Challenge
The Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) is a non-profit employee association representing the pilots of Southwest Airlines.  In the fall of 2006, they sought media relations assistance in their efforts to change federal regulations which require U.S. commercial airline pilots to retire at age 60. Since the 1980s, SWAPA had unsuccessfully advocated for a change to the Federal Aviation Administration’s rule forcing pilots to retire.

The issue of forced pilot retirement garnered attention in November of 2006 when the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the world’s governing aviation body, issued a new standard that would extend the retirement age for pilots from age 60 to age 65. Once this change went into place world-wide, the United States was forced by treaty to allow foreign pilots over the age of 60 to fly into the United States while denying American pilots the same rights.  This ruling by the ICAO presented an opportunity to drive media attention to this discriminatory practice and encourage the FAA to adopt the new standard of 65.

Solution
O’Neill and Associates worked in concert with SWAPA’s pilots, internal government relations operation and external legal counsel to provide the Association with strategic communications and media relations services that would pressure the FAA to adopt the ICAO standard for U.S. pilots. O’Neill and Associates devised a two-prong strategy that focused on educating the national aviation press corps and hitting local media outlets that were home to key federal decision makers. 

On the national front, we pitched stories to the major outlets advising them on the status of the issue and its implications to federal aviation policy. We also incorporated medical research, safety research, individual pilot stories and other information sources to develop a message that would both interest and persuade members of the media and their readers. From these messages O’Neill and Associates was able to develop talking points, flyers, backgrounders and additional written materials to be used by SWAPA and its advocates during the campaign.

Other tactics included press releases, drafting and placing op-ed pieces to be run under prominent supporters’ names, dispatching of third-party validators as spokespeople, press conferences, and localized stories in regional publications.

Results
As a result of O’Neill and Associates’ efforts over a three-month period, SWAPA's message was amplified through media coverage that included:

• Two national nightly news segments, on NBC Evening News and ABC’s World News Tonight, reaching more than 15 million households; .
• 22 print media hits, including pieces in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and The Denver Post; and
• 23 television media hits, including segments in major outlets such as Las Vegas, Detroit and Houston.

Subsequent to our efforts, the FAA announced its intention to issue a rule that would extend mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65. E. Allen Englehardt, of SWAPA, described O’Neill and Associates’ work as “very effective in producing pressure on the FAA to act.”

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