Airlines blaze trail in marketing as legal fears take precedence

Those looking to market the new millennium could do worse than look to the airlines industry for examples of how to handle the Year 2000 computer glitch conundrum.

Late last year Dutch airline KLM took the brave step of saying it might have to ground some of its fleet between December 31 and January 1. This is supposedly not because there is anything to fear of the aircraft computer systems failing but rather those of the airport and ground support systems.

British Airways (BA), on the other hand, is taking the opposite approach. Sixteen executives, including five board members, have been booked on flights that will deliberately be airborne as midnight strikes. Beijing has 'ordered' that its airlines will be airborne.

BA and KLM are taking what they believe to be the best course of action to reassure passengers, and the public, that the Year 2000 (Y2K) trouble will have no significant impact on operations and in particular, customer safety.

The question of who is wise or who is a foolish risk-taker will only become clear after January 1.

In the interim, will KLM suffer revenues from being perceived as too cautious? If it cannot guarantee safety, is it failing in its Y2K compliance efforts. But with imminent unquantifiable intricate troubles, better safe than sorry. Will BA be seen as over-confident or, at worst, reckless? Competition leads to independent and divergent operational decisions, stamping out any perception of a united front in resolving this technological issue. In this case, taking such contradictory stances will up the ante for the spin doctors who now have to explain why their company's approach is best for the customers.