SWISS Magazine November 2015

On the ground
The phone rings: “Good morning, SWISS Media
Office, Stefan Vasic speaking.” A radio station wants
a statement from Stefan Vasic, a SWISS spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Dan Bärlocher, Head of Corporate
Communications, and members of the Internal
Communications team cast a critical eye over the
latest article published on the e-board.
Working in the Communications Department is
anything but boring: aviation holds enduring appeal,
and SWISS is often in the spotlight. Forming a wellversed
team, our spokespersons are more than
capable of keeping their cool, especially when things
start to hot up: editors waiting for an interview;
media releases to be dispatched promptly; incoming
calls, often on all lines at the same time. Re -
spond ing to wide-ranging questions from the media
calls for close collaboration with colleagues in other
departments: gathering the elements required
to reply to a complex enquiry is no easy task, particularly
when everything has to be done in a rush.
“Even under the pressure of very tight deadlines, we
always consult with our specialists to clarify the
facts as carefully as possible – our goal, naturally, is
to provide well-found ed replies,” explains Sonja
Ptassek, another spokes person. Commenting in
their capacity as official representatives, our spokespersons
are acute ly aware of their responsibility
for our corpor ate image. The members of our Ex -
tern al Communications unit also play an important
role in collecting interesting facts and anecdotes
about the company to attract media attention and
reporting. Further duties include supporting our
senior management in preparing for public appearances
at press conferences, panel discussions,
maid en flights and aircraft naming events.
The pace is equally fast over in our Internal Communications
unit: Reto Hoffmann and Melanie
Heiniger are deep in discussion planning the timing
of the topics for the next staff information bulletin.
Given the obvious difficulties of contacting our flying
Dan Bärlocher bespricht mit Melanie
Heiniger und Reto Hoffmann die
Information für die Mitarbeitenden auf
dem eBoard.
Dan Bärlocher talks to Melanie Heiniger
and Reto Hoffmann about information
for staff published via our e-boards.
106 World of SWISS