Airport Operators Association response
Introduction
Founded in 1934, the Airport Operators Association
(AOA) is the national voice of UK airports. We are a trade association
representing the interests of UK airports, and the principal such
body engaging with the UK Government and regulatory authorities
on airport matters. The AOA's members include over 50 airports
and 150 Associate Members, made up of companies representing a
wide range of suppliers in the aviation industry.
On 31 March the Transport Select Committee published
its report Putting passengers first: disruption at Gatwick,
Christmas Eve 2013. The report considered the causes
of disruption at Gatwick towards the end of 2013 and the response
from the airport and airlines. Some of the recommendations made
in the report are specific to regulated airports, Heathrow and
Gatwick, but there are a number which apply to AOA member airports
right across the UK. In this paper, the AOA considers those recommendations
which are relevant to all airports.
Contingency Planning
Operational contingency planning and protocols to
help assess potential disruption are discussed throughout the
report, with recommendations that the CAA guide such planning
at airports.
The report states:
· The
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is now responsible for overseeing
operational resilience issues at both Heathrow and Gatwick. We
recommend that the CAA ensure that the airports' contingency plans
have been developed with the airlines and other relevant parties,
that the plans are properly tested and widely disseminated (p11).
· We also agree
with Mr McMillan's recommendation[2]
that "Gatwick should work with airlines to develop much clearer
operational protocols to develop guidance on threshold conditions
that would trigger the cancellation or postponement of flights".
CAA should consider how this recommendation might be extended
to cover other airports (p16).
Operational resilience is important at all airports;
whether they are regulated or not, they are busy during peak hours
and severe weather and other problems could occur anywhere. The
AOA agrees that all airports should demonstrate good practice
and develop and disseminate contingency plans with airlines and
other relevant parties, but we do not agree that regulatory oversight
is necessary to achieve this. We will continue to encourage, through
the AOA Operations & Safety Group, good practice amongst airports
in developing plans to manage the cancellation of flights and
operational contingency plans in the face of disruption.
Information Provision
The Committee makes specific recommendations about
providing passenger information. On 'Passenger Champions', the
report states:
· We
endorse the recommendation of the McMillan report that Gatwick
should appoint Passenger Champions for each of its terminals,
who will focus on ensuring that passengers' needs are prioritised.
We recommend that CAA encourage other airports to take similar
steps (p13).
Other points in the report relate to information
provision, for example the suggestion that airlines should text
and email passengers about delays, and the recommendation that
the CAA bring forward their proposals for improving the provision
of information to passengers (p14-15). It is possible that these
recommendations may also impact the way in which airports deliver
information.
The AOA agrees that Passenger Champions may be appropriate
at some airports, but believes the CAA should focus on the effective
provision of information rather than specifying a single means
of providing information. Different airports will use different
infrastructure and resources for delivering information during
disruption; as with other recommendations from the Committee,
one size fits all solutions should be avoided in a diverse sector
with businesses of different sizes. Some examples of the structures
airports already have in place to respond to disruption include:
· At
Bristol Airport back office staff will take on duties such
as switchboard cover to enable frontline customer services team
to focus on assisting with tasks such as repatriation of bags
(in the case of cancelled flights), organising onward transport
and face-to-face communications in the terminal. In severe
weather disruption the airport takes the lead in arranging transport
for key staff from pre-agreed pick up points, e.g. using 4x4 vehicles
in heavy snow.
· At Manchester
Airport, customer welfare teams are trained to be the first
respondents if there is ever disruption; other office-based staff
can also provide help on the ground, as needed on a case by case
basis.
· At London
Luton Airport, a Crisis Management Plan is in place to collect
situational information and connect it to strategic directives
from senior management to adopt the most appropriate strategic
direction before the plan is deployed into tactical action. To
develop this plan the airport is also in the early development
stages of more detailed Supplementary Crisis Management Plan (SCMP)
to further address the passenger experience. The SCMP will address
all envisaged single points of failure and deliver a set of appropriate
actions for each scenario giving due consideration to the passenger
experience, corporate governance, regulator satisfaction, business
reputation, time and cost versus benefit. Therefore, it is envisaged
that the plan will evaluate every conceived scenario and based
on situational circumstance, the airport's Crisis Management Team
will adopt the most appropriate set of actions for any given circumstance.
All plans will be agreed with stakeholders including resident
airlines, regulators and service providers so to ensure the approach
is consistent across the airport community.
The AOA and our members have a joint working group
set up with the CAA to discuss the provision of information to
passengers. This group will review how airports provide information
for passengers during disruption and also review proposed operational
resilience best practice guidelines being produced by the CAA.
Passenger Welfare
The AOA welcomes the acknowledgement that staff on
the ground during the disruption at Gatwick worked extremely hard
(p8).
The report suggests airports can go further in their
work with passengers:
· Under
EU law, airlines must provide care and assistance to passengers
during delays: this can vary from food and drink to a hotel room...
In our view, there is a crucial role for airports during cases
of severe disruption, when airline staff are likely to be overstretched,
to provide welfare services that would normally be the responsibility
of the airlines... It would be crucial for airlines and airports
to reach operational agreements about when airports should step
in and how costs should be allocated. We recommend that the Government
review this issue (p14)
The provision of welfare and the costs associated
with it are best agreed between airports and airlines without
Government intervention. The relationship between the airline
and passenger is key and is primarily the responsibility of the
airline. An airport will do its best to support passengers but
should not be providing financial assistance that may result in
confusion between airlines and passengers, and may not be in line
with the policies and procedures airlines have in place to determine
the types and costs of provisions they are able to make. The charges
airports agree with airlines are already under pressure, with
recent additional charges set by the CAA, and the financial agreements
between businesses need to work for them and their customers.
Public bodies would not be well placed to determine these financial
arrangements. Most airports already take their responsibilities
to customers very seriously and provide services to the best of
their ability; we urge airports to continue to do so and to consider
opportunities for providing welfare arrangements for passengers
during severe disruption.
The AOA Snow Planning Survey 2012
In 2012, in response to a CAA request the AOA conducted
a survey of its airport members on planning for winter disruption.
This survey drew together good practice in the airport sector,
and was also signed by BATA, the British Air Transport Association,
demonstrating unity amongst UK airports and airlines on preparing
for snow. A summary of the findings is appended to this report[3]
- the AOA will be re-visiting and updating the survey later this
year in time for the 2014/2015 winter season, and we will ensure
the Committee has sight of this newer version, once completed.
· AOA
Snow Planning Survey 2012 - Summary of findings
Next steps
The AOA will continue to work with the CAA on information
provision at airports and would be happy to discussion disruption
further with the Transport Select Committee.
2 David McMillan, is a non executive director on Gatwick's
Board, and is also Chair of the Board of Governors of the Flight
Safety Foundation. He was Director General of Eurocontrol, which
co-ordinates air traffic across 40 European states, from 2008
to 2012; and before that he was UK Director General of Civil Aviation
and spoke for Europe on environmental issues at ICAO.
Gatwick commissioned a review of the
problems which occurred on 24 December 2013 from David McMillan,
which was presented to the Board of Gatwick Airport in February
2014. https://www.gatwickairport.com/PublicationFiles/business_and_community/all_public_publications/2014/McMillan_report_Feb14.pdf
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3
Summary of Snow Survey 2012 findings not published. See link above Back
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