Airport World, Issue 1, 2022

Theme: Europe’s regional airports Airport reports: Hamad & Taoyuan Interviewed: ACI Asia-Pacific’s Stefano Baronci Plus: Airport design; WBP news & People matters

In the spotlight: Europe’s regional airports Volume 27 – Issue 1, 2022 www.aci.aero

OPINION ;OL THNHaPUL VM [OL (PYWVY[Z *V\UJPS 0U[LYUH[PVUHS

Airport World Editor Joe Bates +44 (0)1276 476582 joe@airport-world.com Design, Layout & Production Mark Draper +44 (0)208 707 2743 mark@airport-world.com Sales Directors Jonathan Lee +44 (0)208 707 2743 jonathan@airport-world.com Gary Allman +44 (0) 7854 239 426 gary@aviationmedia.aero Advertising Manager Andrew Hazell +44 (0)208 384 0206 andrewh@airport-world.com Subscriptions subscriptions@aviationmedia.aero Managing Director Jonathan Lee +44 (0)208 707 2743 jonathan@aviationmedia.aero

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Little and large Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the key role regional airports play for their local communites and regions.

B

y the time you read this, the 2021 winners of ACI’s annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) customer experience awards will have been announced and, no doubt, once again the bulk of the attention of the world’s press will be on the biggest gateways on the planet and how they performed.

Has long-time customer service king Incheon International Airport regained its crown in the Over 40mppa category for the Asia-Pacific region? How did Amsterdam Schiphol fare in the same category for Europe where the top prize last year was shared between Moscow Sheremetyevo and Rome Fiumicino?

Did Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and Toronto Pearson reign supreme again in North America for airports handling over 40mppa and did Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall and Detroit Metropolitan once again finish top in the 25-40mppa category?

Arguably, it is human nature that we often associate being the best with being the biggest or fastest, and in the case of some of the world’s most high profile airports such as Los Angeles (LAX), Dubai (DXB), Hamad (DOH) and Singapore Changi (SIN), there is also more than a hint of glamour and excitement about them, too, for visitors.

It is therefore often all too easy to overlook the world’s smaller gateways and the hugely important role they, and regional airports play in providing connectivity, employment and economic prosperity to the communities they serve.

Indeed, in remote communities across the globe stretching from the Arctic Circle in Northern Canada to tiny islands in the South Pacific, airports effectively provide a lifeline to the outside world that helps them to exist and, in many cases, flourish.

In our first issue of 2022 we have decided to take a closer look at the challenges and

opportunities facing Europe’s regional airports ahead of ACI EUROPE’s Regional Airports Conference & Exhibition (RACE) in Palermo, Sicily, on March 28-30.

Fittingly, ACI EUROPE’s director general, Olivier Jankovec, provides the introduction to the ‘Europe’s regional airports’ themed section of the issue, taking the opportunity to outline the significant economic and operational challenges facing the continent’s regional gateways both now and post COVID. We also talk to the managing directors of Cluj, Cork and Palermo airports to discover how their respective airports are faring and recovering from COVID, and take a brief look at the challenges Europe’s smaller airports have when it comes to enhancing their retail and F&B offerings.

Elsewhere in the issue, we focus on new facilities in Santiago, New York, Memphis, Geneva and Atlanta and get a glimpse of what’s to come with JFK’s Terminal One; and ACI Asia-Pacific’s director general, Stefano Baronci, completes our series of articles about the impact of COVID on different parts of the world by updating us on where airports in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific are in the recovery process.

ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, starts 2022 on a positive note by using his ‘View from top’ article to praise the customer service efforts of 2022’s ASQ Award winners and the 200 airports recognised in The Voice of the Customer initiative for continuing to prioritise listening and adapting to customers during the pandemic.

Our lead airport features are on Qatar’s Hamad International Airport (DOH) and Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) in Chinese Taipei.

We round out the edition with our usual People matters column and an extended World Business Partner (WBP) section, which features contributions from both ADB AW SAFEGATE and Veovo.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022

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CONTENTS

Theme: Europe’s regional airports Airport reports: Hamad & Taoyuan Interviewed: ACI Asia-Pacific’s Stefano Baronci Plus: Airport design; WBP news & People matters

ISSUE 1 Volume 27

In this issue 3 Opinion

Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the key role regional airports play for their local communites and regions.

In the spotlight: Europe’s regional airports Volume 27 – Issue 1, 2022 www.aci.aero

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View from the top ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, celebrates the announcement of the 2021 ASQ Award winners and recipients of the Voice of the Customer recognition.

10 Out to impress Hamad International Airport’s chief operating officer, Badr Mohammed Al Meer, talks to Joe Bates about traffic trends, IT innovation and expansion plans for 2022 and beyond.

14 Building for the future President and CEO, Jerry Dann, tells Joe Bates more about the ambitions and future development plans of Taoyuan International Airport.

20 Challenging times ACI EUROPE’s director general, Olivier Jankovec, reflects on some of the key challenges faced by the industry and Europe’s regional airports as aviation recovers from the global pandemic.

22 Ireland’s regional powerhouse After using the traffic downturn to rebuild its main runway, Cork Airport’s managing director, Niall MacCarthy, feels that the Irish gateway is in a good position to bounce back better.

24 On the right track David Ciceo, managing director of Cluj International Airport, tells us more about how Romania’s second busiest airport has fared over the last two years and why he has high hopes for the future.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022

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CONTENTS

Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira (Montréal, Canada) Chair Aimen Al-Hosni (Muscat, Oman) Vice Chair Candace McGraw (Cincinnati, USA) Immediate Past Chair Martin Eurnekián (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Treasurer Candace McGraw (Cincinnati, USA) ACI WORLD GOVERNING BOARD DIRECTORS Africa (3) Emanuel Chaves (Maputo, Mozambique) Dewananda Chellen (Plaine Magnien, Mauritius) Capt Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu (Lagos, Nigeria)

26 Keeping Sicily connected Natale Chieppa, managing director of Palermo-Falcone Borsellino Airport operator, GESAP, reflects on the vital role his gateway plays in the growth and development of Sicily.

29 Spirit of recovery Kavanagh Communications’ John Matheson considers some of the challenges facing Europe’s regional airports when it comes to enhancing their retail/F&B offerings.

30 Over the worst ACI Asia-Pacific’s director general, Stefano Baronci, provides an update on how airports in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific are faring in their recovery from COVID.

32 The future is now Airport World takes a closer look at the opening of new facilities in Santiago, New York, Memphis, Geneva and Atlanta and gets a glimpse of what’s to come with JFK’s Terminal One.

38 World Business Partners News The latest news from ACI’s World Business Partners.

40 WBP Extra: The digital apron Apron operations and efficiency across the entire airport can be improved by the integration of information and technology, writes Jodi Richards.

42 People matters Terri Morrisey and Dr Richard Plenty reflect on how the way airports acted during COVID might affect their recovery.

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Asia-Pacific (9) Aimen Al-Hosni (Muscat, Oman) Mohamed Yousif Al-Binfalah (Bahrain) Geoff Culbert (Sydney, Australia) SGK Kishore (Hyderabad, India) Fred Lam (Hong Kong) Seow Hiang Lee (Singapore) Nitinai Sirismatthakarn (Bangkok, Thailand) Akihiko Tamura (Tokyo, Japan) 1 Vacancy Europe (7) Daniel Burkard (Moscow, Russia) David Ciceo (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) Elena Mayoral Corcuera (Madrid, Spain) Javier Marin (Madrid, Spain) Yiannis Paraschis (Athens, Greece) Stefan Schulte (Frankfurt, Germany) Nazareno Ventola (Bologna, Italy) Latin America & Caribbean (3) Ezequiel Barrenechea (Guayaquil, Ecuador) Mónica Infante (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) Juan José Salmón (Lima, Peru) North America (6) Lew Bleiweis (Asheville, USA) Joyce Carter (Halifax, Canda) Deborah Flint (Toronto, Canada) Joseph Lopano (Tampa, USA) Candace McGraw (Cincinnati, USA) Sam Samaddar (Kelowna, Canada) Regional Advisers to the World Governing Board (10) Guilaume Branlat (Saint-Denis, Réunion) Chellie Cameron (Philadelphia, USA) Arnaud Feist (Brussels, Belgium) Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid (Delhi, India) Mpumi Mpofu (Johannesburg, South Africa) Andrew O’Brian (Washington DC, USA) Augustin de Romanet (Paris, France) Jorge Rosillo (Galapagos, Ecuador) Brian Ryks (Minneapolis-St Paul, USA) 1 Vacancy WBP Observer Keith Thompson (Gensler) Correct as of February 2022

ACI VIEWPOINT

View from the top ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, celebrates the announcement of the 2021 ASQ Award winners and recipients of the Voice of the Customer recognition.

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s is customary every March, I am pleased to report – for my second year – that ACI has announced the winners of the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, which celebrate and showcase the world’s best airports as voiced by travellers.

This announcement presents to the world the dedication of airports to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

This year’s ASQ Award winners are especially reflective of customer experience leadership during the most challenging time in our sector’s history. Passengers are the centre of airports’ efforts in safely resuming travel and tourism.

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have a major impact on passenger traffic in 2021 with evolving health measures and a new set of expectations affecting how the airport is delivered and experienced – from a prioritisation of health to increased digitalisation such as contactless touchpoints.

However, despite all these challenges, airports around the globe have continued to prioritise listening and adapting to the evolving needs of their customers through ASQ surveys, which measure passenger satisfaction across key performance indicators.

From the data collected over 2021, 111 awards have been won by 88 individual airports around the world. The award categories include Best Airports by Size (passengers per year) and Region, as well as Best Hygiene Measures by Region, of which there are 46 winners. View the complete list of winning airports.

The new health and hygiene related questions added to the survey questionnaire in 2020 allows airports to better understand the customer response to new health measures related to COVID-19 and the corresponding award category recognises airports that have successfully responded to them in the eyes of travellers.

The new hygiene category also complements ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation programme, which helps airports align their health measures in line with the ACI Airport Operations and COVID-19: Business Recovery guidelines and ICAO Council Aviation Restart Task Force recommendations along with industry best practices.

What’s more, ACI has also recently released the ASQ Health Safety Measures Research Report, sponsored by TAV Technologies, that enables airports to gain a clearer understanding of the level of passenger satisfaction with regard to safety and hygiene measures and further develop the targeting and quality of services.

For a second year running, ACI World continues its long-term partnership with global travel technology company Amadeus to deliver the ASQ Awards. ACI and Amadeus will be celebrating the 2021 ASQ winners at an awards ceremony on September 14, 2022, in Krakow, Poland, during the ASQ Forum and ACI Customer Experience Global Summit.

Earlier in February, ACI also announced the recipients of The Voice of the Customer initiative, a recognition that celebrates airports that have continued to prioritise listening and adapting to customers during the pandemic. To qualify, an airport member must have collected three or more quarters of data through the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme.

This year, over 200 airports have been recognised around the world. The delivery of the recognition is also sponsored by Amadeus.

View the complete list of recipients.

On behalf of ACI World, I congratulate our new winners and recipients and encourage the entire airport community to leverage the ASQ suite of solutions. The basis of ASQ is continual learning and improvement to reach sustainable airport customer experience excellence.

I also encourage you to read the ASQ Global Traveller Survey.

The report offers both a global perspective as well as regional insights into the traveller sentiment during the recovery. The guidance provides regional dashboards highlighting some of the key specificities that should be taken into consideration when designing a customer experience strategic plan for a specific airport.

I have just returned from my first trip to the Asia-Pacific region as ACI World director general, and I will soon be able to visit the Africa region as well. It is good to see travel restrictions begin to ease.

Continuing to listen and adapt to travellers will be absolutely crucial to strengthening airports’ competitive advantage, nonaeronautical revenue, and ensuring the sustained recovery of the entire aviation ecosystem. Bottom line: listening and acting upon the voice of our customers is more important than ever.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022

AW

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AIRPORT REPORT: DOHA

Out to impress

Hamad International Airport’s chief operating officer, Badr Mohammed Al Meer, talks to Joe Bates about traffic trends, IT innovation and expansion plans for 2022 and beyond.

T

he opening of Hamad International Airport (DOH) in April 2014 signalled the start of a new era for Doha and Qatar and the gateway certainly hasn’t disappointed, racking up a host of records and awards and gaining a reputation for pioneering innovative solutions in its first decade.

The records and awards range from constantly smashing its annual traffic figures and winning a host of customer service and environmental accolades to being the first airport in the world to achieve independent verification from the British Standards Institution (BSI) for its implementation of ICAO’s COVID-19 Aviation Health Safety Protocols.

While the desire to lead from the front, in particular in terms of trialling and testing new technology, has led to Hamad becoming known as a trendsetter for introducing potential new solutions to the market.

DOH, for example, successfully trialled and installed advanced technology for contactless self check-in as part of its ongoing efforts to safeguard its staff and passengers from COVID-19.

The solution harnesses the power of infra-red technology to detect fingers close to the fields on the screen and, similar to a mouse click, send instructions to the kiosk or bag drop application; eliminating the need to touch potentially infected surfaces.

Other examples of the airport leading the way with new solutions include introducing new security screening technology that means that passengers no longer have to remove liquids or larger electronic items from their bags; and using fully autonomous disinfection robotics and advanced thermal screening helmets in the fight against COVID. The latter initiative uses multiple advanced technologies such as infrared thermal imaging, artificial intelligence and AR (augmented reality).

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It’s not all been plain sailing, of course, as Hamad didn’t escape the reach of the global pandemic, which led to passenger numbers falling from an all-time high of 38.8 million (+12%) in 2019 to less than half of that in 2020 due to COVID caused travel restrictions and flight suspensions.

However, DOH’s hub status primarily due to strength of home carrier Qatar Airways, which continues to expand its global network, led to a strong performance last year with passenger numbers rising by 41% to 17.7 million.

And with Qatar hosting football’s FIFA World Cup finals later this year, DOH’s chief operating officer, Engr Badr Mohammed Al Meer, is confident that his gateway’s recovery from COVID will gather momentum this year.

“Based on the surge in volumes we witnessed in 2021 compared to 2020, we are optimistic that traffic levels are on their way to return to pre-COVID levels,” says Al Meer.

“The World Cup will benefit Qatar and the entire region and showcase its wonders and capabilities to the world. It will also mean another record for us as we will make history by becoming the first airport operator to welcome all air travellers to a World Cup tournament.

“The tournament will also show the world the passion that exists for football in this region and the amazing fans and footballing talent the Middle East and Arab world boasts.

“Hamad International Airport along with the whole country is ready to create memorable experiences for football fans across the globe.”

Traffic trends As stated above, DOH handled 17.7 million passengers (+41%) and 2.58 million tonnes of cargo (+20%) in 2021 as the airport continued its recovery from the global pandemic.

AIRPORT REPORT: DOHA

Al Meer notes that Hamad’s cargo volumes were boosted by six new cargo destinations, which helped cement the airport’s status as one of the busiest cargo gateways on the planet.

Despite the subdued global aviation market, DOH actually welcomed seven new passenger routes last year – Abidjan (ABJ), Harare (HRE), Lusaka (LUN), Moscow (SVO), Odessa (ODS), Olongapo (SFS) and Seattle (SEA) – and one new airline partner, RwandAir. For the record, Dhaka, Male, Dubai, Kathmandu and London were among the busiest departing destinations from Doha in 2021.

The new destinations and airline means that DOH is currently served by 35 carriers that between operate flights to 160 destinations in 81 countries and territories around the world.

Not surprisingly, Qatar Airways is the biggest airline operator at DOH by some margin in terms of market share, followed by Indian carriers Indigo and Air India Express, which provide connecting services to a number of popular Indian destinations. Next come a handful of Middle Eastern carriers.

Ongoing and future expansion Despite being one of the world’s newer gateways, DOH’s rapid growth since opening means that it is in midst of a development programme, Phase A of which will raise its capacity to over 58 million passengers per annum ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Phase B, which will commence after the end-of-year tournament, will effectively equip the airport to handle more than 60mppa.

Phase A involves linking concourses D and E and creating a central concourse. The desire to offer passengers what Al Meer describes as “unique experiences throughout the terminal, beyond regular expectations”, means that Phase A of the development will feature experience enhancing new additions such as a 10,000sqm tropical garden and new artwork and retail/ F&B facilities.

“The expansion will enhance the multi-dimensional offerings of the airport through the integration of additional world-class art, a refreshing environment of lush greenery, and contemporary retail and dining concepts among other leisure attractions and facilities under one expansive terminal,” enthuses Al Meer.

“Our aim is to inspire positive emotions and take the stress out of travel, and in line with this philosophy, we will introduce a 10,000sqm indoor tropical garden and a 268sqm water feature.

“The tropical garden will have trees sourced from sustainable forests around the world and the new design will allow trees and plants to acclimatise to the internal conditions and grow throughout the life of the airport. This will provide passengers with an opportunity to be part of a didactic experience to showcase the importance of environmental conservation.”

He notes that DOH’s expansion will also see the construction of a new cargo terminal that will increase the airport’s freight capacity to upwards of five million tonnes per year.

Also included in the modernisation programme is a second Al Mourjan lounge, the new 9,000sqm addition being equipped with its own spa, gym, restaurants and business centres.

Al Meer also promises that passengers can look forward to new retail experiences and a new-look main duty free store courtesy of its partnership with Qatar Duty Free (QDF) and leading luxury brands, as he notes, DOH strives to bring travellers “the world’s best in airport retail, leisure, and attractions”.

Phase B will extend concourses D and E to further enhance the airport’s capacity to over 60 million passengers per annum.

Sustainable growth In response to whether the sustainable development of DOH is high on the agenda, Al Meer replies: “We don’t only strive to be the best airport in the world, but also the best airport for the world.”

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022

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AIRPORT REPORT: DOHA

And it’s not just a soundbite as he insists that DOH addresses its impact on the environment by taking steps towards minimising the consumption of natural resources, controlling its carbon emissions, and safely managing waste.

He notes that since opening, the airport has showcased its commitment to environmental sustainability by pledging to improve carbon efficiency per traffic unit to 30% by 2030.

Indeed, the airport has since observed a steady downward trend in overall CO2 emissions and has been certified at Level 3 Optimisation status in ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme.

Upon completion of Phase A of the terminal’s expansion programme, DOH is expected to become the first airport in the MENA region to achieve a 4-star Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) rating, a performance-based system for rating green buildings and infrastructure.

The terminal will also be a LEED Silver-certified building with innovative energy efficiency measures incorporated throughout the entire premises.

Al Meer notes that the airport is working with its supply chain in all expansion projects to ensure that the equipment they use is contemporary and long lasting.

In terms of waste management, he points out that DOH’s new Oryx Airport Hotel has successfully replaced all of its plastic water bottles with eco-friendly water containers and believes that his hub operates one of the region’s most effective water management systems.

“Most water used at the airport is directed to our dedicated wastewater treatment plant, which returns the treated water for irrigating our landscape features,” says Al Meer.

“In 2018, the treatment plant was successful in recovering 93% of wastewater for re-use, nevertheless, we continually review its systems to try and identify areas of improvement that will improve our long-term efficiency and sustainability.”

Customer service As you would expect from an airport that consistently performs well in ACI’s ASQ customer experience programme, Al Meer reports

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that DOH puts passengers at the heart of its strategy by implementing and prioritising a passenger-centric approach to its mission and vision.

“Whether it is everyday airport operations, our expansion project or preparing for the FIFA World Cup Finals in Qatar later this year, we always consider how the experience benefits the passenger,” he says.

“This approach means that whenever developing or launching new services or facilities, we always look at how they will enhance the airport experience. This is one of the reasons why at our airport Wi-Fi, quiet rooms, art exhibitions, activity nodes, play areas and family relaxation facilities are all complimentary to our passengers.”

He proudly notes that DOH’s customer service team “comprises a group of talented, passionate and caring individuals from around the world who are focused on providing exceptional customer service while aligning with the company’s vision”.

Ambitions for 2022 and beyond Looking ahead, Al Meer simply states that DOH’s focus for 2022 and beyond is to “maintain its leading position globally and provide a new standard for airports around the world”.

When it comes to traffic growth, he is confident that the ongoing expansion of DOH will open doors to more airlines partners that want to launch services to and from Doha, increasing Qatar’s global connectivity and network of destinations.

Going forward, Al Meer says that DOH will focus on enhancing the passenger experience by continuing to provide passengers with a memorable travel experience through “activations, events, art, culture, retail and F&B experiences throughout the terminal”.

He reveals that the airport is working on further developing the retail sector by bringing world-renowned brands and providing exclusive products to DOH in partnership with Qatar Duty Free.

Offerings to come after the expansion of the airport, he teases, AW will include alfresco retail and dining experiences for passengers.

AIRPORT REPORT: TAOYUAN

Building for the future

President and CEO, Jerry Dann, tells Joe Bates more about the ambitions and future development plans of Taoyuan International Airport.

Can you tell us more about your planned new Terminal 3 and how big a milestone is it for the airport?

It is a huge milestone for Taoyuan International Airport [TPE] as it will boost the airport’s capacity by 45 million passengers per annum and offer new levels of service, operational efficiency and convenience to passengers, visitors and our airline customers. It is also the single biggest public engineering project currently underway in Chinese Taipei.

Set to open in three annual phases between 2024 and 2026, the $3 billion terminal is badly needed as Taoyuan International Airport handled more than 48.6 million passengers 2019, far exceeding the 37 million passengers per annum design capacity of the current terminals.

Looking slightly further ahead, it will become the main departure terminal for TPE’s planned new Runway 3, which is the next major infrastructure project on the airport’s agenda.

What can we expect from Terminal 3 in terms of its design, size and facilities?

The design concept of Terminal 3 differs greatly from T1 and T2. Its design has been inspired by Chinese Taipei’s beautiful landscapes, the seas surrounding it, the rhythms of nature and life to create a series of unique interior places beneath an elegant hard-shell roof.

When fully built, Terminal 3 will cover an area of 640,000sqm, which will ensure a light and spacious environment for passengers and allow for the addition of a number of innovative and purpose-built facilities.

In Terminal 3, for example, the retail/F&B offerings will be designed as a one-stop service with most outlets located in an area just beyond border control and the security checkpoint. The single designated space will enable us to offer a wider and more diversified shopping experience and dining choices to cater to the constantly changing needs of passengers.

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As a result, the terminal’s concourses will serve mainly for boarding and rest, with necessary retail and dining options such as snack bars and souvenir shops.

Will it be a high-tech terminal?

Absolutely! Terminal 3 will be an intelligent terminal with 5G and Wi-Fi 6 wireless coverage throughout. It will boast common use self-service (CUSS) kiosks, self-bag drop (SBD) equipment and biometric technology to facilitate a touchless and smooth clearance procedure.

At a higher level, we plan to use T3 as an incubation centre for new technologies. The plan is to invite the most innovative information and communications technology [ICT] companies to submit applications to test new technologies at TPE that could be used in an airport environment. We are specifically thinking of passenger flow, monitoring and guidance technology, baggage handling, and traffic analysis to accelerate efficiency and service levels.

What next for TPE in terms of new infrastructure?

Airport construction never stops. We actually expect to be heavily engaged in major engineering projects until at least 2030, with the previously mentioned third runway or R3 as we call it, the next big project. Chinese Taipei’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is currently working on the land acquisition procedure for the new runway as a part of TPE’s Taoyuan Aerotropolis Plan.

After R3 we will build satellite concourses and new cargo and aircraft maintenance areas between the third runway and the existing north runway. We also have plans to develop a new Free Trade Zone.

All of these projects are included in our 2040 airport master plan, which will be reviewed every five years to ensure the continued development of TPE and its status as one of the region’s top international airports.

AIRPORT REPORT: TAOYUAN

How did passenger numbers hold up last year and will 2022 be any better?

There is no getting away from the fact that the last two years have been extremely difficult for TPE as our passenger numbers have been severely impacted by the global pandemic. We served just over 7.38 million passengers in 2020, and had hoped that last year would be better, but our international borders remained largely closed, and we ended up handling just over 909,268 passengers in 2021.

We know that other airports across the region are also experiencing similar tough times, but this is, of course, scant consolation to us. It is, however, worth noting that Taoyuan is a pure international airport.

We only serve international passengers. As a result, we have been more impacted and operationally constrained by the border closures and travel restrictions caused by COVID than airports with huge domestic markets.

Are you anywhere near to getting all your destinations and airline frequencies back?

We remain heavily impacted by the pandemic and, in my view, require two key things to happen before international travel can really begin to recover. We need people to be fully vaccinated [two jabs] and we need greater trust and co-operation between nations.

Singapore Airlines relaunched the Taoyuan-Los Angeles route – which it last operated in 2004 – between August 2021 and the end of its winter schedule in February 2022. To us, this demonstrates their faith in our actions to combat COVID and in TPE’s status as a major hub for flights from North America and Europe heading to South Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North East Asia.

In other route development news, Chinese Taipei-based, Starlux Airlines, will launch a weekly service to Fukuoka on February 17, 2022, it’s third Japanese destination served from TPE after Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai.

Worthy of mention is the fact that Starlux also commenced services to Singapore in September 2021 and, both it and China Airlines, have

announced plans to launch flights between TPE and Mactan-Cebu in The Philippines from March 27, 2022.

New services have also been launched by Thai VietJet (TaipeiBangkok) and Hong Kong Express (Taipei-Hong Kong), and in terms of returning services, Thai Airways has resumed operations from Bangkok.

So, there are signs of encouragement, but there is still a long way to go for us, especially as it is generally accepted that the global recovery of international flights will lag behind that of domestic flights.

Is it fair to say that cargo has done a little better?

Yes, although I believe that ‘better’ is a bit of an understatement as I think that a fairer description of our cargo performance over the last two years would be ‘remarkable’.

Putting that in perspective, TPE processed 2.3 million tonnes of cargo in 2020, which, at the time, was an all-time high and a rise of 7.3% on 2019. Indeed, the growth rate was the biggest of any airport in East Asia and confirmed our status as the seventh busiest cargo airport on the planet, based on ACI’s traffic figures.

And the good news is that this upward trajectory continued in 2021, a 30% rise in volumes in the first half of the year paving the way for an annual record of 2.8 million tonnes of cargo. That’s 20% more than in 2020 and a remarkable 34% up on pre-COVID levels.

Many factors have contributed to TPE’s cargo growth. Domestically, demand for semiconductors and electronic consumer goods and other components manufactured in Chinese Taipei soared during the pandemic.

Our unique geographical advantage at the heart of East Asia has also helped establish TPE as a leading centre for transhipments. The sizeable cargo fleets of home carriers, China Airlines and Eva Air, have helped in this regards and proved instrumental in allowing us to take advantage of new opportunities when they arise.

In terms of the bigger picture, China’s domestic success in combatting COVID-19 certainly helped resume global consumption and increased demand for transhipments.

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AIRPORT REPORT: TAOYUAN

The contrasting fortunes of passenger and cargo traffic presented us with the opportunity to make a few operational changes, one of which was to reconfigure TPE’s airside resources to facilitate the handling of more cargo operations. We have allocated more apron space for freighters, for example, and decided to reserve two stands to load and unload freight that would normally have been used for passenger flights.

What steps have you taken to combat COVID-19 and ensure the health and wellbeing of passengers and staff at TPE? The health and safety of passengers and staff is our top priority. We follow the guidance of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on all matters related to the pandemic and therefore believe that we have some of the best COVID prevention measures in place anywhere in the world.

To highlight a few initiatives. We follow the most rigorous cleaning and disinfection measures every hour. All facilities and space used by arriving passengers are disinfected immediately. We also insist that all stakeholders perform their own deep cleaning and disinfection practices at 4.30pm every day. To protect cleaners, we ask them to remain socially distanced at all times, keeping three to five metres away from passengers and only begin disinfecting areas when they are clear of people. All on duty cleaners are screened weekly.

To enable us to have better control of the people coming into our terminals we have reduced the number of entrances from 63 to 20, and everyone using them has to wear face masks and undergo body temperature checks by infrared thermal camera or handheld thermometer. Inside the Arrivals hall, passenger flows are divided into four types: general arrival passengers, crew members, travel bubble passengers, and passengers from high-risk countries.

We ask all departing passengers to socially distance, keeping at least 1.5 metres from other travellers while checking-in. All check-in counters feature screens with translucent glass designed to prevent the spread of the virus. Arrival activities are limited to the Arrivals hall ground floor, where queue stands [barriers] and signage are used to

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separate people doing different things. Security guards are also stationed there to guide passenger flows.

The airport has also established a fleet of 718 vehicles that are regularly sanitised to prevent the spread of COVID. This fleet includes 564 taxis, 129 rental cars and 25 tour buses that transport travellers to accommodation/places approved by the CECC. Finally, we have implemented a highly successful on-site vaccination programme to make it quick and easy for airport staff to get their COVID jabs. The inoculation centre has been set up in co-operation with the CECC and the Taoyuan City government, and to date has helped ensure that 98% of airport staff been inoculated.

I am glad to say that our COVID-prevention efforts earned Taoyuan International Airport accreditation in ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation programme in April 2021.

How important are EVA Air and China Airlines to the success of TPE? All our airlines are important to us, but EVA Air and China Airlines are particularly close to our heart as they are the two major home carriers of Chinese Taipei and therefore will play a major role in helping shape the future growth and development of Taoyuan International Airport.

In 2019, TPE handled 48.6 million passengers and had a route network of 167 cities in 34 countries. Star Alliance member, EVA Air, contributed about 23.7% of the traffic, flying to 60 cities in 19 countries, while SkyTeam member, China Airlines, accounted for 25% of the traffic as it operated a route network to 73 cities in 22 countries.

EVA Air’s planned future expansion of its fleet will almost certainly increase traffic volumes at TPE. Likewise, its decision to embrace automation and increased digitalisation is likely to require Taoyuan International Airport to add more infrastructure to facilitate its operations. Our relationship with EVA Air is therefore one of mutual understanding and co-operation.

China Airlines has ambitious plans to expand its route network to North America, Europe and Southeast Asia from TPE, so it is imperative that we meet its needs both now and in the future.

AIRPORT REPORT: TAOYUAN

Who are traditionally the top five airlines at TPE in terms of market share?

EVA Air and China Airlines traditionally lead the way. In 2019, EVA Air handled around 11.3 million passengers and China Airlines 11.8 million, although in 2020 those figures fell to around two million and 1.9 million respectively. The totals meant that EVA accounted for 28.3% of all passengers handled at TPE in 2020 and China Airlines for 26.4%. Making up the top five were Cathay Pacific (5.36%); Tigerair Taiwan (3.91%); and Peach Aviation (3.01%).

In normal circustmances, what are the top five routes from TPE? Our most popular routes are Hong Kong, Tokyo Narita, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Osaka (Kansai) and Incheon (Seoul). Pre-COVID, each route accounted for more than seven million passengers, but in 2020 only Hong Kong, with 641,224 passengers, welcomed more than half a million people and last year none handled more than 300,000.

Please tell us a little more about TPE’s aerotropolis plans?

Taoyuan Aerotropolis is a major land acquisition and industrial investment project centred on TPE developed in partnership with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and the Taoyuan City government to boost the competitiveness of the airport, airport city, and the whole nation.

TPE’s location, transport links and hub status are the driving force behind its development. It is the air gateway of Chinese Taipei and has the advantage of being located close to the Taipei Harbour and adjacent to both the High Speed Rail (HSR) station and National Highway No.1 that connects all major cities on the west coast. This connectivity ensures the rapid flow of cargo and people.

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In 2021, Taoyuan Aerotropolis formally gained its legal status as the Ministry of Interior approved it as a city plan defining its location, size and geographical shape. Five major areas are planned – an airport park, a Free Trade Zone (FTZ), restricted industry zone, commercial area, and residential area.

In geographical terms, Taoyuan Aerotropolis comprises a 1,860 hectare ‘yolk’ surrounded by a 1,860 hectare ‘egg white’.

The yolk is where the airport park is located, and covers its terminals, runways, aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities, FTZ and cargo terminals.

Taoyuan International Airport Corporation, supervised by the MOTC, is the main planner and operator of the yolk, for which we have compiled the airport masterplan 2030 that designated the development of each projects. Our main focus is on Terminal 3, the third runway (R3) and the expansion of FTZ. As I mentioned earlier, the CAA is procuring land from local inhabitants in the north of the airport park for R3. In the current ‘land swap’ process, people have to be resettled in residential areas before work can start on the construction of the new runway.

Meanwhile, the Taoyuan City government is responsible for developing the egg white. To do this, it established the Taoyuan Aerotropolis Corporation to invite private investment in commercial and industrial zones. After the investment stage, the Aerotropolis Corporation will also be the managing unit of the egg white.

From the standpoint of the airport corporation, we encourage and welcome private investments in Taoyuan Aerotropolis, and will do all we can to facilitate its development.

AW

SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Challenging times ACI EUROPE’s director general, Olivier Jankovec, reflects on some of the key challenges faced by the industry and Europe’s regional airports as aviation recovers from the global pandemic.

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s a reader of Airport World, you will be no stranger to the magnitude of the challenge facing Europe’s airports as they seek to restart and build a viable path through to recovery. As an industry that lost over three billion passengers since the start of the pandemic, and counting, we are facing a considerable task.

We start with the harsh fact that we are grappling with the crippling debt that the COVID-19 crisis has left us with. This is a legacy with a very long tail, with European airport revenues now estimated as insufficient to meet capital expenditure and capital costs until at least 2032.

Then, despite the success of the EU Digital COVID Certificate, we also have the uncertainty of knee-jerk, uncoordinated actions from states and governments when it comes to travel restrictions, and the tendency for these restrictions to linger long after any real public health benefit may have been achieved – and this, despite the fact that the World Health Organization has unequivocally stated that travel restrictions are largely ineffective.

The stumbling, stop-start nature of a 2021 ‘recovery’ owed everything to patchy and uncoordinated national regimes, and nothing to the growing appetite of the general public to finally get moving again.

And this is before we get onto massive inequalities in the way European governments provided financial support to the aviation sector, and high investment costs relating to sustainability and decarbonisation.

These are challenges which face all of Europe’s airports. But whilst they might be true for all, each individual airport will experience the impact of them in very different ways, for no two are exactly the same.

And as time has passed since the COVID pandemic hit us, some divergences are becoming more marked.

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Regional and smaller airports are simply not experiencing either the effects of the pandemic, nor the challenges ahead, in the same way as the larger hubs. Each time new data becomes available or fresh issues arise – and, in recent weeks, we have seen this in the 2021 passenger traffic data, our Airport Industry Connectivity Report, and in the growing, disturbing rhetoric around short-haul flights – these differences become more striking.

The passenger traffic data for 2021 highlighted the uncoordinated and often disproportionate national responses in terms of the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the Delta and then Omicron variants.

These restrictions ran alongside the increasing success of the EU Digital Covid Certificate which allowed for some freedom of movement inside the EU bloc, greater freedoms in those European countries outside the EU, and yet entrenched resistance to opening travel between EU countries and ‘third’ countries with the inevitable impact on long-haul travel.

The result? Smaller regional airports have generally outperformed their larger counterparts and in particular major hubs in recovering part of their pre-pandemic passenger volumes.

This reflected the fact that beyond the transatlantic market, many intercontinental markets remained de facto closed due to severe travel restrictions, with the recovery being largely driven by leisure and ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives’ travel on intra-European and domestic markets.

Does this mean that the smaller and/or regional airports are in fact faring better? Not so. Balance this data against the public warning that ACI EUROPE issued six months into the pandemic, that almost 200 European airports could find themselves on the brink of bankruptcy, with little or no State Aid support.

SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

The airports facing insolvency were mainly regional airports, with the risk of a ripple effect upon local employment and economies. The issue of State Aid remains one of the most breathtaking inequalities of the governmental response to date, with airlines receiving around ten times the financial aid of that made available to airports.

An economically asymmetric recovery Which brings me on to the challenges facing regional airports moving forwards. ACI EUROPE has already warned that the recovery remains economically asymmetrical: it is cost intensive, yet revenue weak.

At the same time, European airports are facing the dual challenge of recovery and decarbonisation within the context of a complete business model reset.

Yet, our smaller regional airports are facing the prospects of operating financial aid given by public authorities becoming illegal under EU law by 2024. This sunset clause was set by the EU State aid guidelines for airports back in 2014, based on the assumption that what was then dynamic growth prospects would allow those airports to reach financial viability.

The pandemic has obviously jeopardised such assumptions, and we are urging the EU to reconsider its stance and adapt its rules to the new reality faced by our sector.

Beyond meeting operating costs, regional airports will also need to finance their decarbonisation.

The airport industry – and especially the European airport industry – has a proven track record in its commitment to decarbonisation, and is taking tangible, practical steps to achieve this.

ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, which was initiated in ACI EUROPE and is run from our Brussels base to this day, now boasts almost 400 accredited airports worldwide. Around half of those are in the European footprint, with airports continuing to achieve accreditation throughout the pandemic.

Short-haul flights and the threat of climate populism And yet, despite this context, and the demonstrable commitment made to actively reduce carbon emissions, regional airports have in front of them a potential course of action by some governments which is set to deliver a crushing blow to recovery, to investment, and to innovation and development in sustainable futures.

I am referring to the banning of short-haul flights in favour of other transport modes – ostensibly on the grounds of emissions reductions. Frankly, this is short-term, knee-jerk thinking at its most damaging. EUROCONTROL figures show that flights under 500km

account for only 3.8% of European aviation CO2 emissions in pre-pandemic times, and rise only marginally to 4.3% in the disrupted aviation ecosystem of 2021.

On this basis, it’s hard to see this action as anything other than short-term climate populism, gesture-politics which do not serve their intended purpose. That in itself would be sufficiently damaging.

But it doesn’t end there. The shorter routes are those which serve two key purposes as we plan for the future: they are developmental test-beds for alternative technologies which can then be scaled up, and they are crucial to the complex web of air connectivity which supports local economies and communities.

This leads me to my final point: air connectivity. There is no doubt that the preservation of air connectivity must go hand in hand with aviation becoming more sustainable, and at the same time more integrated with other transport modes and with urban mobility.

But there is also no escaping the fact that with no comparable substitute, air connectivity must remain an essential part of the productive capacity of our societies.

With every +10% in direct connectivity yielding +0.5% in GDP per capita, that’s not something that any of us can turn our backs on.

The latest data on the number of routes which were operating throughout 2019 and disappeared in 2021 – and their impact on Group 4 airports (those welcoming less than five million passenger per year in normal times) – is stark reading.

The sum of loss of routes with a European origin or destination during the Summer or Winter 2021 seasons is creeping close to the 10,000 mark. And 45% of all intra-EU lost routes were from Group 4 airports – more than double that of any other airport category.

If the damage to air connectivity is profound, then that done locally to the businesses and communities around the affected airports runs even deeper. And these are the very routes and airports from which short-haul flights, it would seem, are under threat through political expediency.

There is no doubt that governments’ support for air connectivity and aviation in general will be a defining factor in the months and years to come, and nowhere is this felt more acutely than it is by our airports here in Europe.

Working with and for them, we continue to seek enabling regulation, proportionate support, fair competition, and a framework which encourages the investment in smarter sustainable airports AW throughout Europe.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022

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SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Ireland’s regional powerhouse After using the traffic downturn to rebuild its main runway, Cork Airport’s managing director, Niall MacCarthy, feels that the Irish gateway is in a good position to bounce back better.

How important is your airport to the city and region you serve in terms of connectivity, jobs and its economic and social impact?

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cork Airport was the Republic of Ireland’s busiest and best connected regional international airport and the second busiest in the country after the capital city, Dublin. As well as operating over 50 direct routes to the UK and Europe, Cork Airport also provided daily long-haul connectivity through major hub airports such as London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris CDG. We are a key part of the South of Ireland economy directly and indirectly supporting 12,180 jobs and contributing €904 million to the economy across the region in 2019. This was a combination of direct, indirect, and catalytic economic impact through aviation, inbound tourism, employment, and supply chain.

COVID has obviously affected these figures, but with a strong summer forecast, in 2022 we expect to be at 75% of 2019’s economic impact or around €675 million in terms of our contribution to the South of Ireland economy.

How would you describe the airport’s current situation in terms of its recovery from the COVID pandemic?

Cork Airport’s traffic declined from 2.6 million in 2019 to 530k in 2020 and 259k in 2021. In 2022, our traffic is forecast to grow by a multiple of seven to eight times 2021 levels. We availed of the opportunity presented by low traffic levels during COVID to rebuild our main runway in 2021 and renew our airside electrical infrastructure as part of a €40 million overall investment in the airport’s capital expenditure. We closed for a period of 10 weeks and this high-profile project was completed on time and slightly under budget by a very competent project team.

Now that Europe is emerging from COVID, we are very confident of our airport’s recovery. The pandemic has done significant damage to networks and airport and airline balance sheets. We lost both Flybe and Stobart Air to liquidation during COVID and business traffic will take a while to recover. Nevertheless, we emerge from the pandemic confident

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for the future of our airport and with eight strong scheduled airlines and 43 routes. Full recovery will take up to three years, but we are off to a strong start from April 2022.

Traditionally, what are the biggest opportunities/ challenges you face as an airport?

Traditionally, attracting strong new routes is a key challenge and attracting them is very much based on securing a price per passenger that ensures that they are profitable. It is a very competitive market competing against hundreds of other cities across Europe for airlines to place routes and base aircraft in your particular airport.

Creating sufficient operating profits through our aeronautical and commercial revenues to cover our capital expenditure is also challenging due to the high cost of airport infrastructure, including mandatory safety and compliance costs, as well as more recently the increasing costs of sustainability projects to meet our 2030 carbon reduction targets.

People assume our airport is grant funded or state supported but up until COVID-19, all funds for capital expenditure and operating expenditure were commercially generated within our company without direct state subvention. It is the same challenge that any commercial company in any market faces… funding the short-term and the long-term in a highly competitive market.

Does the airport traditionally make a profit?

Generally, airports handling between two and three million passengers per annum make an operating profit and can fund day to day capital expenditure, but do not generate enough cash flows for large scale infrastructure development. For us, pre-pandemic, our aero and non-aero revenue split was just under 60/40. So, aero revenue would still make up the majority of our earnings, but commercial revenue sources are growing and becoming more important all the time. Our three largest commercial revenues are car parking; car hire concessions; and retail/duty free concessions. However, other elements such as F&B, property rent etc are also hugely important to both revenue and our

SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Fact Box: Cork Airport (ORK) Country ranking: The second busiest airport in Ireland Passenger total in 2019: 2.58 million Passenger traffic 2021: 259,000 Expected passenger traffic 2022: 2 million +

impacting the operation far less. Low-cost carriers tend to be able to scale up more quickly than traditional full-service carriers and are particularly price sensitive in terms of airport charges and incentives.

In layman’s terms, they can turn on large passenger volume quickly but at low cost in every sense and this can make them agile to deal with but difficult commercially.

operation as a whole.

What are you doing to boost your non-aeronautical revenues and is this task more difficult for you because of the airport’s size?

Smaller airports have the same challenges as larger ones in boosting non-aeronautical revenues, the main income streams are still car parks, car hire, retail and food and beverage outlets. Most other income streams tend to be significantly smaller. One advantage that smaller airports have over larger ones is the ability to ‘trial’ new income streams that may impact operations, the relatively smaller size often means a new idea can be tested in an operation without the risk of significant impact to airline operations. Separately, the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union is to be regretted politically and economically. However, from an aviation perspective, the United Kingdom is now eligible for duty free sales for departing passengers from Cork Airport, and this has assisted our retail revenues significantly.

Do you think Europe’s bigger hub airports face the same challenges?

Often, the biggest challenge at large hub airports is the dominance of a major hub carrier, the success of which directly impacts the success of the airport. It can also be difficult to attract new operators of scale, both with a desire to compete against a large home carrier, and one that can obtain the necessary slots (as most European hubs are slot constrained) to compete effectively. Where the hubs generally perform well is the additional revenue generation that transfer passengers bring, such as airside retail or airport lounges and restaurants.

What impact have the low-cost carriers had on your airport?

Low-cost carriers bring increased passenger numbers and an increased choice of destinations to regional airports. They can connect P2P markets which would not be possible with full-service carriers, while they also tend to operate at less busy times of the day,

Why is it important that smaller, regional airports survive and prosper across the world?

Our European Regional Airports bring vital connectivity to locales and regions, reducing the need for long drives to larger hubs.

We bring high value employment and often help connect secondary towns and cities to new economic zones. Airports are a centre of employment, tourism and economic net benefit for cities and regions lucky enough to play host to successful, growing and connected regional airports.

Do you think that local and national governments appreciate this importance and, in general, are supportive of your airport and aviation?

We are very grateful to the Irish government for the support delivered to us during COVID to sustain our business. During the COVID lockdown, our supply chain was stood down almost in totality and it was clearly visible and distressing to see the direct effect on thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses. I think, if one good thing emerged from the pandemic, it was the underlining of the importance of our regional airports as economic engines for the regions they serve.

How do you plan developing your airport over the next five to ten years?

Our first priority is traffic growth. Our infrastructure is generally in good condition and well maintained. In terms of capital investment, in the short-term (within five years), we will be deploying next generation cabin baggage screening technology, and this will require considerable technology and space investment. In addition, we will be investing in sustainability initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint and meet our commitments in terms of the future of green aviation and airports. We are examining a number of infrastructure investment possibilities in that regard, which we expect to advance over the AW next five years.

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SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

On the right track

David Ciceo, managing director of Cluj International Airport, tells us more about how Romania’s second busiest airport has fared over the last two years and why he has high hopes for the future.

How important is your airport to the city and region you serve in terms of connectivity, jobs and its economic and social impact?

Cluj International Airport is located in Cluj-Napoca, a city named the ‘Heart of Transylvania’, not just because of its geographical position, but also for its role in the economic development of the region by being one of the most important academic, cultural, industrial and business centres in Romania and second city after capital, Bucharest. Undoubtedly, the air connectivity offered by Cluj International Airport had a major influence on the increased tourism, trade, investment, productivity, and development of the region. I believe that the increased annual passenger traffic from 36,000 in 1996 to almost three million in 2019 has helped the development of the region, but also of the city.

In 2019, there were more than 4,000 direct and indirect jobs created by the airport and its role as one of the region’s economic engines was obvious as the main interest of large companies to invest in a certain region depends on the available infrastructure and the air connectivity of that region.

Thus, through a coherent recovery, resilience and development strategy, Cluj International Airport will continue to positively influence the future of the entire region.

How would you describe the airport’s current situation in terms of its recovery from the COVID pandemic?

Like most of the regional and hub airports throughout the world, we faced some harsh times during the start of the pandemic, but managed to overcome many of the challenges brought upon the aviation ecosystem by the sanitary crisis and the subsequent travel restrictions through a balanced, coherent, and resilient set of actions which produced immediate effects. From re-evaluating our business plans and how we use our existing staff to support programmes for our tenants and airlines, I believe that we have taken all the measures that we could have done to navigate the airport through the crisis and ensure its long-term future.

Even though the pandemic has led to an unprecedented decrease in terms of passenger traffic, during 2021 Cluj International Airport managed to recover 50% of its pre-pandemic passenger traffic, exceeding the European and national average in terms of passenger traffic recovery.

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Perhaps the best thing I can say is that at the end of 2021, ACI EUROPE named Cluj International Airport as the Best Airport in Europe in the category for airports handling less than 5mppa. This prestigious award confirms the airport’s successful activity during an unprecedented crisis worldwide and confirms the fact that the airport is on the right track in terms of our traffic recovery.

Traditionally, what are the biggest opportunities/ challenges you face as an airport?

Attracting and retaining good employees is a big challenge because air navigation system providers and airlines can offer higher wages and we don’t have that many aviation specialists in our area. Thus, we hire people for their good attitude, and we train them.

Cluj International Airport has experienced two decades of increased passenger traffic while developing infrastructure at various stages, and this has propelled its status to become a top European airport for its size while also being the most important regional airport in Romania.

Apart from the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the main challenges we face concern the need for better infrastructure in order to improve the quality of services offered to both airlines and passengers and the need to extend the catchment area.

Given that the entire civil aviation scenario has changed with the pandemic, at this time our priority remains the passenger traffic recovery followed by the need to develop our infrastructure, increase passenger satisfaction levels and be able to continuously adapt to the fast-changing aviation industry.

Does the airport traditionally make a profit?

With the exception of 2020 which, of course was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the airport has registered a profit and 100% financed its operations since 2015.

Aeronautical activity remains our main source of income, accounting for 70% to 80% of our revenues. Like many airports we are actively looking to increase our non-aeronautical revenues, but it is not proving easy.

From a company wide perspective, our strategy over the last few years has been more heavily focused on making the best use of our

SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Fact Box: Cluj International Airport (CLJ) Country ranking: The second busiest airport in Romania Passenger total in 2019: 2.9 million Passenger traffic 2021: 1.45 million Expected passenger traffic 2022: 2 million workforce and safeguarding jobs, minimising unnecessary expenditure and resetting our business perspectives with a higher focus on support for airlines and tenders.

What are you doing to boost your non-aeronautical revenues and is this task more difficult for you because of the airport’s size?

Fees from commercial facilities such as shops, restaurants and offices, advertising and car parking incomes are currently the primary source of non-aeronautical revenue for Cluj International Airport. We actively promote car parking and other commercial offerings at the airport through advertising campaigns. There is no doubt that increasing non-aeronautical revenues and opening new retail/F&B facilities that provide for a better exprience for passengers is more difficult for small and regional airports.

Do you think Europe’s bigger hub airports face the same challenges?

We all face different challenges and the pandemic has had a much bigger impact on the traffic levels at hub airports that are more dependent on long-haul, intercontinental flights.

Why is it important that smaller, regional airports survive and prosper across the world?

Small regional airports are the seed for regional development and therefore must be an integrated part of regional policies for their respective regions to allow them to prosper and develop. It is not just about connection possibilities offered by airports, it is also about the long-term view at a regional level in terms of investments, trade and tourism development.

Small and regional airports also feed connecting traffic to major hubs and play a significant contribution towards the success of these airports.

What impact have the low-cost carriers had on your airport?

Low-cost carriers have had a hugely positive impact on the operation of the airport, especially since Wizz Air started flying to Cluj-Napoca after Romania

joining the European Union led to the liberalisation of the air transport market. The increased competitiveness brought by the low-cost operators has boosted the Cluj air transport market, with real benefits for passengers in our catchment area who have seen their travel options grow over the years. As times change, we also must take into consideration the new trends, especially the future hybridisation of airlines.

Do you think that local and national governments appreciate the importance of regional airports and, in general, are supportive of your airport and aviation?

No achievements come easy, and even if the vision of an airport does not always overlap with the one of the local or national government, it is important to have a clear strategy and to believe in your projects, because that will help you to inspire and promote your vision to others.

If I were to look back at 1996 when the airport handled 36,000 passengers a year, there weren’t so many people who believed in the dynamic approach towards modernising and developing the airport infrastructure, but that strategy led us to the accomplishment of a historical threshold of 2.9 million passengers in 2019 and led to Cluj International Airport being called a ‘model of good practices and landmark airport in South-Eastern Europe’. Regional airports are most appreciated by the local community they serve. At the same time, local airports can face fierce competition from neighbouring gateways.

How do you plan developing your airport over the next five to ten years?

Cluj has managed to become a regional reference airport for South East Europe based on our clear plans for the short, medium and long-term.

This means that we aim to continue the development of the airport’s key infrastructure in order to ensure that we provide quality services for both passengers and airlines in a safe and secure environment.

To achieve the goal of serving 7mppa passengers by 2040, we will continue with projects to extend the runway, construct new apron and aircraft parking areas and build a new passenger terminal. After the extension of the runway, in 10 years’ time, I would expect to see the introduction of a direct flight from Cluj-Napoca to New York.

It is important to add that all current and future airport development projects for Cluj International Airport will consider our commitment to the Net Zero by 2050 goal, which was recently strengthened by the signing of the Toulouse Declaration on future sustainability and the AW decarbonisation of aviation.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022

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SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Keeping Sicily connected Natale Chieppa, managing director of Palermo-Falcone Borsellino Airport operator, GESAP, reflects on the vital role his gateway plays in the growth and development of Sicily.

How important is your airport to the city and region you serve in terms of connectivity, jobs and its economic and social impact?

All regional airports are important, but arguably those located on an island are even more crucial to the communities they serve, and PMO is no exception to that rule. Palermo is one of four airports in Sicily which between them traditionally handle around 19 million passengers per annum as they provide a very important connectivity role for the territory since, for many people and businesses, air transportation is the only way of travelling to and from Sicily.

To give that some perspective, in 2019, people living within our catchment area made an average of 3.8 trips each compared to 2.9 in the rest of Italy.

In terms of jobs, we estimate that at least 2,500 people are directly employed at PMO. This, of course, is a much larger figure if you include all those indirectly employed as a result of the existence of Palermo Airport. Indeed, some university studies and consultancy firms in Europe estimate that 900 jobs – direct and indirect – are created for every one million passengers handled by an airport.

In terms of economics, research by a number of well-know consultancy firms suggests that each arriving or departing passenger

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boosts the local profit and loss (PNL) of each airport by close to €500, which in our case, would have resulted in a positive contribution to the local PNL of about €3.5 billion in 2019.

These kind of figures can help you understand just how important PMO is to Palermo and the entire territory of Sicily in terms of its positive social and economic impact.

How would you describe the airport’s current situation in terms of its recovery from the COVID pandemic?

PMO together with some other Italian regional airports located in the south of Italy are recovering faster than the national average due to the increase in domestic traffic, particularly in the 2021 summer season.

In 2020, compared to the average traffic loss of -72.3% in Italy, our airport experienced a loss of -61%. In 2021, the average loss of traffic across Italy was -58% whereas PMO performed ‘better’ in recording a decline of -35%. It is worth noting that in the second half of 2021, Palermo was often among the top five best performing airports in Europe for gateways usually handling between five and ten million passengers yearly. For the current calendar year, our actual year-to-date trend up until February 23, 2022, is -20% compared to 2019.

SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Fact Box: Palermo–Falcone Borsellino Airport (PMO)

related sources of revenue include our retail/F&B offerings and office rental, although car rental operations provide the airport with the biggest source of income from non-aviation related activities.

Country ranking: The sixth busiest airport in Italy in 2021 Passenger total in 2019: 7.01 million Passenger traffic 2021: 4.5 million Expected passenger traffic 2022: 5.8 million

What are you doing to boost your non-aeronautical revenues and is this task more difficult for you because of the airport’s size?

What impact have the low-cost carriers had on your airport?

They have transformed air travel to Palermo by dramatically improving our connectivity in the five years before the global pandemic. In 2019, the market share of the LCCs exceeded 70% of our total traffic and we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.

Do you think that local and national governments appreciate this importance and, in general, are supportive of your airport and aviation?

We believe that here in Palermo there is quite a good appreciation from government about the vital role PMO plays for Palermo, the surrounding region and the whole of Sicily.

Traditionally, what are the biggest opportunities/ challenges you face as an airport?

These are probably no different to any other airport our size, but what I will say is that during the global pandemic the most challenging area was funding our masterplan for PMO, given our decision not to interrupt any of the developments already planned before the COVID outbreak.

We are developing a new commercial plan that will create a number of new retail/F&B areas as the current offerings are not adequate in terms of space and capacity to meet demand given the upward traffic development of recent years.

Do you think Europe’s bigger hub airports face the same challenges?

In regards to the global pandemic, I believe that bigger airports are probably having an even tougher time than us in terms of the financial and funding challenges, although they are in a better position to attract good staff and develop their route networks when the market picks up.

Why is it important that smaller, regional airports survive and prosper across the world?

Because each serves a local community that might otherwise have no air links at all. Regional airports can provide great development opportunities to local communities by offering direct, point-to-point connections to destinations that are not usually served from main hubs. Tourism and the local economy are more competitive if they are better (and faster) connected with the world.

Does the airport traditionally make a profit?

How do you plan to develop your airport over the next five to ten years?

We have regularly been profitable since 2015, although not during the pandemic, of course! Aviation related activity currently provides 80% of our income and non-aeronautical revenues for 20%. Non-aero

We have many plans to develop the airport which include proposals to invest more than €70 million by 2033 on increasing the capacity of PMO and, just as importantly, our revenues from non-aeronautical services.

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SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPE’S REGIONAL AIRPORTS

Spirit of recovery Kavanagh Communications’ John Matheson considers some of the challenges facing Europe’s regional airports when it comes to enhancing their retail/F&B offerings.

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espite the unprecedented and continuing pressures imposed on non-aviation revenues by the COVID crisis, a number of Europe’s regional airports are developing a stronger position to drive their revenue recovery path, particularly among those that are managing to continue with at least some of their pre-COVID planned investment programmes across their commercial spaces.

Larnaca Airport (LCA) in Cyprus, for example, has achieved the most comprehensive terminal transformation seen at a European airport during the pandemic, with a €20 million project to redesign the commercial areas, reaching across over 6,000sqm with 22 upgraded retail and F&B concepts.

In re-modernising the customer experience, LCA placed huge emphasis on Cypriot culture and the spirit of the island, with the central focus on the locally-themed Kypriaka store celebrating Cypriot food, crafts and culture, including cheese, wines and spirits, pottery, lacemaking and jewellery.

This strategy is especially effective as the product offer is not only carefully selected to provide quality and authentic expressions of the island, it is also balanced to address the needs of both local and tourist traffic.

Importantly, these local themes endure, providing a stable and effective long-term platform for the customer experience. The airport also developed its commercial planning strategy by re-routing the passenger journey through the retail space to create a huge increase in passengers’ exposure to the offer.

Larnaca’s strategy of localisation of the customer experience is the key tactic for regional airports to adopt in driving recovery. While LCA’s large-scale project was obviously planned (and budgeted) pre-COVID, the injection of local elements into the offer (especially in food but also in F&B menus) can be adopted as a relatively low cost commitment that can instantly inject new life into the customer experience and create differentiation for the airport.

On a smaller but still effective scale, Bristol Airport (BRS) in the UK is urgently gearing up for the summer with a £2.6 million investment to enhance the airport’s shopping and dining offer, injecting newness to help engage the customer.

Tom Hack, BRS’ head of commercial, explained: “This is an exciting project and opportunity for Bristol Airport and its customer facilities.

“We are very confident that the investment and redevelopment in our departure lounge will provide a greater passenger experience as we offer new places to shop, eat, drink and relax before you fly.”

The ‘Sense of Place’ strategy has, of course, become well established over the past decade, led by airports such as Nice, Porto, Malta, Munich and Toulouse.

The input of retail and F&B partners is crucial in creating a stronger experience to attract the returning traveller, and retail leaders Dufry and Heinemann have been especially active in developing new retail concepts to revitalise the airport shopping experience at a number of Europe’s regional airports.

At Heinemann, this includes closer blending of the retail and F&B elements through smartseller, a joint venture between the retailer and catering specialist Casualfood.

Karl Niendorf, managing director of smartseller, outlined the strategy: “The concept evolves travel retail spaces from rigid, categorycentred assortments into four needs-oriented zones, creating smooth and intuitive transitions between themes, products and services.

“The boundaries between duty free, F&B and convenience shops have disappeared.”

The first full expression of this integrative retail space was recently launched at Ljubljana Airport, with smaller pilot projects at Münster/ Osnabrück and Leipzig airports.

As Europe enters the third year of its COVID crisis and (hopefully) travellers return to the skies this summer, passengers face disruption and a changed airport journey that will reduce their propensity to shop.

Additionally, while they’ve been away from the terminals, domestic retail behaviour has evolved radically in a surge to online shopping, making in-store conversion even harder.

Europe’s airports face a huge challenge to re-ignite their nonaeronautical revenue, but, across the region, creative responses are AW showing how it might be done.

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LEADERSHIP

Over the worst ACI Asia-Pacific’s director general, Stefano Baronci, provides an update on how airports in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific are faring in their recovery from COVID. What is the prognosis for the recovery of international traffic across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions in 2022?

We expect Asia-Pacific and the Middle East to recover at rates between -40% and -50% versus the projected baseline, a reflection of the different reopening approaches taken by governments.

The Middle East, where air transport markets are predominantly international, took a more pragmatic approach, reopening with health-related safeguards such as testing and vaccinations.

Asia-Pacific still provides a mixed picture, with some positive developments ahead. Larger markets such as China, Japan and South Korea remain more restrictive, operating under blanket travel bans or mandatory multi-week quarantines.

Recently, states such as Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia chose to reopen to international passengers without quarantine subject to undertaking required vaccination, which is in line with the approach taken by many other countries and the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Are any countries ahead of the curve in terms of the recovery of international services?

From the onset, it became quite clear international traffic would be hit much harder than the domestic component. Hence, air transport markets which were predominantly dependent on international traffic suffered and are still suffering.

China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, are faring better due to domestic traffic.

Some countries have taken steps conducive to the effective reopening of their air transport markets. Singapore is a good example. It committed to steadily reopening its borders with the aim to set up more quarantine-free travel agreements.

Practically all countries in the Middle East and an increasing number of countries in Asia-Pacific have abandoned zero-COVID approaches to fight the pandemic.

Recent studies conducted by Oxera and Edge Health in Europe demonstrated that travel restrictions imposed in the wake of Omicron had little or no impact on the spread of the virus.

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Is it possible to say what COVID has cost the region’s airports in terms of job losses, lost revenues and passenger numbers?

Compared with ACI’s projected baseline, it is estimated that Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern airports, in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, lost 55.3% and 68.5% of their passenger traffic respectively. This is equivalent to 1.95 billion and 300 million passengers respectively. Last year demonstrated a comparable picture with over two billion passengers lost by Asia-Pacific airports and over 300 million Middle East passengers lost.

The losses in revenues are proportional to the losses in passenger traffic. In 2020, airports in Asia-Pacific lost $33 billion, while Middle East airports faced a decline of $10.5 billion. In 2021, these figures were $28 billion and $11 billion, respectively.

As for jobs directly supported by aviation, ATAG’s latest report suggests that 800,000 jobs are at risk in Asia-Pacific (19% of the total) and 115,000 in the Middle East (19%).

The high-level preliminary outlook suggests passengers and airport revenues will marginally improve in 2022, but these hinge on political decisions on the reopening of air transport markets.

How has ACI Asia-Pacific helped the region’s airports during this time?

We focused on ensuring that airport operations and public health measures were implemented in accordance with ICAO CART recommendations. Due attention was also given to economic survival of the industry and safeguarding interests in the future.

This is the area where we provided much support to our members, advocating for state-support of the industry to the extent possible and risk-based approaches to travel protocols. We also participated in many dialogues with governments and policymakers on the coordinated reopening of the industry.

LEADERSHIP opportunity for airports to reinvent themselves, enhancing the core of their businesses and strengthening resiliency.

To ‘build back better’, the three pillars of sustainability: Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) cannot be overlooked. Public and private finances are progressively more tied to sustainability ratings and climate actions. In fact, ESG-related criteria are increasingly used by investors and financial institutes for performance evaluation to avoid investing in organisations which might pose economic and commercial risks due to unsustainable assets and practices.

Balanced business models incorporating all three aspects of sustainability can increase public trust, attract investments, enhance efficiency, build resilience, and ensure aviation’s social and economic benefits are achieved.

Has the pandemic given the industry the kick-start it needed in terms of the introduction of touchless self-service technology?

What has been, and possibly remain, the biggest concern for your member airports right now?

The latest ACI Economic Impact Assessment expects that passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific in 2022 will experience a decline of -49% compared to the projected baseline. The Middle East, owing to the high share of international and transfer traffic, would see a decline of -43%. The pace of recovery of both AsiaPacific and the Middle East is forecasted to lag behind the global average of -36%.

Evidence has shown that travel restrictions have little impact on the spread of the Omicron variant, but countries are continuing to impose them, contributing to the economic and social stress experienced all around. In fact, a statement by the WHO in January recommended states consider lifting or modifying international travel restrictions, including testing and/or quarantine requirements, based on risk assessments.

ACI Asia-Pacific will continue advocating for a pragmatic and risk-based approach to reopening borders, with coordinated protocols to testing and vaccination, and interoperable digital health passes to facilitate international travel.

Do you think the crisis will lead to a revaluation of airport business models?

The road to recovery is likely to take place in multiple stages. Airport operators and investors will inevitably reconsider priorities and revaluate business models.

Although ACI does not expect passenger traffic to return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East are forecasted to be the two fastest growing regions with compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7% and 5.2% respectively until 2040. The future of the aviation industry remains bright for the region. Nonetheless, the pandemic serves as the perfect

The pandemic has certainly changed passengers’ expectations and perceptions in their travel experience with much priority given to public health. Despite the severe loss of revenue, many airports are investing in touchless, self-service technologies to meet hygiene standards, restore passengers’ confidence, and improve travel experience.

Digitalisation and biometric technology can be used to facilitate queuing, expediting check-in and security processes.

As a result, airports can increase terminal capacity, improve efficiency and lower operating costs. For instance, passengers at Beijing Capital International Airport can enjoy a seamless journey, from check-in and bag drop through to immigration, security and finally boarding, enabled by facial recognition.

Similarly, Auckland and Kuala Lumpur airports have installed biometric-enabled automated and self-service touchpoints, while Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports have adopted facial recognition technologies to facilitate faster travel.

In 2020, Chinese airports accounted for all but three of the top 10 busiest airports in the world. Do you expect to see this trend continue in 2022?

That is hard to predict, especially as we have yet to receive the full traffic data for 2021. What we can say is that the region’s larger domestic markets, such as China and South Korea, have experienced a relatively faster recovery compared to others.

However, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in many countries, including China, rendered renewed social restrictions, the tightening of borders as well as domestic lockdowns, casting a shadow over the recovery.

Having said that, markets where domestic traffic is dominant, such as China, are expected to recover quicker, reaching preCOVID-19 levels by the end of 2023.

In any event, to achieve a truly sustainable recovery from COVID, co-operation and the establishment of standards that harmonise the processes for international travel between states are crucial. The global recovery will only be realised with the escalation of vaccination campaigns, development of AW digital health passes, and supportive policies from governments.

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NEW INFRASTRUCTURE

The future is now

Airport World takes a closer look at the opening of new facilities in Santiago, New York, Memphis, Geneva and Atlanta and get a glimpse of what’s to come with JFK’s Terminal One. Uniquely Chilean surprise and delight Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL) opened its new Terminal 2 in January, 2022, the state-of-the-art complex being the largest new terminal to have been completed in Latin America in recent times.

Designed by global integrated design firm Stantec in partnership with local firm Amunategui Barreau Arquitectos, the huge project included adding a new pier to the original terminal, which now serves as a domestic terminal.

Santiago’s new Terminal 2 covers 175,000sqm and has an initial capacity of 30 million passengers per annum, although this can be increased to 38mppa through previously designed additions.

Stantec played a major role in the development of the airport. First as the architects of the original International Terminal in 2000 under the Consortium SCL Terminal Aéreo de Santiago, and more recently as the designers of the new terminal when Stantec and Amunategui Barreau Arquitectos were retained by the Chilean Ministry of Public Works’ Airport Concessions Division.

The new T2, which will serve international and regional flights, features a major central processor which serves as a focal point for people approaching the airport, and hosts four new piers, connected to the central processor for Arrivals through interstitial corridors.

A large retail/F&B concessions programme, VIP lounges, and an innovative advertising programme are said to elevate the passenger experience to one of the best in the region. The project has also increased the number of gates from 18 to 67, while adding two, four-level parking buildings and two surface parking lots.

A landscaped plaza connects the two terminals on the landside, affording open-air views to the main entrances of both buildings. And, according to Stantec, the T2 main hall has a vast and elegantly curved roof facing a park on one side and the approach roads on the other.

The flanking piers for the new gates were designed with wavy roofs inspired by the Chilean coastline, set against the Andes Mountains. The

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juxtaposition of contra-cyclical sine-curved roofs created openings that are filled with high windows, while maintaining a singular structural system throughout their entire length, says Stantec.

A bird’s eye view of the new terminal is designed to evokes the iconic sites of the Atacama Desert, with finishes and forms inspired by the different landscapes and colours of the country, while the interior design theme reflects the unique geography, iconic sites, and culture of Chile.

“As Santiago expands this busy airport hub, we are honoured to help transform the experience of travellers as they come through or stay in Chile,” said Cecilia Einarson, sector leader for airport terminals at Stantec.

“Together with our partners at Amunategui Barreau Arquitectos, we created a place that embraces the beauty and splendour of Chile while welcoming visitors and residents to the country.”

Memphis Belle An expanded and revamped Concourse B opened at Memphis International Airport (MEM) on February 15 with passengers on an early morning Delta Air Lines flight being the first to pass through the Tennessee gateway’s sparkling new facility.

The airport has invested $245 million on modernising the spine and east leg of the concourse, allowing for the addition of wider corridors, moving walkways, larger boarding areas, higher ceilings and increased natural lighting as well as some much-needed seismic upgrades.

The multi-year project has also allowed for the consolidation of all airline, retail and F&B operations in Concourse B, giving them better exposure to passenger flows and increasing convenience levels for passengers.

The use of ‘smart glass’ in the windows that gently tint to reduce the light as the outside temperatures rise are designed to ensure comfortable heating levels throughout the day.

Speaking on February 15, Scott Brockman, president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, said: “This is a huge day for us

NEW INFRASTRUCTURE

and the culmination of three years of construction and two-plus years of planning and design.

“The whole idea was to make it modern so when someone gets off the plane, they say Memphis is going places, and Memphis is cool.

“There’s a lot of local flair in the building, Memphis artists’ work. People are going to know they’ve been to Memphis.”

While Michael Keeney, chairman of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority Board of Commissioners, enthused: “We are truly reinventing the Memphis travel experience.”

The new and improved 23-gate facility is capable of accommodating around six million passengers, about 50% more traffic than MEM’s pre-pandemic levels.

This could rise to 11mppa in the future following a similar upgrade to the west leg of Concourse B, which currently has 15 gates and boasts the airport’s US Customs and Border Protection facility as it handles all international flights to Memphis.

Eric Peterson, president of Alliiance which partnered with Memphisbased UrbanArch on the modernisation of Concourse B, said: “This is truly a transformational project for Memphis International Airport, the community and region.

“The project embodies flexible planning approaches that will serve the airport well into the future and provides world-class amenities, convenience and state-of-the-art technology.”

Peterson, who leads Alliiance’s aviation practice, added: “Accessibility and equitable access were guiding principles throughout the design process and will provide the highest levels of accommodation for all users of the airport.”

LaGuardia becomes world’s first airport with dual airbridges The opening of the second pedestrian skybridge at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B means that the New York gateway has become the first airport in the world to have dual skybridges.

The 482ft long western skybridge is the final piece of the interior of the Terminal B facility to debut and is the last major construction milestone for developers LaGuardia Gateway Partners (LGP).

According to LGP – which comprises Vantage Airport Group, Skanska and Meridiam – the $5.1 billion Terminal B redevelopment is now over 90% complete and will reach substantial completion later this year, on time and on budget.

Connecting the western concourse to the Arrivals & Departures Hall, the western skybridge is said to offer travellers beautiful views of the Manhattan skyline.

Design of the dual skybridges, a concept envisioned by Vantage and brought to life by design and architecture partner HOK, was a critical element of the terminal’s redevelopment, as not only did the concept allow the original terminal to remain operational during construction of the bridges overtop, but when the taxiway underneath the western skybridge opens later this year, LaGuardia’s busy airfield will grow by a much needed two extra miles of taxiway space.

LGP CEO, Frank Scremin, enthused: “With the completion of this final major construction milestone, passengers travelling out of the western concourse now have a direct, seamless journey from the kerb to their gate.

“The new Terminal B is a shining example of a 21st Century airport facility focused on the passenger experience and what can be accomplished when we all work together.”

Later this year – after demolition of the remaining piece of the original terminal building – aircraft will taxi underneath the skybridge.

In addition, a restaurant complete with an outdoor terrace and Manhattan views is planned for the future. The eastern skybridge, which opened in June 2020, connects the Arrivals & Departures Hall directly to the eastern concourse gates.

Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, enthused: “From a passenger point of view, the old LaGuardia is no more. We have gone from worst to best, something no one thought was possible when this project began.

“Terminal B creates a top-of-the-line passenger experience and does so in the context of world-class architecture, inspiring public art and notable, iconic, locally inspired concessions.”

George Casey, chair and CEO of Vantage Airport Group, stated that it was an honour to help bring to life “one of the most innovative and complex airport redevelopment projects in the world”.

“The dual skybridge design illustrates the creative planning, design, and phasing that allowed Terminal B to remain fully operational throughout the entire redevelopment project,” said Casey.

The new 1.3 million-square-foot Terminal B is part of the comprehensive redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport. With a construction value of $4 billion, the Terminal B project is one of the largest public-private partnerships in America and the largest in US aviation history.

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NEW INFRASTRUCTURE

Geneva’s colourful, clever and cost efficient new addition Those of us lucky enough to attend ACI EUROPE’s Annual Assembly, Congress & Exhibition last October got a sneak preview of Geneva Airport’s new €583 million East Wing, which officially opened to widebody long-haul traffic on December 14, 2021.

Designed by the RBI-T consortium comprising Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), the Jacques Bugna architecture studio and the engineering offices of Ingérop and T-Ingénierie, the 520 metre long East Wing is arguably one of Europe’s most energy efficient airport buildings thanks to the implementation of a number of advanced technologies.

Indeed, good thermal insulation of the East Wing is achieved by the deployment of high-performance triple-glazed facades, with additional solar protection designed to limit the use of artificial lighting and reducing heating and cooling loads.

Electricity is produced by a solar installation composed of 7,020sqm of photovoltaic panels on the roof. A further significant reduction of the energy footprint of the building is ensured by the efficient thermal insulation of the building envelope, the recovery and use of rainwater and the use of high-efficiency heat pumps.

The latter produce and store the thermal energy of 110 geothermal piles that run to a depth of 300 metres and will be able to connect in future to the hydro-thermal network GeniLac, completing the panoply of renewable energy sources supplying the building.

Describing the new East Wing, Geneva Airport CEO, André Schneider, enthused: “Bold architecture, innovative design and cutting-edge technology are the key words that characterise this exceptional building and reflect our desire to offer passengers the best possible welcome.”

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While RSHP’s senior design partner, Graham Stirk, said: “Its primary structure and low energy technologies are orchestrated and celebrated into one simple bold statement. Each engineering component is finely crafted not unlike that of a beautiful Swiss watch. These simple elemental components are given further emphasis by using a spectrum of colours that provide clarity as well as a festive and memorable experience for all travellers.”

New front door to ATL Arguably the most eye-catching recent addition to the infrastructure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) are two soaring steel canopies with translucent ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) fabric panels that have helped create a new ‘front door’ to the domestic terminal, and in the process become new icons for the city.

Visible from air and land, the twin structures each measure 864 feet by 200 feet and cover eight lanes of traffic at kerbside drop-off and pick-up areas, effectively protecting travellers, the roadway and the building facade from Atlanta’s ever-changing weather.

An added benefit is the fact that the inflated ETFE pillows create a thermal barrier that has reduced the solar heat gain by at least 50%.

Nightly programmable LED lighting displays have also helped the canopies become a symbol of Atlanta and a civic storytelling device.

With more than 3,400 light fixtures embedded into each canopy, a mix of colours and patterns illuminate the twin structures at night.

“Hartsfield-Jackson’s canopies serve a number of purposes at the airport,” said ATL’s general manager, Balram Bheodari. “They have given new life to our domestic terminal entry points, provide safe and

NEW INFRASTRUCTURE

secure passage for our visitors and have become iconic additions to the city’s skyline.”

HOK developed a parametric modelling and optimisation tool called STREAM to accelerate the design process and inform the construction approach, which shaved weeks off the design process and led the integrated team to an innovative, ultra-efficient solution.

For example, cladding the canopies with ETFE instead of traditional glasing cut their weight by half. STREAM models shared with the team also enabled carefully orchestrated construction phasing that allowed the terminal to operate with minimal disruption.

The team also designed upgrades to the existing terminal to bring in more daylight. The precast concrete facade was re-skinned with metal panels, new storefront clerestories and glazing.

HOK acted as structural engineer on the project, which concluded in late 2021 with the opening of new pedestrian foot bridges to the domestic terminal.

Matt Breidenthal, HOK’s engineering principal in charge of the ATL project, said: “The airport is committed to providing the City of Atlanta and its passengers with a superior level of experience and service, while maintaining efficiency and minimising operational impacts.

“This modernisation is an excellent example of how that can be successfully achieved through smart planning and collaboration with the design and construction teams.”

Terminal velocity at New York JFK Next up for John F Kennedy International Airport is a new $9.5 billion Terminal One after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) reached a revised agreement with the consortium awarded the concession to build the new state-of-the-art complex.

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Being funded and developed by The New Terminal One (NTO) consortium, the 2.4 million square foot terminal is expected to anchor the south side of New York JFK as the Port Authority continues its transformation of the gateway into what it describes as “a worldclass airport worthy of New York and the region”.

When completed, the new Terminal One, which will ultimately have 23 gates, will be the largest international terminal at John F Kennedy International Airport wooand aspires to being among the top-rated airport terminals in the world.

“The time to get large infrastructure projects done is now, and I’m committed to getting JFK’s brand-new Terminal One underway and completed as soon as possible,” said New York governor, Kathy Hochul.

The full cost of the terminal will be privately financed by the NTO consortium which includes financial partners Carlyle, JLC Infrastructure, and Ullico. Reach Airports – a joint venture between Munich Airport International and CAG Holdings – is the operating and technical services partner to the consortium.

As part of the project, PANYNJ will undertake a number of infrastructure upgrades and improvements including roads, parking, and utilities including a new electrical substation.

The new Terminal One will be built on the sites of the current undersized and outdated Terminal 1, the aging and obsolete 59-yearold Terminal 2, and the site of the former Terminal 3, which was demolished in 2013.

Construction of the new terminal is scheduled to begin in mid-2022 and the first phase, including the new arrivals and departures hall and first set of new gates, is expected to open in 2026.

The design build team selected for the project is composed of AECOM Tishman and Gensler.

AW

WBP NEWS

Open for business The latest news from ACI’s World Business Partners.

Ensuring the better use and cleaning of airport restrooms

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hile airports have always had to maintain high hygiene standards, the pandemic has forced a renewed focus on how high-touch, high-traffic areas are used, cleaned, and sanitised writes Veovo’s Christian Carstens.

Previously, for example, it was enough to ensure that all facilities were regularly cleaned, on a schedule, to maintain a predetermined standard of hygiene.

Now, the challenge is significantly more complex. Restrooms must be kept clean and free of crowds. An influx of passengers can no longer be left to their own devices to find their way to the nearest facilities.

Airports must, ideally, understand facility usage, react quickly to ensure sanitation and reduce crowding, and have the ability to plan custodial tasks more efficiently.

Many airports are turning to a combination of sensors and machine learning to track and analyse people’s movements within the airport to manage restroom usage.

Occupancy and density analysis enables operators to understand how many people may use a specific restroom at a particular time, based on counting and controlling the situation of each bathroom in real-time.

When presented with live occupancy data, passengers can make informed decisions about which restrooms to use – including information on the walking times to alternative, less crowded facilities.

By combining live occupancy data with passenger flow analytics, operators can also measure and predict crowding events ahead of time. This enables the airport to direct the flow of passengers across restroom facilities before they become too busy, for example, by including messages on digital displays to encourage dwell time in less active zones or dynamic directions via wayfinding apps.

Rather than a static, rota-based cleaning and sanitising schedule, airports would benefit from moving to a needs-based system.

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Armed with historical usage insights, custodial service managers can align cleaning plans to forecasted usage and flight schedules while monitoring staff activity for accurate cleaning-time displays.

Deploying custodial resources to the busiest facilities, as needed, makes sense. Therefore, services that can adapt easily to being responsive, even predictive, to shifting flight schedules and people movements will be the most efficient and effective.

For many airports, especially those that already have passenger flow systems in use, it is a simple matter of expanding their datacapture capabilities to include restroom facilities or, in many cases, integrating existing sensor outputs into one common platform.

This extension fits neatly with the already-proven benefits of airport flow management, including real-time responsiveness to handle challenges on the go, predictive analysis that improves efficiency, and cost savings by ensuring resourcing matches demand.

For example, airports can understand the impact of gate changes on restroom crowding. They can predict how security bottlenecks affect lounge dwell time and facility usage and determine the optimal custodial response.

Understanding how events affect passengers’ show-up profiles, movement, dwell habits, and facility usage throughout the airport makes it possible to automate the appropriate responses.

By connecting airport-wide passenger flow analytics, occupancy, and density analysis with operations, airports will have the appropriate tools for more intelligent, predictive decision-making, from passenger arrival to departure and at every point in between.

Armed with precise data, airports can act confidently to ensure passengers have easy access to clean, uncrowded restrooms – lifting the overall airport experience and passenger confidence.

WBP NEWS

New processing technology for Nepalese gateway

WBP profiles Pacific Gateway

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has selected Collins Aerospace to provide passenger processing and baggage systems at Nepal’s Tribhuvan (KTM), Gautam Buddha (BWA) and Pokhara (PKR) international airports.

According to Collins, its solutions will help the airports ease congestion; enable airlines to accelerate passenger processing; sort, route and handle baggage with higher accuracy; and allow passengers to self check-in, tag and dispatch their own luggage.

KTM is located at Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, Bagmati Province. BWA is one of the oldest airports in Nepal after KTM, serving tourists who visit Lumbini for its Buddhist Heritage Tour, and PKR is the aerial gateway to the Himalayan and Annapurna regions in Nepal.

Membership Region: North America Type of Business: Retail and Commercial W: www.gopacificgateway.com Pacific Gateway Concessions LLC (PGC) is an airport retail concessionaire with a growing brand portfolio. The company has operations at San Francisco, New York JFK’s Terminal 4 and JetBlue Terminal 5, Sacramento, Houston Intercontinental and San Diego airports offering news & gift, F&B and retail services. Employing over 225 associates and generating annualised revenues of over $40 million, PGC is 100% minority owned and strives to pursue innovation, uniqueness and stellar customer service.

Rheinberry Ltd Membership Region: Europe Contact: Richard Dempers E: richard.dempers@rheinberry.com W: www.rheinberry.com Rheinberry provides hands-on delivery consultancy through a small team of consultants, each with 20 plus years in a variety of industries, including considerable commercial aviation experience.

ArgosAI Teknoloji AS

Plaza Premium expands Helsinki offering Plaza Premium Group (PPG) has opened a second lounge at Helsinki Airport. Located close to gate 40 in the non-Schengen area of the new Terminal 2, the 731sqm facility boasts its own Finnish sauna as well as a full ‘Wellness Centre’ including hair salon, beauty treatments and massage facilities.

“We are excited to open our second Plaza Premium Lounge in Helsinki, and continue to grow our footprint in Finland and Europe,” says PPG’s regional general manager, for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Okan Kufeci.

Membership Region: Europe Contact: Merih Alphan Karadeniz E: gyilmaz@argosai.com W: www.argosai.com ArgosAI develops AI-based products to increase safety and efficiency on runways, taxiways and aprons. Its products are the first in the world that enable highperformance AI use in airside operations. Since initial development, these products have evolved and matured through thorough testing. ArgosAI has installed its AI-based FOD detection in high-traffic airports in Asia and Europe. This technology is not only used for standard FOD detection on runways, but also for taxiways and aprons – the first in the world.

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WBP NEWS EXTRA

The digital apron Apron operations and efficiency across the entire airport can be improved by the integration of information and technology, writes Jodi Richards.

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rguably, the current volatility of trafffic levels has made the need for flexibility, close collaboration and constant communication all the more critical for airports as they strive to best meet demand.

It certainly provides a cheaper and more effective alternative to solving capacity issues than investing in costly, and often time consuming, new infrastructure.

“Instead of building more, airports need to make better use of what they have,” notes Peter Håkansson, head of gate product management for ADB SAFEGATE. Indeed, much of what is needed to maximise the use of today’s facilities already exists — through information, says Håkansson.

He adds that because the apron sits at the centre of airport operations, it is a crucial focus for improving airport performance via the coordination and exchange of data. Faster turnarounds, run more efficiently and safely, can help airports flexibly respond to fluctuating traffic, grow revenue and improve the passenger experience.

For more than 75 years, ADB SAFEGATE has worked with its airport partners to develop integrated solutions to optimise safety and operations, and now takes integration to the next level with its Digital Apron solution.

Apron impact In order to achieve the highest operational efficiency, safety and passenger experience levels, shared communication and data are necessary, says Håkansson.

He explains: “There are many stakeholders, which makes it complex. They all have their own information and don’t necessarily share it, and it’s difficult to get a good picture of what’s happening on the apron.”

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Designed to support a more flexible operation, ADB SAFEGATE’s Safedock advanced visual docking guidance systems (A-VDGS) and web-based SafeControl Apron Management (SAM) software provide a platform to increase efficiency and situational awareness to all stakeholders involved in the aircraft turn by bringing automation and digitalisation to the apron.

SAM is a natural intelligent hub for controlling, merging, storing, analysing and predicting operational performance with an apron management perspective. Clear information keeps all personnel informed and enables a more elastic operation that helps deliver on-time departures in an ever-changing environment.

SAM enables Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) by connecting A-VDGS to flight information systems and other equipment.

As a result, gate availability, flight status, equipment status, aircraft servicing progress and other critical information is shared in real time, helping avoid disruptions. SAM also facilitates automated billing of services for airports, and scales well to provide benefit to large or small airports, which is a mandatory need considering ADB SAFEGATE’s footprint with 200+ apron management systems worldwide, states the company’s global product manager SAM, Niclas Svedberg.

‘Tight integration’ of the airfield, tower, terminal and apron systems provides an unequivocal, single source of truth to enable collaboration among all stakeholders and drive efficiency. That single source of information can be found in the Digital Apron, which Håkansson insists “can help with optimisation of operations”.

What happens on the apron impacts everything at the airport — from safety and security to on-time departures and customer experience. The continuous arrival and departure of aircraft needs to be sequenced and managed to maintain optimum throughput and

WBP NEWS EXTRA displaying flight information to ground handlers that can be used to make informed decisions.

“This is how we integrate our internal systems for business knowledge and enhance our products as for the case of connecting baggage information from BRS. This is critical for decision making,” Svedberg explains.

Remote marshalling technology employs cameras to allow personnel to monitor stands and has been extremely useful through the pandemic as operation and personnel numbers fluctuate.

“One person can centrally manage multiple stands, instead of one on each,” Svedberg comments. “Our systems also support ground personnel operationally by allowing them to feed important process checkpoint completions, such as informing that the stand is clear by indicating “FOD check complete.”

This can be done automatically, remotely or in our various devices as manual input, to cover all stands on an airport, contact, remote or parking bays, since equipment and infrastructure levels differ. ensure safety, and with the number of personnel, vehicles and aircraft involved in this careful co-ordination, a common source of knowledge is critical.

Integrated solution The ADB SAFEGATE autonomous Digital Apron builds on integrating processes and systems from tower, airside, gate and terminal to improve decision making. All operationally important data is collected in one view and presented in an understandable way, allowing users to extract information quickly since the system defines the relevant information for that user or stakeholder.

It is enabled by advanced technologies including fully-automated aircraft docking, data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and real-time video surveillance to transform airport operations.

Svedberg notes that the Digital Apron is not only collecting the data, but managing it and making sure that all stakeholders have access to the information that affects them.

“We have a strong filtering function, so that every kind of user gets relevant information for the tasks at hand and decision making process, highlighting areas in need of focus,” says Svedberg.

In an operational critical system such as SAM, a solid user management mechanism is vital to ensure sensitive information is protected and that only privileged users can control or change data.

When allowing for thin clients and mobile use it is also critical to have the necessary IT security measures in place.

With its fully integrated apron systems, airports can interface and share data with other gate operational solutions such as A-SMGCS surveillance systems, AODB, RMS and ground support equipment.

By collecting operational and sensor/technical information throughout the turnaround process and sharing it in real-time, the gate and apron area become part of the integrated solution. Better co-ordination and communication between airport functions will deliver lower costs and higher efficiency, as well as happier passengers, argues Håkansson.

“Everything we do, in the end, is about avoiding or minimising a delay, and shortening turnaround times,” adds Svedberg.

A Ramp Information Display System (RIDS) is one example of how information can be shared on the apron for optimising operations by

The future In the future, AI and machine learning will allow airports to analyse the likelihood of irregular operations, based on historic data and current conditions, like weather and traffic. “Having real-time information helps avoid irregular operations,” notes Håkansson.

A common set of data will eventually allow stakeholders to analyse how resources are used to ensure maximum efficiency, Svedberg says. For example, maximising gate and stand utilisation.

“When you have all the data points available, you can identify where you can improve processes and flows,” says Håkansson.

“There could be significant cost savings for airports if they could share equipment between stands based on flight schedule instead of dedicated use.”

He reveals that ADB SAFEGATE is also looking into how the Internet of Things (IOT) will be applied to the Digital Apron in the future. IOT places a transponder on each vehicle and piece of equipment to report its position, optimising utilisation.

Håkansson simply says: “The IOT will also allow for more data than existing interfaces.”

Intelligent integration and automation will create smarter, tightly integrated airport processes and systems that improve operational efficiency and help eliminate congestion and flight delays.

Integrated systems will enable close collaboration among all stakeholders as part of a single airport operations plan and end-to-end passenger experience management. Ultimately, the Digital Apron solution provides a higher level of awareness which means better decision-making, greater efficiency and fewer delays.

Svedberg concludes: “In the end, it’s all about better usage of infrastructure and improving on-time performance, That’s what drives cost for our customers.

“In the future we also see that more reliable and consistent information in the system enables more automised operations and support for autonomous decision-making.”

Visit www.adbsafegate.com/gate to download the white paper that explores the concept of operational elasticity and how to achieve AW this new and unconditional need.

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HUMAN RESOURCES

PEOPLE

matters What did you do during the pandemic?

Terri Morrisey and Dr Richard Plenty reflect on how the way airports acted during COVID might affect their recovery.

A

irports are coming back to life.

Travel restrictions are easing, and more people are prepared to travel than in the last two years.

How are airports dealing with this transition?

What strategies will airports have to put in place to meet this pent up demand?

These questions are being asked now by airport leaders as they ponder the decisions they made to cut employee numbers during the pandemic.

Two broad approaches were adopted: • Some airports, conscious of the immediate impact on their people of redundancy – and thinking of the difficulty of rehiring and retaining people in the future – hung on for as long as they could without major change. These airports had the resources and support to weather the immediate economic storms.

They tried to keep as many people as possible on payroll, with shorter hours, flexible working, and multi-skilling.

• Other airports took the view that it was better to get the pain over with quickly.

Some had little choice. They adopted a strategy of immediate cost cutting and reducing their workforce, sometimes also seeing an opportunity to take and implement tough decisions about working conditions and pay as part of the process.

They believed that they would be able to recruit new people if demand returned.

We don’t know yet which strategic approach will prove to have been the better given the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic. We do know that a review is now necessary as business builds again.

Some questions airport leaders need to ask are: • How can we make working in the airport attractive given the uncertainty of the past two years and the measures

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we took? How will people feel about career prospects?

• How do we generate a sense of meaning and purpose which will encourage talented people to join (especially given the environmental challenges faced by the industry)?

• How can we recreate cultures of belonging, especially if we had to let people go?

• How do we re-engage people and keep people motivated?

• Will people believe us/trust us this time?

The answers to these questions are not easy and there is no magic bullet.

Whatever approach airports took to staff reductions, the answers will depend a lot on people’s memories of how they were treated in the past two years and the way in which decisions were delivered and communicated.

Those organisations who treated people with respect and as partners in decision making will have a head start in shaping people’s reactions to subsequent events.

While the past cannot be undone, we have some guidelines to consider going forward: • Tell people the truth • Take responsibility for decisions made and why they were made • Re-engage by genuinely working together on a shared vision and clear, simple values • Do not promise what cannot be delivered, but deliver on what you promise • Be authentic.

It will be important to take the opportunity to restate the higher purpose and value of the airport business as a connector of people and places, as an enabler of greater understanding between cultures and as a facilitator of great experiences and memories.

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Florida’s transportation secretary, Kevin Thibault, has signed a five-year contract to become the new CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA). He is expected to take up the position in mid-March. “I feel confident that we have chosen the best of the very best to lead us toward the 22nd century,” said Carson Good, chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.

Sweden’s Ministry of Infrastructure has appointed an investigator, Peter Norman, to work on a development plan for Stockholm Arlanda Airport that would pave the way for the closure of Bromma Airport, the city’s original downtown gateway and fifth busiest commercial airport in Sweden.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has named Chryssa Westerlund as its new executive vice president and chief revenue officer. She will be responsible for airline business development, marketing and consumer strategy, concessions, commercial parking, corporate communications and government affairs for Washington’s Dulles and Reagan National airports as well as the Dulles Toll Road and MWAA’s corporate functions.

Irish airport operator, daa, has appointed Andrea Carroll as its new group head of sustainability. It states that she will “work across the business to lead the transformational change required to allow daa to not only meet but exceed its sustainability commitments”.

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has promoted Tommy Leung to the role of executive director, third runway, succeeding the retiring Kevin Poole. Leung will oversee the development of the Three-runway System (3RS), including project management and project delivery. He will also supervise the Sustainability Department of AAHK. Nick Hays is the new president and CEO of Winnipeg Airports Authority, replacing the long-serving Barry Rempel who has retired after almost 20 years in the hot-seat.

About the authors Terri Morrissey and Dr Richard Plenty are directors of This Is…, authors of the book Uncertainty Rules? Making Uncertainty Work for You, and deliver ACI World’s Airport Human Resources training.

You can contact them at info@thisis.eu

AW