What Will Be Key to Safety as Technology Changes Airport Operations?
The airport of the future will be enhanced by technology, but ultimately safety will come down to how stakeholders collaborate, a panel of experts representing all facets of the aviation industry said today during the opening plenary session at AAAE’s Airport Operations & Technology Symposium in Oklahoma City.
Panelists represented airport safety, airport operations, airport planning, air traffic control, and risk management, from both the airport and carrier side.
The airport of the future is not “going to be safer because of more technology, it is safer because we get better at collaborating,” said Jacobs Aviation Advisory Safety and Compliance Director Serena Sheetz, C.M., ACE. “Together we are the best safety system and that is how we can drive the future of aviation.”
“No one sees the entire operational picture alone,” Sheetz, who served as session moderator, added. “We drive success through collaboration. We all bring a unique perspective to the table.”
Working through various scenarios, with discussion points influenced by audience voting on their smartphones, one of the topic panelists discussed was airport construction while maintaining operations.
Noting there is a lot of risk associated with construction, Denver International Director of Airport Safety Travis Krabbenhoft, C.M., ACE, explained starting collaboration among all stakeholders early, and keeping it going, is key. There are “so many things we know that can happen — and expect to happen,” he said in regards to construction at an airport. “What we need to do is … get everybody involved (in the conversation) early and figure out what types of things you can do to mitigate these risks.”
Disruption will happen at an airport, all panelists agreed, and the key is being prepared. “The airport environment is complex and things will happen,” said National Air Traffic Controllers Association National Safety Chair John Murdock. “We have plans in place to handle unique challenges.”
“People know what to do when something occurs that is not regular,” he added. “When we work (with all stakeholders), we know what to do when things” go wrong.
Blue Grass Airport Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tyler Miller, A.A.E., ACE, noted that the responding to different challenges that may happen at same time can be very challenging.
“We can train our teams to respond but have to really teach the collaboration and critical thinking to delegate that down to make decisions,” he said. “A runway closure while dealing with an incident on the ramp, it is not far-fetched to think that might happen. There (can be) many situations — mini crises — happening at once and we only have so people in-house/on duty.”
Miller explained that after action reports tend to happen only after major incidents and should instead become more commonplace. “After action briefings need to happen. We are probably pretty good as an industry on having an after action” for a major incident, he said, “but do we have those after a landside meltdown? A weather incident that has operational impacts on our scheduled airline service?”
“Expand those lessons learned, document them and solidifying best practices outside of just that emergency response is something that we often overlook,” he concluded.
In the end, the airport of the future will depend on how stakeholders manage emerging changes together, Sheetz said to the room of more than 400 airport and industry operations.
“Airport operations, air traffic control, an airline, emergency manager, engineering, you look at an airport through a different lens,” she said. “No one sees the entire operational picture alone, we drive success through collaboration. We all bring a unique perspective to the table."
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