“Given the importance of timeliness at all airports, the authority should have made immediate communication with all passengers and airlines,” she said.
“[Leveraging] social media effectively during a system failure, airports can inform passengers better and reduce confusion, and maintain a positive relationship with the public.”
Kim added the authority could have provided QR codes for passengers to check their flight information on social media, which would have been easier than scouring the whiteboards for information.
Kim also said the authority should have pre-established crisis management plans and designated social media teams for emergencies.
Hong Kong International Airport’s seven social media pages, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, WeChat, Weibo and LinkedIn, posted nothing on Sunday and the media was only notified two hours after problems were noticed at 7am.
Rudi Leung, the founder and director of marketing agency Hungry Digital, said fast communication was crucial in crisis management and social media was a vital tool in the digital age.
“Acknowledging the issue even without full details is important to maintain transparency and trust with the public and stakeholders,” Leung said.
“The authority missed an opportunity to promptly inform travellers by not using these [social media] platforms.”
He highlighted that the authority could also use Chinese social media Xiaohongshu.
Leung said the airport mainly used its online channels for “one-way communication”, which was considered “backward” in the modern digital world because it lacked engagement.
He suggested the authority should share the lessons learned and improvements made online in the wake of the incident to rebuild public trust.
Andy Ho On-tat, a public affairs consultant who masterminded publicity efforts for ex-city chief Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, acknowledged the authority’s efforts to switch to a manual system.
But he agreed airport chiefs could have posted information on its social media accounts and a backup website.
Ho said the authority could also consider issuing to remind passengers to arrive earlier at the airport and that airlines and the government could have taken a bigger role in helping to minimise the impact of the shutdown.
“Airline companies have the personal information of their passengers,” he added. “They can take one step further and notify them … it would be more straightforward and simple.”
He said the government could help by publicising flight details on its online platforms so travellers could look for information on official channels when the airport’s website and mobile app suffered system failures.
The Post has asked the Airport Authority for comment.
Passengers and the public said they were disappointed by the authority’s contingency plan to deal with the communications breakdown.
“I was only informed of the incident from the media, but not from the official channel of the Airport Authority,” Ivy Pong, who was flying to Taiwan on Monday, said.
Angry comments were also added to the airport’s latest Facebook post, published last Friday, to highlight new social media accounts linked to the airport’s community project.
The “Extra Mile” programme, launched in 2018, was designed to create “shared values” for partner business, the public and help job-hunters looking for roles at the airport.
“Where is the management who gets several hundred thousand dollars per month?” one user asked.
“Is there anyone to be held accountable for the incident? Why is your efficiency so low? You also took a day to settle the runway incident.”
The last comment was a reference to an eight-hour runway closure a week ago, triggered by the emergency landing of a cargo plane, which burst a tyre on touchdown.
The incident caused delays to about 450 flights because the airport was left with one operating runway.
Additional reporting by Vivian Au
