Xenophon Strategies

Air Transport Association

In the Eye of the Storm

Two-pronged effort coordinated communications following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Project Highlights

• Strategic counsel
• Media relations
• Materials development
• Media monitoring

Overview

Xenophon Strategies worked with the Air Transport Association on a two-pronged effort following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The first phase was providing strategic counsel and taking part in discussions with member airlines, airport officials and pipeline operators regarding the fuel supply disruption. The second was “Operation Air Care,” a massive effort, unprecedented in U.S. history, to airlift evacuees out of New Orleans.

Strategy

The industry as a whole garnered this favorable publicity, not just one airline.

Refinery and pipeline outages caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected the fuel supply at nearly every airport on the East Coast and in the Southeast. Xenophon provided strategic counsel to fueling facilities, airports and airlines as media stories flourished, calling into action an extensive communications infrastructure developed by Xenophon over several years. The strategic counsel included participation in daily fuel supply conference calls with airlines, pipelines and facilities, and the production of a daily briefing document on pertinent fuel supply matters.

Airlines participating in Operation Air Care transported more than 13,000 evacuees from the New Orleans area. At least 15 airlines volunteered for the program, operating more than 130 flights between Sept. 2-8. Following the initial operation, several carriers continued to independently operate flights in and out of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to deliver emergency supplies and transport evacuees as needed.

Xenophon helped coordinate the communications aspect of Operation Air Care after the ATA received a call from the Bush Administration to donate planes for the airlift. Xenophon drafted a news release detailing the coordinated effort with the government, an effort made more challenging by the skyrocketing price and reduced supply of jet fuel.

Xenophon worked to place ATA President and CEO Jim May on all the major broadcast and cable news outlets, and the story received a great deal of attention in the nation’s major daily newspapers, at a time when positive news out of the region was much-needed. The industry as a whole garnered this favorable publicity, not just one airline. Xenophon also provided staff members to the ATA to assist their short-handed communications department, setting up a fully functional incident response team and handling media calls on behalf of the organization.