GACA; Stating the Obvious

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Airports&iid=7292983″ src=”http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/7292983/close-arrival-departure/close-arrival-departure.jpg?size=500&imageId=7292983″ width=”234″ height=”355″ /]

I am not able to understand the strange desire of some organizations to have press coverages or to have press releases when they do not have anything new to say, or when what they have to say is sooooooooo obvious, to say the least!

You want an example; here is one. Freshly coming from GACA (General Authority of Civil Aviation). In this weird press coverage, I failed to come up with any significant new information or any details of useful rules that will make my life easier as a customer of this governmental organization.

Let’s have some highlights:

• ‘We aim to ensure passenger safety through the implementation of several safety procedures.’
  • Daaah!! Should we become impressed or something? This is one of your main goals, isn’t?

• He added that passengers often become angry due to flight delays and cancellations during the summer, but this is because they fail to understand that flight activity increases during the summer and that there can be issues with the climate.
  • And this is the worst of them all. We, the customers, fail to understand that flights usually increase during the summer!!! So it is not that travelers via Saudi airports usually suffer from poor services and lack of organization, we are the one who fail to understand!!!

• “We are cooperating with aviation companies to arrange a limited number of scheduled flights. We will schedule the number of daily flights in each airport. We define the number of flights according to an airport’s lounges, paths and runaways … Our domestic and international airports are equipped with the latest equipment that allows planes to land from very high altitudes and when the vision is poor,” he added.
  • Yeah … Ok … What are you trying to say??? I did not get it?

• In order to deal with any potential challenges caused by changes in the weather, GACA has signed an agreement with the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment that would see the two bodies collaborating with each other.
  • Please tell me that this is not a NEW agreement!! Haven’t you been dealing with PME before? and you’re just starting now!

This is only a classical example of a PR activity that does not add any value to the organization, actually, it might hurt it. Stating the obvious is not a goal of PR, and insulting customer is certainly not a PR acceptable technique!!!

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The Burning Heat II

Few days ago I published a post about the heat wave that hit Jeddah in the past week. I’ve commented on the poor PR performance of both the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) and how they’ve engaged in a pointless debate about whether the temperature was 49 °C or it only was 46 °C!!

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=dubai+skyscraper&iid=7156353″ src=”4/e/0/a/Dubai_Debt_Crisis_91b3.jpg?adImageId=12980718&imageId=7156353″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]The exemplary reaction, came from our neighbors in Dubai. According to this piece of news (Arabic), the UAE Ministry of labor has decided to stop any labor outdoor activities between 12:30 to 15:00 for a period of time extended from the mid of June up to the mid of September. The surprising thing, to me at least, is that this decision is in place since 2005! And in this year, the restricted months have been increased to three instead of only two in the pervious years. And those found noncompliant with the ruling will be fined by the government and their working permits would be suspended.

The point is that they were not debating whether the temperature would be this or that, they just tackled the main point of the whole subject and they acted accordingly. Again, for SEC and PME, please focus on your own missions and make sure you are providing your services in exemplary means.

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It seems that the Saudi ministry of labor followed course and decided to ban working under the sun from 12 PM to 3 PM starting July through the end of August but it is not effective immediately, it is to start on 2011! (the news here). This is good news , but why 2011 and not now; Allah only knows!!

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The Burning Heat

From: http://www.al-madina.com

The past couple of days were ‘hot’ in Jeddah, and I mean that literally! And what got things really hotter is the debate between the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the rest of us, Jeddaweis (people from Jeddah.)

SEC claimed that it had major power cutoffs in Jeddah because of the unusual temperature that reached 49 °C. The PME, feeling that SEC just stepped on their speciality came out and said “No … No … It was never 49, it was only 46 °C. (read here, in Arabic)

Now let’s talk business:

• To SEC, please do not try to blame the weather for your poor performance, I am not sure anybody is buying that. Let’s say that it was really 49 °C … so what??? It is not like you are operating the network from Alaska or anything!! So the summary of the message is: the poor PR performance of trying to cover failures by ‘not so smart’ justifications is not acceptable, that’s beside SEC apparently poor contingency and back up plans to deal with the ‘more than expected’ heat this summer, and please note, we are not summer yet!
• To PME, your response was like saying ‘do not exaggerate people, hey … it’s only 46 °C.’ We would’ve really appreciate showing some feelings for us, the Jeddaweis who felt that burning heat to the bone! Or even better, you could’ve sent messages to some companies to take some kind of measures to protect their field workers. So the summary of the message is: when you do not have a good PR to share with the rest of us, it is much better to keep it in your drawers and not to play smart on us!

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