Branding a crisis

Within three hours of a Thanksgivingweekend equipment failure that closed Reno- Tahoe International Airport to inbound flights, airport executives made a conscious decision to create a brand identity for the crisis.

The brand identity: The problem rested with the Federal Aviation Administration, which hadn't heeded complaints about the instrument-landing system for the past several years.

Airport officials and regional representatives of the FAA plan to meet today to review the problem and begin working toward a solution.

Diagnosis of the problem and implementation of solutions, an FAA spokesman said last week, could take months.

But airport executives say they've already won an important first battle the public relations battle to get the attention of the FAA.

The instrument landing system conked out about 6 a.m.

on Nov.

27, the Saturday morning when the region was blanketed under heavy snow.

By 9:30 a.m., Krys Bart, the airport's executive director, and Brian Kulpin, its public affairs manager, had made a conscious decision to brand the issue as an FAA problem and create the largest possible media stir.

"We needed to get the FAA's attention," says Kulpin.

The FAA hadn't paid attention in the past when airport officials said a key piece of the instrument-landing system, a localizer that tells pilots to move aircraft left or right as they approach, had a history of failure during cold and snowy weather for years.

"That's when we need the ILS the most," says Hal Bostic, director of operations and public safety.

Creation of a brand identity for the crisis began with a near-constant round of media interviews for Kulpin.Within 72 hours, he'd conducted about 50 interviews with reporters from CNN, CBS, the "Today" show and print media outlets from coast to coast.

But Kulpin acknowledges the heavy media push carries a danger.

Reno's tourism economy is heavily dependent on good air service, and airport officials didn't want to spook travelers especially during the winter ski season.

"We don't want a flying public that is wary of flying into Reno," he says.

But airport executives are confident the flurry of media attention, while it got the attention of the FAA and other federal officials, soon will be forgotten by consumers.

"The flying public has proven to be a very resilient public," Kulpin says.

While the airport was pushing the issue hard with the media and the state's Congressional delegation, Kulpin says behind-the-scenes pressure was coming from airlines unhappy that a seven-hour interruption to service into Reno fouled flight schedules across the nation.

Within two days after the equipment failure, Sen.

John Ensign was calling for answers from the FAA another sign the airport's branding of the crisis had worked.

The FAA, not surprisingly, remains unconvinced of the airport's view of the snowy Saturday crisis.

Donn Walker, a spokesman for the agency, notes that an investigation hasn't been conducted.

"We think it's entirely unacceptable for any part outside of the FAA to assign blame for this," he says.

The FAA is curious, for instance, about piles of snow plowed very close to the instrument landing equipment.Workers are supposed to respect a critical area around the equipment, and the equipment will shut down if workers get too close.

But Walker emphasizes that no one will know the cause of the shutdown until the investigation is complete.

And, he says, the airport probably would have been closed because of bad weather even if the instrument landing system were working.