Telum Talks To… Leithen Francis, Managing Director, Francis & Low
Interview

Telum Talks To… Leithen Francis, Managing Director, Francis & Low

Telum caught up with Leithen Francis, MD of Francis & Low as he shares his top tips on doing comms for the aviation industry, landing a fruitful pitch with journalists and if the aviation industry is ready to go green.

What is it the most important to bear in mind when doing aerospace / aviation communications?
It is very important to subscribe to and read aviation trade publications, so you develop your aviation knowledge and follow the trends and industry issues that aviation journalists are interested to cover. Journalists appreciate the fact you subscribe to and read their publications. Also, you’ll find interesting stories in the trade media that you, as a PR practitioner, can then pitch and bring into the mainstream media to generate positive publicity for your clients.

One of Francis and Low’s specialties is aviation – how has the pandemic hit the aviation industry and is the industry seeing a recovery now?
The pandemic was unprecedented and had a tremendously negative impact on commercial passenger airlines. The airline industry in Asia Pacific, with the exception of China, is now recovering very quickly. But the challenge for airlines is ramping up capacity to cater to the strong rebound in passenger demand. It is a challenge because it takes time to bring an aircraft out of storage and get it airworthy again. It also takes time to hire and train people. We are seeing very high airfares right now because there is limited aircraft capacity in the market and airlines are also having to pass on higher fuel prices to consumers.

Borders across the world are slowly opening up however not as fast as some would like. As the aviation industry often requires journalists to be on-site, how do you maintain a strong relationship with the media?
Our PR agency works across the Asia Pacific region: especially in Southeast Asia, Australia, Korea and Japan. We were unable to arrange face-to-face events during the pandemic because of social distancing restrictions. But we maintained strong relationships with journalists by continuing to engage with them via videoconferencing, phone and email. We continued to engage because we continued to arrange media interviews and help journalists with stories they were working on. Many journalists, for example, were interested to cover the impact of the pandemic on air travel.

With CO2 emissions becoming more of a bigger concern these days, do you believe those aviation companies are ready to go green?
The aviation industry only accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions, but the concern is that aviation’s share of CO2 emissions may increase as a percentage of the total as other industries, such as the electricity and automotive industry, transition to battery technology and renewable energy such as solar. It is hard for an aircraft to be powered by a battery, because batteries are very heavy and the energy density is too low to power commercial airliners. That said, the aviation industry is committed to ‘going green’. Firstly, the industry is striving to make aircraft more fuel-efficient because less fuel burn equates to lower CO2.

The industry is also pushing for the adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Engine makers have said they aim to make their engines 100% compliant with SAF by 2025. The industry is also developing new propulsion technologies such as hybrid-electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft. Burning hydrogen in an engine produces no CO2, only water, but hydrogen has its own set of challenges. It is very volatile and as a gas, it takes up a large volume. Jet fuel, which is basically kerosene, still has a much higher energy density.  

You were a journalist with over than 17 years of experience prior to moving into communications. Is there anything you want to share with fellow PR professionals on how to do media relations best?
As a former journalist, one of the advantages I have is a keen sense of what makes a good media story. Clients may know what story they want to communicate, but that is not necessarily a story a journalist would consider newsworthy. So as a media relations practitioner you have to find some ‘common ground’, bring the two parties together and find a way to shape the story.

You shape the story so the journalist gets to write an article their editors and readers will be happy with, and the client gets an opportunity to weave in some of their messaging. As media relations practitioners, our starting point is often the same as the journalist’s starting point: find a news peg. Once you have a news peg, you can then peg your client’s messaging to that.

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