This article here talks about how SAS finally had to ground all of its Canadian-built Bombardier Q400 planes after three of them crashed. Even though no body was hurt, and Bombardier claims that there is nothing wrong with the planes, SAS decided to make the move to curb consumer fears.
This will be a tough blow to the plane industry in general, not to mention Bombarier and SAS. It is difficult to regain consumer confidence after one such incident, but three...well, let's just say I am glad that I don't work for the Public Relations department at SAS.
SAS now needs to regroup and come out shining with a new strategy that will encourage customers to try the airline because of specific improvements to their maintenance practices, pilot training, shorter hours and more rest for pilots between flights, etc.
4 comments:
-1 on Logan for a spelling error.
Gosh. Is it just me, or would you be more frightened of flying SAS or of flying Bombardier planes? It seems to me that if these planes aren't crashing for everyone else, that I probably ought to stay off all SAS planes.
Dr. Tufte,
I think that when accidents occur they definitely affect the demand. With having three accidents, even if they were all coincidence, SAS must either pull the Bombardier Q400 or have significant changes done to it in order to assure customer confidence.
It is very important that companies correctly handle bad press. For instance if you look at the Tylenol case they were able to quickly assure their customers and did not lose too much confidence. It is important that SAS correctly handle this situation that they are in.
Dr. Tufte- I love the way you cut to the real argument through all of the smoke and issues. This is totally how I felt about the crashes. It seems all the problems are with SAS and not the aircraft themselves. I also thought it was scary that a government would just step in and stop a product. This could send waves of fear and hesitation in other industries that could be targeted.
This problem seems to have been solved.
What do you think: was it SAS, Bombadier, or the regulators that took care of it?
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