REGIONAL UPDATE

From the Pacific Islands stretching across Asia and into the Middle East, airports of all sizes are having to adapt to and manage the effects of climate change.

Whether this means coping with the effects of extreme temperatures or rising sea levels, the threat of climate change to the aviation industry, and Asia-Pacific’s airports, is very real. Add on the increased frequency and intensity of weather systems, airports’ business operations are already often disrupted and adversely impacted.

Taking measures to ensure that airports are less vulnerability to such disruptive climate conditions has become necessary to ensure business continuity, sustainability, and evolving operational needs.

This year, the Young Executive Award, an annual research paper competition, is calling on the creativity of young airport executives to contribute innovative solutions to the important topic, ‘Adapting Airports to a Changing Climate in the Region’.

The competition’s winner will receive a cash award of US$1,000 and a scholarship for the Airport Operations Diploma programme.

And as an incentive to airports to nominate a candidate, ACI Asia-Pacific is offering the airport of the winning candidate an additional scholarship to any ACI Global Training Leadership and Management Professional Certificate Course, virtual or classroom (excluding travel fees).

Papers are due on or before Friday, December 3, 2021, for assessment by a distinguished panel of judges. The programme details and the application form are now available on our website.

ACI has been working with policymakers to increase the influence of airports in the decision to adopt One-stop Security (OSS) between states.

As a result of these advocacy efforts at regional and global level, some important – and favourable to airports – amendments have been made to ICAO’s Aviation Security Manual (Doc 8973). More specifically, a number of recommendations have been added to chapter 11.10 concerning the

“recognition of equivalence of security measures – one-stop security”.

Airport members are advised to take note of these new amendments and assess if they could be of help in advancing the development of OSS at national level.

We encourage members to download the free-of-charge One-stop Security Toolkit, developed by ACI World to assist airports on the implementation of OSS.

A simple set of guidelines to quickly establish a plan for removing a disabled aircraft from active areas of the airfield is now available to ACI Asia-Pacific members.

With the majority of airports in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East operating single runway facilities, in the event of a disabled aircraft stranded on the runway, prompt removal is critical for the resumption of operations.

The newly-released Guidelines on Disabled Aircraft Removal document is a simple set of guidelines for airport operators to quickly establish a plan for removing the disabled aircraft from the movement area and managing the process in a timely, safe and efficient manner.

The guidelines contain key information to be included in the plan such as the roles and responsibilities of parties involved; the steps of removing a disabled aircraft from site survey; site preparation; and the recovery of the aircraft and repair of any damaged facilities before reopening of the runway.

ACI Asia-Pacific continues to gain new World Business Partners (WBP), with four new members joining in the last quarter – ALG, Veovo, Skyports and ADB SAFEGATE.

ALG is an international consulting firm with 30 years of experience providing advisory services in transportation, infrastructure, and logistics.

Veovo, Skyports and ADB SAFEGATE have all joined as Affiliate World Business Partners. Veovo is a leading technology provider for multi-modal passenger flow, airport management and revenue maximisation. Skyports is a developer and operator of landing infrastructure for the electric air taxi revolution.

ADB SAFEGATE has a 100-year history of serving more than 2,500 airports/airbases across 175 countries, providing integrated solutions that raise efficiency, improve safety, boost environmental sustainability, and reduce operational costs for airports.

ACI Asia-Pacific now represents 123 members operating 610 airports in 49 countries and territories following the addition of the operators of Gan International Airport in the Maldives, Hamilton Airport in New Zealand, and Van Don International Airport in Vietnam.

Addu International Airport Pvt Ltd, established in 2012, is the operator for Gan International Airport in the Maldives. Hamilton Airport operator, Waikato Regional Airport Limited, becomes New Zealand’s eighth member of ACI Asia-Pacific. While Van Don International Airport, opened in December 2018 and located close to the popular tourist destination of Ha Long Bay, is the first privately-operated airport in Vietnam.

ACI Asia-Pacific is also pleased to announce that the Institute of Air Transport, a unit of the China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology, has joined as an associate member.

“Our association’s advocacy work and portfolio of safety, security, health, and environment programmes and extensive repository of content and guidance material hold wide appeal to airports and organisations across the region who are ramping up for post-pandemic sustainable growth,” said Stefano Baronci, director general of ACI Asia-Pacific. “We warmly welcome our new airport and associate members to the ACI Asia-Pacific family.”

With the November 4, 2021, implementation of the new Global Reporting Format for Runway Surface Conditions fast approaching, the Regional Operational Safety Committee has developed a Quick Start Guide on Global Reporting Format. The Quick Start Guide is exclusively available to ACI Asia-Pacific members.

The main purpose of the Quick Start Guide is to help airports quickly understand and implement the GRF before referring to other detailed and technical documents on the subject.

The Quick Start Guide starts with on the background of the new methodology followed by an explanation of the assignment of the runway condition code.

Finally, two worksheets are provided for airports to come up with the Runway Conditions Report and for filling out observations made on the runway for submission to air traffic control.