Air Canada Pilots Association Case Study

In December 2016, Counsel was retained by the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) to develop an integrated GR and PR campaign to ensure Transport Canada amended Canada’s outdated fatigue regulations. Fatigue is the most pressing safety concern facing pilots as today’s rules are 20 years out of date, do not align with accepted fatigue science, and lag far behind other jurisdictions.

The team developed an integrated PR for GR campaign that targeted key stakeholders and the public to influence decision makers at Transport Canada. The idea was to educate (and shock) Canadians about Canada’s outdated safety rules by bringing the experience of pilots to life online and offline. While the GR team worked directly on government outreach, the PR team launched the Safer Skies campaign which featured a website (SaferSkies.ca and Cielplussur.ca), out-of-home print and digital advertising, social media and earned media – all driving to signatures on a Parliamentary petition.

To encourage broad engagement, we developed a tiered stakeholder engagement strategy that began with pilots unions and also engaged industries and associations with similar fatigue and shift work issues.

RESULTS: On May 2, 2017, the campaign officially launched with an op-ed in the Hill Times, and media coverage across print, radio and trade publications. Within one week, the petition had more than 3,500 signatures and the video had been watched more than 2,000 times. Future tactics could include releasing a survey of pilot’s experience with fatigue, ongoing social media content and videos that bring the campaign to life – with ongoing GR support in Ottawa. The campaign was recently featured in a major story on CBC’s the National.