrying the passengers that there may be an oil problem, so let’s play it down a bit. The likely hood is, is that ATC have given you a new slightly later slot, so let’s try an announcement like this, that uses that to our advantage: “Ladies and Gentlemen, while we were sitting here getting serviced on the ramp and getting ready to go, it looks like ATC has actually given us a later slot time. We’re very sorry for this, but of course this is out of our control. We hope to only be delayed by 10 minutes for this, and will update you as we go.” – You see, no lies, all truth, but instead of blaming you and the airline, instead you’ve convinced them that in fact it’s out of your control and can’t be blamed. If you like, add a positive comment to the end like “We do hope to make up time in the air though by flying a little faster and hopefully catching a tailwind” – This makes it sound like you really care about helping your passengers out, which of course you do, but leaves a good impression behind of your airline, and how it treats its customers. The truth, half the truth, and nothing but the truth. At the end of the day, if you develop a bad reputation it’s your job on the line.

 

So, with all this in mind, let’s take a look at out what our welcoming on board announcement should have been like:

 

 

So, hopefully this has given you an insight into the planning, thought and skill that goes into making that perfect passenger announcement, one that don’t scare the passengers.

 

Regards,

Captain Rónán O Cadhain.