Interesting interview

Pedro Garcia who writes a blog (http://www.aeriaa.com/) has asked me a number of interesting questions. Please see the answers in his latest post: http://www.aeriaa.com/2013/04/07/airtalk-with-jurgen-weder-neuropies-ceo/

One year after go-live of their Airport Management Center, Moscow Sheremetyevo is the best ACI ASQ airport in Europe. Coincidence?

Lasting success is not a result of coincidence. It's the result of focused hard work.

When Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport established their Airport Management Center by the end of 2011 they endeavoured to achieve these goals:

• To consolidate the coordination, monitoring and control of the different airport-wide spread operations control centres
• To effectively manage the airport across organisations
• To significantly shorten reaction times on irregularities
• To improve the capacity and act with standard operating procedures at hand to provide excellent customer service from end-to-end

We are very glad to have been part of the project with our technology and business expertise.

One year after their go-live, ACI names Sheremetyevo the best European airport in service quality. The Airport Service Quality (ASQ) is one of the most prestigious research programs on Airport Service Quality involving 250 airports in 50 countries.

Is this coincidence? Maybe they collaborate better than before, internally and externally. Maybe they act more like a business and more performance oriented. Maybe there are less friction-losses between processes and organisations.

In the end, what counts, are the results. And this award is outstanding because it comes from the end-customer, the passenger.

The 7 habits of highly effective punctuality management

As soon as an airport or an airline has a punctuality record month, they publish press releases, they celebrate. But how sustainable is such a short-time success? If you check their performance from then on, you may find them falling back to the levels before.

Can on-time performance be actively managed? If you think it can't be managed or can only be resolved by others, the following 7 habits may present a different perspective. If you already manage punctuality, you can assess where you are in your quest.

Habit	Characteristics
Accountability	There is a sufficient number of delay codes to differentiate delay causer Each delay code (with sub-code) has an owner or responsible organization The delay code assignment process is clear and in place (assign, accept, reject, handling of disputes, final call). Secondary delays are allocated to the original causer Delay cost is calculated and assigned to the causer
Transparency	Delay code assignment and on-time performance of every organization is transparent to everybody. Data quality is high Share performance with other airports
Standardization	Only one definition of delay codes and delays across the airport based on IATA standard, incorporated in the Airport Handling Manual (AHM) Any non-conformance e.g. different reporting from an airline to its head office will be brought forward to the Governance Forum
Governance and Benchmarking	Multi-stakeholder Airport Operations Control Center to manage the daily operational on-time performance and escalations Has a Punctuality Manager Punctuality Board, chaired by the Airport's Punctuality Manager, with delegates from handling agents and airlines proposes and tracks actions Punctuality targets are defined and broken down to each stakeholder Maybe an award/penalty pool for on-time performance Benchmark against other airports
System Integration	Delay codes and delays are captured or integrated into one 'global' system. That system should also allow to automatically track issues of a flight which could have caused the delay in case of disputes.
Communication/PR	Constant, effective communication among all stakeholders Maybe an award for the best punctuality improvement program
Empowerment	Agree on challenging yet achievable goals but leave it up to the partners to implement sustainable improvement Provide sufficient resources for punctuality management and improvement programs

The role of an Airport Management Center for efficient operations

It is certainly a challenge to improve or at least maintain on-time performance and service quality with a continuously growing number of passengers. Airports are establishing structures, processes and technologies to address the challenges of today and the future. Eurocontrol's initiative of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) aims at improving the airside process with a focus on the aircraft turnaround. What about the rest? What about structures, processes and technologies to address this area of business together with the airport partners?

Coordination on ground is a quite complex matter. There are multiple players with their own coordination centers providing disparate services. You will find many shared processes and responsibilities though. Service levels are not aligned and processes have many interdependencies. Even though there are infrastructure limitations, airport and ATC slots, winter operation or specific passenger behavior, you will find rarely a 'superordinated' coordination.

An Airport Management Center (AMC) can address this challenge. The airport operator manages the operation together with their partners. Supported by the top managers of all partners the common goal is operational excellence. The key services are coordinated in one room, moderated by the airport, based on a free flow of information. This will not only require a room but also efficient IT systems.

However, are you ready for this change of culture? The airport's top management must be convinced that this change is necessary in order to achieve its goal. Unfortunately, most of the time such a re-thinking is triggered only after a bigger or smaller crisis. The starting point is a paradigm shift from administrating to orchestrating the operation. There the airport operator takes a leading role in managing the airport operation. The next challenge will be internal shifts of power and responsibilities. This is usually where such projects fail because it may include organizational changes.

After having overcome the mostly internal hurdles, the airport will have to take the initiative and convince their partners to join the center, build the room, implement new IT systems, and to provide know-how transfer and training.

What are the main functions of an AMC? It is an information center which collects and disseminates information. It facilitates communication because peers are sitting in the same room and can talk freely and efficiently. Decisions are made in a collaborative and coordinated manner. Of course, it also creates goodwill amongst the airport partners and a community feeling. Eventually, efficient teamwork, control over operational activities and a leading role by the airport will be achieved.

Is your Airport Duty Manager a leader?

More and more I become aware of the importance of the Airport Duty Managers, in particular regarding Collaborative Decision Making (CDM). 

As the designated moderator of the CDM process he/she must be perceived and accepted by his peers as the informal leader. To achieve this status, however, behavior and especially communication of the Duty Manager are essential, as demeanor, appearance and communication triggers and determines human interaction. This interaction in turn is the key for collaboration. In addition to distinct management and leadership abilities, Duty Managers should have excellent communication skills.

I hope that none of the following issues do apply to your Airport Duty Manager(s):

• Work almost exclusively re-actively. They rarely manage (act proactively) and are therefore not perceived as leader.
• Do not prepare sufficiently for possible irregularity scenarios but leave managing (preparation for possible scenarios) to the “responsible functions” without being part of it.
• Lack additional area of responsibility they have to manage (improvements)
• Do not communicate on a structured, regular basis with their partners inside and outside of the organization.
• Are not perceived as leaders or moderators but as mere supervisors controlling the partners.
• Neither possess the necessary skills nor the authority to lead a group of people not subordinated to them.

Collaboration and performance at South African airports

Last week I was in South Africa visiting the Airport Management Centres at the airports Johannesburg and Cape Town. It has been more than two years since my last visit and I was wondering what their maturity level would be. It was simply great to see them continuously working on improving airport performance and collaboration. Just highlighting two areas: stakeholders and performance.

Stakeholders: They have representatives from the airport, from the major airlines, from all three ground handlers, ATC and recently a fueling company (because of the current fuel issues in South Africa). Sure, there are still some issues with cooperation but can you imagine that a ground handler representative would pick up the telephone of his competitor while he is away? These things happen there.

Performance: Needless to say that they have improved their on-time performance and many other areas. They even publish the airline's performance on the Internet. With the airline's consent. And every morning they have a briefing with the airlines where each airline sets their punctuality target for the day (so does the airport). Every hour they check where they are.

I am sure we will hear many more success stories about ACSA. Particularly after ACSA has won a bid for the expansion, maintenance and operation of Guarulhos, Brazil's busiest airport, located at a suburb of the city of São Paulo.

Useless application of video walls

There is an increase in the application of large screen presentations of process information in airport operations control rooms. In addition to the standard screens on the operators' station, the control rooms are equipped with one or more video walls or large sized screens, displaying a summary of the process being supervised.

Often these overview displays look impressive and sophisticated. They surely contribute to a high tech appearance of the control room. However, further consideration may reveal that an overview display is a costly, often quite useless addition to the standard desktop work stations. See the following example where the center video wall continuously shows a Windows error message.

To be fair, there are a few applications of video walls in airport operation control centers, like to provide a common situational awareness to both controllers and visiting public or to highlight an area to focus on an issue for a specific group. One of the key success factors will be the layout design and the information design on the video wall, both derived from what the control center is aimed at achieving.