OPINION
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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The next step Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the dawning of a new era for ACI World and some of the challenges and opportunities facing airports in this ‘planning and design’ themed issue.
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CI World is under new management for the first time in 12 years, with Luis Felipe de Oliveira officially succeeding Angela Gittens as the new director general of the association in June. As you will be a able to read in our exclusive ‘View from Top’ interview with him on pages 10-15 of this issue, he is a very personable, experienced and target driven leader who, I am sure, will do a fantastic job of spearheading ACI World as it begins the next step in its journey. And ACI World and airports across the planet will certainly need him to be a strong and capable leader as aviation begins to start up again and operate in the new normal of our COVID-19 impacted world. What does he think is the best strategy to adopt to try and safeguard airports and guide the industry through the pandemic? Is it inevitable that some airports will close? Will aviation ever be the same again after COVID-19? Also, on a more personal level, what is his ‘leadership style’ and what about those more long-term ambitions for ACI World? You will have to read the article to find out the answers to these questions and a whole lot more! With ACI World believing that airports could lose around 40% of their passengers and 50% of their revenues in 2020, you might think that there wouldn’t be a lot of things to write about in this ‘planning & design’ themed issue of Airport World. After all, who is going to spend time, effort and, of course, money on new facilities, IT systems and even new airports in a global slump? Thankfully, the answer is quite a few airports and airport operators, and for a whole host of reasons, the bottom line being that all are clear that passenger numbers will eventually return, and aviation will be on a growth trajectory again. Indeed, anticipated demand is why LaGuardia Gateway Partners is close to finishing the new Terminal B at New York-LaGuardia and
the driving force behind a new resort gateway in Saudi Arabia and India’s decision to build a second airport for capital city, Delhi. The revenue and job boosting potential of developing e-commerce, health and food logistics facilities on airport real estate; Amsterdam Schiphol’s interest in introducing a futuristic Hyperloop ground transportation link; and Germany’s new Berlin Brandenburg Airport also come under the microscope in the themed section. We also take a look at what airports might need to plan for in terms of updating their security processes and procedures for screening passengers during COVID-19 and the post pandemic world. The main airport feature is on Vienna Airport, where co-CEO, Julian Jäger, talks to us about everything from a record breaking 2019 for the Austrian gateway and the March 2021 opening of its new Terminal 2 to the challenges of operating in today’s tough operating environment. Elsewhere in this issue we get a cybersecurity update from Dominic Nessi; discover more about the record cargo volumes being handled at Chicago Rockford Airport in the US; and consider that an omnichannel approach might be the way forward for retail and airport communications. We, of course, also report on the latest news from ACI World; take a look at the psychology of the travelling public in our regular ‘People matters’ column; and learn about some of the most recent successes and pioneering initiatives by ACI’s World Business Partners. I hope you agree that it’s another pretty meaty issue of your favourite magazine and that you’re already looking forward to the next, ‘sustainabilty’ themed issue, when topics such as airport profitability, terminal design post COVID-19 and travel bubbles will be in the spotlight.
AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 4, 2020
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