By Shannon Steffke
Writer
Airports live in a blinding spotlight.
They move millions of people safely every year, but the moment something goes wrong the image of their quiet competence disappears.
A minor runway incursion—even one that ends without damage or injury—can put a director’s name in headlines. And these days, headlines travel fast.
That is the strange math of public relations in this industry: the green flags are invisible and one yellow flag becomes the story.
Public relations is the ongoing work of shaping people’s understanding of aviation and airport safety
Understanding what public relations really means, and how quickly good press can turn into bad, is the first step toward protecting your airport’s reputation.
Community updates, construction notices, and messages an airport sends are all intentional PR. However, the larger part is reactive. When something goes wrong, it can easily become the week’s viral story. The goal of sound public relations is to earn enough trust in advance that the airport is seen as competent, honest, and safe if the pressure arrives.
When a construction vehicle strays onto a live surface, or a convoy ends up somewhere it should not be, the event stops being an operational footnote and becomes a question about whether the airport can be trusted.
Travelers wonder if their flight is safe, airlines ask who is minding the airfield, and regulators and local officials will ask even harder questions.
This scrutiny is not hypothetical. There were 1,474 runway incursions at U.S. airports in 2024, roughly four every day, according to the FAA. The vast majority never reach the public, but each one is a story that could have been, and the category closest to a director’s control is telling.
For example, in fiscal year 2023, vehicle and pedestrian deviations accounted for about 20 percent of all incursions, according to the FAA.
Those are not pilot errors happening at altitude.
Those are people and vehicles on the ground where they should not be, and they are exactly the incidents the public finds hardest to forgive.
Finding the helpers
Alder Founder and CEO Ali Munzer did not come to the airfield from construction or aviation.
She came from the “helping” professions, as an educator and a therapist, and she brought with her an unusual conviction: that safety is a product of culture, not just compliance.
As a result, Ali understands high-stakes worksites in a way most aviation professionals do not.
“There’s a big differece between a flagger who feels respected and understands why the work matters performs differently than just a warm body filling a shift,” Ali said. “One brings presence, awareness, and accountability. The other brings risk.”
Ali says she built Alder around that difference, and it shows in a workforce that returns shift after shift—many of them by choice, not obligation.
That culture is not a soft benefit.
“On the AOA, culture is the safety mechanism itself,” Ali added. “Certified movement area escorts guide convoys across taxiways so no one has to guess where they can drive. Trained flaggers monitor ground, tower, and aircraft activity and serve as a second set of eyes for every crew on the move. At general aviation airports, Alder’s resident project representatives keep construction phasing disciplined so crews are never improvising near a live runway.”
Ali said that each of those roles is a place where a headline gets prevented before it exists, and each depends on people who have done the work before.
Quiet by design
When Alder’s team is on the airfield, the incidents that would have generated bad press simply do not occur. The convoy reaches the jobsite, the crews stay where they belong and the runway stays clear. Passengers do not notice, nor do the airlines, and the director does not get the call.
An airport’s reputation is never won at a podium. It is built one incident-free day at a time, in a place the public rarely looks at, by people most travelers will never see.
The directors who avoid a public relations crisis are usually the ones who invested in prevention long before any camera arrived.
About the author
Shannon Steffke is an experienced journalist, professional marketer, and communicator with a focus on writing that’s clear, credible, and grounded in research. She’s contributed to Alder since 2024, helping the company communicate its expertise to the people who need it most.
Further Reading
FAA and U.S. DOT, Addressing Close Calls to Improve Aviation Safety