The FAA announced a 10% cut in flights at 40 airports. Every hub used by the major airlines for domestic and international flights is affected. Even before these cuts, Houston passengers faced three-hour security lines last weekend. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is warning of “mass chaos.”
No doubt, most airline CMOs and communications teams are drafting apology messaging right now. As sensible as that sounds, it may not be the best approach.
The smartest airlines will recognize this government-created disaster as their best brand-building opportunity in decades. Not despite the chaos, but because of it.
The Psychology Of Shared Suffering
When Southwest added bag fees last year, customers revolted. The airline violated its core promise, triggering loss aversion that destroyed decades of loyalty.
But the FAA shutdown creates the opposite dynamic: an external enemy causing universal suffering. Airlines get blamed for mechanical delays, traffic control problems and even bad weather. In this case, though, there’s a clear villain: a combination of intransigent politicials and government bureaucrats.
Research by Brock Bastian and colleagues at the University of New South Wales and University of Queensland found that groups experiencing painful tasks together form stronger bonds and cooperate more than those sharing pleasant experiences. Even eating spicy chili peppers together creates more cooperation than sharing non-painful food.
This comes close to invoking Robert Cialdini’s seventh influence principle, Unity. This principle is based on shared identity between people who see each other as part of “us.” While Unity is primarily about shared identity, Cialdini notes in Pre-Suasion that it can be strengthened through co-creation and shared experiences.
Think about it: When do strangers on planes actually talk to each other? During smooth flights? Not often. During weather delays? Always. External threats and extreme inconvenience create instant tribes.
Don’t Just Apologize, Commiserate
Traditional crisis management says: apologize profusely, offer compensation, add customer service staff.
This assumes you’re at fault. Over-apologizing for government dysfunction might actually weaken customer bonds by positioning airlines as failed service providers rather than fellow victims.
Here’s the counterintuitive playbook:
Replace “We’re sorry” with “We’re in this together.” Southwest’s flight attendants already nail this—their shutdown jokes create passenger unity, not corporate distance.
Make heroes of front-line staff. Share stories of gate agents sleeping at airports to keep flights moving. They’re not corporate representatives, they’re fellow humans doing their best to navigate the same mess.
Use collective pronouns religiously. Research demonstrates that collective-oriented language acts on our brains in a different way than personal-oriented language. Using ‘we’ consistently throughout communications strengthens the sense of shared identity more effectively than ‘you and us’ phrasing, which creates separation rather than unity.
The Brand Bonding Opportunity
The U.S. airline loyalty market is worth as much as $100 billion, but that “loyalty” is mostly transactional—miles earned, status achieved. The FAA shutdown offers something different: emotional loyalty forged through adversity.
Airlines have spent decades trying to build loyalty through amenities, routes, and rewards programs. Yet passenger choice most often comes down to price and schedule. This crisis offers genuine differentiation through shared experience.
How’s this for irony? The government flight restrictions threatening to destroy customer satisfaction might actually help create deeper customer bonds with the airline brands that take advantage of the situation.
There’s a lesson here for all marketers: times of extreme stress offer an opportunity to build, rather than break, the emotional connection with customers.