The complexity of the modern world and problems and misunderstandings in international relations resulted in the rise of terrorism, which is considered one of the most topical issues of the modern world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, terrorist attacks have resulted in numerous deaths and devastations. That is why the approach to security has been altered to be able to face modern challenges and to protect people. The creation of the perfect security system became the main task of governmental agencies that should monitor the activity of groups that might pose a security issue to the existing world order.
Besides, because crowded places often are the main aim of these attacks, security systems, first of all, try to guarantee their protection. Airports could be considered areas of this sort and their protection is very important. The majority of modern airports have unique systems that are implemented to avoid complications and emergent situations. However, they are still not perfect because there are human factors that impact their functioning and condition the appearance of numerous failures. For this reason, the investigation of human factors and understanding the main reasons that conditioned their appearance might increase the safety and security of airports and workplaces.
Human factors definition
Human factors could be defined as the study of how individuals might behave physically and psychologically in different environments (Harris 2002). The fact is that significant differences that exist among people condition the way they respond to different stressors and act under the emergent conditions. That is why companies have Human factors departments that investigate the given aspects and provide the data needed to create the approaches that might mitigate the possible negative aftermaths of unexpected human actions.
Importance
Human factors are also extremely important for airport security because they determine the level of the efficiency of its security system (Price 2013). Numerous factors determine the performance of human operators at airport security checkpoints and other important posts. Besides, the mood of a person who performs his/her duties is one of the key aspects that should be considered when trying to predict any possible complications and avoid their appearance. Numerous investigations show that in case a person is disappointed, he/she suffers from the lack of attention, problems with concentration, and pretermission of duties. In this regard, the study of human factors might contribute to improved comprehension of the importance of this aspect and the impact it might have on the organisation of security in airports. Additionally, the error probability also comes from the disregard of human factors. It could increase if an employee is not provided with appropriate conditions or his/her basic needs are ignored.
Modern approach
Therefore, when speaking about human factors, it is also necessary to admit that their list is constantly being extended because of the appearance of new aspects that impact workers performance. In recent years, new technologies have been introduced to alter the situation in the existing sphere and attain success in the provision of security services to people. However, their efficiency could remain limited in the event people who are chosen as their operators are untrained and selected in an inappropriate way. In this regard, consideration of human factors is important for the further evolution of the security measures accepted by an airport.
The modern approach presupposes numerous and comprehensive consultations with candidates who want to work in the given sphere and monitor the functioning of the security system. Response time, ability to function under high pressure, the oscillations of the level of attention, adherence to the rules, formulated statutes, etc., become the factors that should be investigated because they might condition the appearance of a mistake resulting in the significant threat to the security. Thus, the appropriate human resources management and the focus on the creation of the beneficial environment might have to eliminate these problems.
The modern approach to human factors management in airports presupposes the constant enhancement of the performance of its workers to guarantee that they will be able to act under the complicated conditions and accomplish their tasks at the highest level. Furthermore, the level of salary could also be considered one of the aspects that impact human factors and could result in increased or decreased performance (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security 2011).
Low wages are often taken as one of the principal contributors to poor performance, while higher wages might attract more experienced workers and introduce the additional motivation of all employees who are going to function in this sector. The oscillations in wages have a direct correlation to the workers satisfaction and their efficiency. Additionally, it might provide better social opportunities and activities for people to build their careers. Study of human factors also implies the provision of additional training for workers and the assessment of their performance. This practice provides an opportunity to teach people how to act in different complex situations that might appear in the airport and avoid complications and crucial errors that might pose a great threat to the security of people who could be found there.
Conclusion
Altogether, human factors have a great impact on the functioning of the whole airport and its security system. The importance of this task could hardly be overestimated because it guarantees that people could feel secure and protected. Human factors incorporate peoples unique peculiarities that determine the way they act under different conditions, their professionalism, the level of salary that affects the employees satisfaction, and several other factors that might precondition the appearance of bad mistakes that undermine the efficiency of the whole system. However, the study of the above-mentioned aspects could help to recognise the necessity of the investigation of this aspect and creation of the environment that should minimise the risks by providing employees with an appropriate environment beneficial for their personal and professional growths and increased level of satisfaction.
Therefore, specialists working in the given sphere should also be provided with an opportunity to respond to any threat. It means that the security system they use should be efficient enough for them to determine a dangerous element and perform certain steps needed to eliminate the possibility of a terrorist act. Only if individuals working in the given sphere are provided with appropriate and efficient equipment, is it possible to speak about the great level of efficiency and admit the improved outcomes in organising security and protecting people (Raphael 2013). In conclusion, human factors are extremely important for the modern security systems because despite their increased efficiency there are still people who operate them and determine the final success. The majority of modern organisations consider these facts; however, there are still numerous mistakes that result in the appearance of a threat.
It is obvious that winter is one of the most problematic seasons for different companies connected with transport. Transportation is one of the parts most interested in the absence of snow and ice.
Looking at the situation in the airports it should be stated that there are many cases when the flights are cancelled because of the bad weather, but it is twice irritating when the flights are cancelled because the airports failed to conduct their direct responsibilities and clean the snow.
The UK airports have appeared in the complicated situations as they are to consider the best ways for dealing with snow in order to avoid the situations which happened this year. This paper is devoted to the discussion of the problems which have appeared in the UK airports connected with snow and the ways how these problems may be solved.
Considering the situation which has appeared, it is important to check the facts. The cleaning systems in UK and in Europe differ greatly. Thus, “in Germany, no airport had to shut even though Munich saw temperatures plunge to -27C. In Stockholm only six of 350 flights were cancelled.
Copenhagen had four inches of snow but no disruption” (Adams, Hough, & Bowater 2012, n.p.), at the same time we can see that “by Saturday afternoon BAA had already cancelled a third of flights nine hours before any snow had fallen in a pre-emptive plan to avoid the chaos of previous winters” (Adams, Hough, & Bowater 2012n.p.).
The main reason why the UK airports are closed are the lack of machines which are to deal with the problem. The consequences of the cancelled flights cannot be even predicted as the number of the business negotiations and deals which could be failed because of the inappropriate actions of the airport managers and the government cannot be calculated.
Additionally, many people had to change their plans, refuse from journeys, etc. Thus, the importance of the clean airports and the guarantee of the ability of the UK government to impose this responsibility of the airports should be referred to.
The discussion of the punishment the UK airports should be referred to as it may be one of the main reasons for making those deal with the problem seriously. The punishment is to be provided in order to make sure that the airport governments have made all necessary in order to avoid the problems which have already happened.
In 2010 BA cancelled 2,000 flights only for 6 days which is an enormous number. Heathrow airport was closed until the period of snow and ice was over (BBC News 2011).
It is reported that the UK military organizations offered their services however, the airports refused as they did not expect so much snow (Milmo & Jones 2010). However, the situation could be much better and the number of the airports which cancelled or delayed the flights might be smaller if the military services were accepted.
The number or military vehicles could improve the situation and to make sure that the snow is cleaned. These services should be taken into account for the future cases if the same bad weather is predicted. There is no need to remind about the potential and the transport the military services can offer along with the working power, the employees which may be involved while extreme situations.
Snow ploughs on the tarmac in the UK airports are working constantly after the snow. Additional problems are created with the replacement of the aircrafts in order to meet the new schedule (Daily Mail Reporter 2010). Thus, this is one of the most spread ways for dealing with the show, the snow ploughs.
One of the main problem the UK is facing in this case and the issue which is to be solved in the number of these snow ploughs. Remembering the situation in 2010 when the UK airports were closed and the winter of 2012 when many flights were delayed, it becomes obvious that he number of snow ploughs does not correspond to the necessary needs of the country.
Thus, the problem could be avoided in case the companies paid more attention to it. It should be reminded that the number of such situations may increase as in the light of the global warming the show is going to become the normal issue. Thus, the UK airports should do much to increase the number of snow ploughs and their appropriate functioning during severe winters.
Even though Milmo and Jones (2010) report about the “multimillion-pound investment in snow ploughs, de-icing equipment and salt stocks” (n.p.), the situation still remains catastrophic. Additionally, Mail Online reports about salt storage the UK airports managed to do (Mail Online 2010).
Still, the cases of the airport closure while winter increases and the number of delays is not reduced. Of course, there is nu such a catastrophe with the delays which occurred in winter 2010, still, the cases of the flights cancelation should bother. The UK airports should get ready for severe winters, much snow and the desire to improve the situation.
Here are a number of ways which may be used while severe winters. Of course, snow plows, sweepers, and snow blowers are the most spread instruments while snowfalls, however, it is important to use those appropriately (Reuters 2010).
The appropriate strategy, the developed rules and policies which are to be followed while the extreme situations is one of the guarantees of the success. Additionally, good planning and the ability to predict the disaster may be considered as the half of the future success.
Recommending the UK airports to avoid problems during bad weather, it should be remembered that while sunny summer days the cars and other vehicles usually leave smaller gaps and as a result the smaller safety margin between them and the vehicle in front.
However, the snowy winters presuppose the increase of the gap (International Airport Review 2010). The same should happen in the airports. The schedules should be changed and organized in such a way that the aircrafts’ departure time should be separated with the longer time period.
The slower speed should be applied to as the surface even on the carefully cleaned and prepared tarmac may cause problems in winter while low temperatures. These simple measures may increase the safely of the passengers of the plain and prevent the dangerous incidents (BBC News 2010).
Those who believe that the safety of the traffic in the airport depends on the condition of the tarmac are mistaken as the pilot is the person who “needs bigger safety margins if visibility is lower than normal” (BBC News 2010, n.p.).
Thus, this is the pilot who analyzes the situation, considered the level of danger, chooses the speed and does all possible to prevent the catastrophe. The airports should just offer top quality technical opportunities, that is all. Thus, the responsibility on the safety is laid on the pilot.
Isn’t it the reasons to make up the courses or additional training for pilots with the purposes to improve their knowledge and skills in behaving while extreme situations connected with bad weather?
The use of the precautionary anti-icing chemicals for de-icing is crucial for dealing with high temperatures. However, David Learmount points at the refusal to use salt as the de-icing procedure, “Salt is corrosive to bare aluminium [which is often found on planes].
Instead, less corrosive chemicals like urea are used in the de-icing” (BBC News 2010, n.p.). David Learmount does not point at the particular chemicals which are used, however, it is possible to predict that these chemicals are more expensive that creates additional complications when too snowy winters take place.
Therefore, it may be concluded that e storages of salt should be made along with the storage and use of chemicals. Too snowy winters appear to be too expensive if only specific chemicals are used. The application to less expensive salt may be a good way out for the UK airports.
The next aspect which should be considered as the helpful and inevitable item while handling with bad weather and particularly snow at the airports is the staff. One should understand that staff is crucial. Highly trained and appropriately informed staff is able to cope with the task better and faster.
The number of people, adequately trained people, should not exceed the number of positions and the amount of responsibilities which are to be met. The professional approach to the staff organization, direction and sharing the responsibilities may reduce the time necessary for cleaning the territory of the airport to minimum.
Considering the mistakes of the previous years, the UK airports should remember about the levels of disruption which depends in most cases of the way how busy the airport is. In other words, the more popular airport, the greater number of passengers comes there each time, the more difficult to make sure that everything is followed, all the requirements are met, etc.
For example, “in an airport like Heathrow – much busier than Stockholm-Arlanda – which can often be operating at 98% of capacity, small amounts of disruption can cause rafts of cancellations” (BBC News 2010, n.p.).
The effect on the flights cancellation in the bigger airports is more noticed, therefore, it is important to make sure that the biggest airports of the county are properly cleaned. However, looking at the situation from the perspective of the workers, it is obvious that the airport cannot be cleaned from snow when planes are landing and taking off.
To make sure that the cleaning vehicles are working appropriately the airports should try to change their schedules and delay some of the flights to the smaller airports to make the schedule in the bigger ones freer (Paurus 2012).
Looking at the situation, the heated runways should be used as the most innovative way in combating with snow. This technique will reduce the number of the cleaning machines in the airport and the number of the staff who deal with the problem.
However, it should be mentioned that this innovative strategy requires too much investments and financing. The change of the whole runways is too costly. Additionally, the airport is to be closed for the time until the work is done. It seems unreal even for the biggest airports which income in much higher than the income of the smaller ones (BBC News 2010).
Thus, the inability of the big airports to deal with the problem brings the smaller ones in the same row as they do not have big investors who may finance the project. The creation of a new airport with the implementation of the new innovative system devoted to melting the snow on the runway is one of the ways out.
The UK airports should consider the experience of other airports. Thus, the Helsinki Finland airport reports about the easy way out of the situation. The airport has three runways, and in case of snow, one is closed and others are working, when this first is cleaned, the closed one is changed.
During the heavy shows, two airports may be closed, depending on the level of slow on the runway. The possession of the top quality equipment and other specific items which are necessary for successful cleaning of the closed runway is obligatory (All Voices 2010).
Many Europe airports refer to this particular way of handling with snow as it allows to avoid the airport closure and the flights cancellation. It is important to understand that the UK is able to create two or even three additional runways and make sure that he problems of 2010 and 2011 will never repeat anymore.
Thus, it should be concluded that the UK airports have faced a number of problems connected with bad weather. The snowy winters have created many complications to the airports and the passengers who used those airports. To make sure that the same problem is not going to repeat anymore, the UK airports should search for the way to handle with severe winters.
One of the main and the most spread ways to cope with show at the runways is to use various ploughing, sweeping, and blowing machines (Bowater 2012). This equipment helps to cope with the show. The staff should be appropriately trained and prepared. The use of salt and other chemical substances are helpful in battling with high temperatures.
However, it is important to remember that using these methods the UK airports are going to succeed, however, they are to search for more appropriate ways to deal with show and ice. The innovative warm runways are really effective, however, the price of the implementation of such technology is enormous.
Another piece of advice offered by the Europe airports is the use of three and more runways. When the snow begins to prevent an appropriate flight of the aircrafts, one or two lines should be closed for cleaning and opened again while one or two lines should be colder for cleaning.
The change of the opened and closed runways may help avoid the problem of snow at the runways and flights delay and cancellation. The UK manages to deal with the snow successfully, however, there are some better ways they are to apply to.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, have changed the way in which the American citizens viewed their safety forever. The insecurity rates went through the roof after the infamous attack, making people abandon air transportation for quite a while. Even nowadays, after the hysteria has subsided to a considerable extent, the fear for people’s lives still defines the measures used in order to facilitate passengers’ safety. However, the increase in safety rates has also changed the procedures that passengers undergo when checking in. Specifically, the time that the process of checking in and handing in the luggage typically takes has been extended for security reasons, which was bound to affect the satisfaction rates of the target audience. Although the precaution measures used nowadays in airports are aimed only at increasing the passengers’ safety and promoting security, they also cause a gradual reduction in customer satisfaction rates because of the rise in the procedures’ duration and the associated inconveniences (Hoffman & Reinares 2014).
Essential Factors
As stressed above, the enhancement of the systems facilitating passenger security is what the post—9/11 social attitudes manifest themselves in. Though the fear of terrorism has subsided to a considerable extent, there is still a fear of an imminent threat that the exposure to the global environment implies. As a result, the check-in procedures may become overly complicated and time-consuming.
The delays that the enhanced security and the long checks imply can be considered the main source of customer dissatisfaction at the airport (Perkins 2007). In addition, the routine checks that the passengers have to go through, as well as the baggage handling, could use a significant improvement. For instance, the time that it takes to check the luggage, as well as allow the passengers to pick it after the flight is over, needs to be reduced. For this purpose, the purchase of more efficient equipment and the rearrangement of the checking process must be considered.
The Theory of Perceived Attributes helps shed some light on the nature of the dissatisfaction as well. According to the principal postulates of the theory, people do not accept innovations instantly; instead, they need encouragement and support throughout the process of getting used to the novelties in the company’s design.
It should be noted, though, that the process of implementing change, in general, and altering the quality of the airport services, in particular, can become much easier once an efficient model for change is incorporated into the corporate framework. For example, the DMAIC principle suggested by Thomas Pyzdek (Pyzdek & Keller 2014) may be considered an essential addition to the firm’s change management strategy. When evaluating the suggested approach, one must give Pyzdek credit for creating the model that can be used to encourage an unceasing improvement of the services and a regular update of the quality standards. Thus, the premises for a regular update of the services can be created, which modern airport companies lack significantly.
As far as the time issue is concerned, there seems to be a lack of tools that can support a more efficient use of the personnel’s time in contemporary airport facilities. For example, the Just-in-Time (JIT) framework, which is aimed at minimizing the defects and maximizing the positive outcome, can be included in the range of tools used by the staff of modern airport companies (Lai & Cheng 2012). Furthermore, the management of the essential processes will be enhanced with the help of a redesign of the corporate values and the philosophy of leadership used in the target facilities currently.
Reference List
Hoffman, B & Reinares, F 2014, The evolution of the global terrorist threat: from 9/11 to Osama bin Laden’s death, Columbia University Press, New York, NY.
Lai, K H & Cheng, T C E 2012, Just-in-time logistics, Gower Publishing, Ltd., Burlington, VT.
Perkins, R A 2007, ‘Using Rogersʼ Theory of Perceived Attributes as a framework for understanding the challenges of adoption of open educational resources’, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 59-66.
Pyzdek, T & Keller, P 2014, The Six Sigma handbook, McGraw Hill, New York, NY.
Generally, safety is a concept ingrained in the human mind. For most people, safety is considered to be the absence of danger. Safety is something related to all human activities and, therefore, every civil society is organized or should be organized to guarantee public safety in relation to one’s own or other’s activities.
For this reason, human activities that could cause damage to persons and properties are controlled by national states through regulations (Florio, 2010).
Specifically, flight safety can be defined as those plans that are incorporated into daily flight operations to serve as a means of ensuring that passengers are always safe (Bledsoe & Benner, 2006).
Contingency Plan
A contingency plan stipulates how an organization intends to respond to events that disrupt normal operations (DIANE, 2004). It should be a well articulated strategy document designed to define actions that should be taken in the event of an emergency (Geering & Amanfu, 2002).
The goal of contingency planning is to protect life and property by identifying the risks associated with an event and developing a plan of action to minimize those risks (PC, 2010). According to Balanko-Dickson (2006), the purpose of a contingency plan is to enable one to think ahead about the potential risks and plan how to respond, manage and act when specific events occur.
Taking time to conduct a risk assessment in advance allows the management teams to think through possible scenarios, define the implications, and plan a response. Generally, a contingency plan is an essential component in the aviation industry and all practitioners must have one in place to be used when necessary.
A good contingency plan will provide the response team with clear instructions on what should be done when faced with a problem (Socha, 2002). Traditionally, organizations will develop contingency plans as a means of protection against loses (Myers, 1996).
Ideally, there should be a contingency plan for any eventuality so as to ensure the safety of everyone. Airports and planes may be affected by natural disasters caused by weather and volcanic eruptions, or lengthy onboard ground delays, among others. This paper discusses a contingency plan to deal with lengthy onboard ground delays at the Generation Next Airport.
Lengthy Onboard Ground Delays
Lengthy onboard delay refers to the holding of an aircraft on the ground either before taking off or after landing with no opportunity for its passengers to deplane.
Who is affected by the Delays?
Lengthy onboard ground delays may be caused by severe weather, failed air traffic control programs, airport service issues, or airline operation difficulties. Delays can affect a single flight or multiple flights at one or many airports. They can also affect a single airline or airport or many airlines and airports.
Causes of Lengthy Onboard Ground Delays
Most causes of lengthy onboard ground delays are events that take airlines, airports, and air traffic control programs by surprise and beyond their preplanned and scripted procedures. A vast majority of the delays may be caused by events in other airports, and unpredictable variables such as weather and equipment or utility failures.
While onboard ground delays may have common causes, the exact nature and characteristics of specific delays may be turn out to be quite different. It is therefore important to ensure that contingency plans are flexible enough to account for the differences when defining and responding to ground delays.
Locations of Lengthy Onboard Ground Delays
Lengthy onboard ground delays generally occur during departure or arrival at large airports, or because of unplanned diversions at small airports (Swanson, 2011).
Mitigating Lengthy Onboard Ground Delays
The key to mitigating the effect of lengthy onboard ground delays and to ensure successful customer service during such delays is communication, collaboration, and coordination among airlines, airports, government agencies, and other aviation service providers.
These efforts are essential to reducing the frequency, duration, and impact on passengers of lengthy onboard ground delays. It is only by working together that this can be accomplished successfully.
It is important to note that each lengthy onboard ground delay event is unique, and airlines, airports, government agencies, and other aviation service providers will benefit most if individual contingency plans account for the different characteristics in adapting to changing conditions.
Passenger Needs
The needs of passengers’ onboard an aircraft or in an airport terminal during lengthy onboard ground delay events vary and normally require the attention of more than one party.
By understanding the needs of passengers during such delays, airports, airlines, government agencies, and other aviation service providers will be better placed to offer an effective response.
Figure 1 below shows basic customer needs and what is required to meet them while passengers are delayed in an aircraft or an airport terminal.
Figure 1: Basic Passenger Needs (Adapted from ACPE, 2008)
As depicted by the diagram, passengers affected by lengthy onboard ground delays generally require information which may include deplaning options, ability to communicate with friends, family, or colleagues, food and hydration, lavatory facilities, a clean environment, and other special services, as required.
The Contingency Plan
The stages outlined here provide a brief description of the contingency plan to deal with lengthy onboard ground delays at the Generation Next Airport. The main focus is to mitigate hardships for airline passengers during lengthy tarmac delays.
The plan contains separate sections covering maximum hold times during aircraft tarmac delays, provisioning of adequate food and water, medical attention and lavatory facilities during delays, communications to passengers, and an assurance of sufficient resources to implement the plan (VA, 2011).
The different steps of the contingency plan are briefly explained below. More details are presented much later.
On Aircraft Delays
Whenever there are delays, No aircraft will be allowed to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours before allowing passengers an opportunity to alight unless there is a safety or security related reason why the aircraft cannot leave its position on the tarmac to deplane passengers or the Air Traffic Control (ATC) advises that returning to a gate or any other disembarkation point would significantly disrupt airport operations.
For international flights, Virgin America will not permit aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than four hours, subject to the safety and security related exceptions set forth above.
To accomplish this directive, Generation Next will make the following assurances for domestic and international flights.
For domestic flights
When an aircraft has been on the tarmac for two hours, from the beginning of aircraft movement, the pilot in command will coordinate with the Operations Manager and local airport operations to arrange for a gate or hard stand, and will return to that gate/stand as soon as practical in order to deplane guests, unless it is evident that the aircraft will be able to depart the airport within 30 minutes from that two hour point.
Generation Next will not permit an aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours unless the PIC determines there is a safety or security related reason why the aircraft cannot leave its position on the tarmac to deplane guests or the air traffic control advises that returning to the gate or another disembarkation point would significantly disrupt airport operations.
For international flights
When an aircraft has been on the tarmac for three hours, from the beginning of aircraft movement, the pilot in command will coordinate with the Operations Manager and local airport operations to arrange for a gate, and will return to that gate as soon as practical so as deplane guests, unless it is evident that the aircraft will be able to depart the airport within 30 minutes from that three hour point.
Generation Next will not permit an aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than four hours unless the PIC determines that there is a safety or security related reason why the aircraft cannot leave its position on the tarmac to deplane guests or if the air traffic control advises that returning to the gate or another disembarkation point would significantly disrupt airport operations.
Adequate Food and Water
Generation next will ensure that all aircrafts have adequate food and portable water on board. In case of a tarmac delay, Generation Next will provide food as well as portable water to all guests, without any charge, no later than two hours after the aircraft has left the gate or touched down at the airport, as the case may be, unless the PIC determines that safety or security considerations can not allow such services to be provided.
Adequate Lavatory Facilities
All aircraft at the airport should be equipped with three lavatories and at least one lavatory must be operational at any particular time. Each airline must ensure that all the lavatories are serviced prior to each flight.
In the event that all lavatories become inoperable during a tarmac delay, the airline will return to the gate as soon as practical or make other arrangements to immediately service the aircraft to return the lavatories to operating condition, to ensure operable lavatory facilities remain available while the aircraft remains on the tarmac.
Medical Attention
Each airline will be required to make arrangements for medical attention to be provided to those guests in need during a tarmac delay. All aircrafts should be equipped with emergency medical kits and all flight attendant be required to undergo first aid training.
Should a medical situation arise where the training offered and the material provided is inadequate to address the situation, the pilot in command shall be notified and a third party communication link will be established. Depending on the guidance issued by medical consultants, the pilot in command will determine if the aircraft will return to a gate for further medical treatment.
Communications to Guests during Tarmac Delays
On all tarmac delay flights, the pilot in command will ensure that all guests receive notifications regarding the status of the delay every 30 minutes while the aircraft is delayed, including the reasons for the tarmac delay, if known.
Guests will also be notified beginning 30 minutes after the flight’s scheduled departure time and every 30 minutes thereafter that they have the opportunity to deplane from an aircraft that is at the gate or other disembarkation area with the door open if the opportunity to deplane exists.
Sufficient Resources
Generation next will ensure that sufficient resources required to fully implement the contingency plan are made available. Through a coordinated approach, Generation Next will see to it that all areas of the contingency plan are fully implemented.
Coordination with Airport Authorities as well as TSA and CBP Personnel
The key to the success of a contingency plan during a ground delay is real time shared situational awareness among all airlines, airports, government agencies, and other aviation service providers at that airport. This is best achieved through continuous communication and coordinated response efforts.
The coordinated response usually follows a general time phased approach, as responders and managers join efforts to attack the problem. When developing the contingency plan, the ground delay committee should consider the response mechanisms already in place, the plans they support, and any existing standard operating procedures so as to be able to identify any gaps in the planning (Biggs, 2009).
The contingency plan procedure will include information on how to initiate a coordinated approach to dealing with the problem at hand, establish airline, airport, government agency, and other aviation service provider roles and responsibilities, identify resources required during the lengthy onboard ground delay.
Use airport wide shared communications, including conference calls, Internet communication, web technology, and existing databases available, when conditions warrant the use of such means of communication, initiate and maintain collaboration among all airlines, airports, government agencies, and other aviation service providers, attend to passenger needs onboard aircraft and, once the onboard delay ends, address passenger needs after deplaning, such as rebooking flights and finding local accommodations, collect customer feedback, debrief key airport stakeholders after an event, continuously improve the process through after event reporting, training, and incorporation of best practices.
Generation next will coordinate the contingency plan with airport authorities including terminal facility operators where applicable at each large hub airport, medium hub airport, small hub airport and non-hub airport it currently serves in the United States.
The Airline will ensure that any new markets entered after plan is implemented will be fully advised of the plan before any service begins (Riley, 1995). Generation next will also coordinate the plan with all its regular diversion airports.
Plan Amendments and Recordkeeping
The contingency plan may be amended at any time in order to decrease the time for the aircraft to remain on the tarmac or for delivery of food or potable water or any other important services. All the necessary records will be retained and kept safely for future reference. Table 1 will be used to capture the amendments made.
Amendment Number
Effective Date
Date Entered
Entered By
Paragraph/Reference
Table 1: Record of Amendments (Adapted from ICPPT, n.d.)
Steps to Ground Delay Contingency Planning
All airlines, airports, government agencies, and other aviation service providers should follow the steps outlined in figure 2 to establish a method for ground delay contingency planning and to set forth the procedures necessary to update and refine the process on an ongoing basis.
Figure 2: Ground Delay Contingency Planning Model (Adapted from ACPE, 2008)
Step 1: Voice of the Customer
The ground delay committee should coordinate with selected stakeholders to understand passenger needs during a ground delay. This will serve as an effective input in the development of the overall contingency plan. The committee should also ensure that passenger feedback and lessons learned are used to enhance the overall response effort.
The committee should therefore make every effort to establish a real time and cost effective means by which passengers will be able to express their concerns about delays to the relevant service providers during or shortly after an event.
In addition, aviation service providers will partner with other service providers to offer effective services during a ground delay (ACPE, 2008). The ground delay committee should therefore promote dialogue among all partners so as to avoid erroneous assumptions regarding preferred solutions for passenger and partner concerns.
Step 2: Current Plans and Procedures.
During this initial step, the ground delay committee should meet to review and analyze the status of the existing contingency plan. The outcome of this effort will be a coordinated contingency plan that will then be put into action to deal with the problem at hand. The committee will be required to conduct the following important activities.
Risk Assessment
This is where by the committee performs a formal analysis or risk assessment so as to identify the types and scale of lengthy onboard ground delays and the associated airport and government agency response efforts. This assessment will then serve as the basis for all further activities.
Gap Analysis
The committee will then proceed to carry out a review of the existing contingency plans to identify areas of the plan that may need enhancement. This will help to identify ways through which service providers will be able improve their activities. At this stage, the committee will be able to incorporate into its analysis the lessons learned from recent lengthy onboard ground delays.
Enhance and Develop Plans and Procedures
After the analysis, the ground delay committee will then proceed to incorporate its results into a more coordinated contingency plan to be implemented.
Step 3: Pre-planning
At this stage, the ground delay committee will assess whether to include additional representatives on the committee, distribute copies of the revised contingency plan to all concerned airport service providers, and establish the steps to take to ensure proper resources and training are provided for successful execution of the contingency plan when a delay occurs.
Step 4: Training
Through appropriate training of key personnel, and relevant stakeholders, the ground delay committee will ensure that all service providers are implementing new policies, practices, and procedures in accordance with the reviewed contingency plan. Generally, service providers and government agencies will be responsible for their internal training efforts. The focus of the ground delay committee’s training should be to ensure that service providers and government agencies are able to provide a unified response during a delay.
Step 5: Execution
The ground delay committee will be required to effectively operate as a unified team during a delay by sharing situational awareness. In case of a ground delay, the committee will provide oversight for the overall response effort by facilitating a smooth interaction among all the service providers.
Step 6: Debrief
After a ground delay, the ground delay committee will be required to meet and review the effectiveness of the response effort, and incorporate lessons learned from the recent event into the contingency plan.
The committee also will also be expected to update the resource needs required to support future events, as well as update and administer revised training sessions as appropriate.
Step 7: Irregular Operations Network
The ground delay committee will schedule regular communications with its associated stakeholders and share the best practices identified during a ground delay as they become known to members of the community. Such dialogues may enable further enhancements to plans, resource staging, and training before the next delay.
Step 8: Aviation Industry Community of Practice
On a regular basis, the ground delay committee will collaborate with the larger aviation community to share experiences and lessons learned. This will enable the aviation community at large to learn from its fellow service providers who recently experienced a ground delay.
The above steps are all captured in figure 3.
Figure 3: Ground Delay Response Coordination (Adapted from ACPE, 2008)
Management of the Contingency Plan
The measures outlined in this contingency plan are applicable in cases of foreseeable events caused by unexpected interruptions in the airline operations caused by natural occurrences or other circumstances, which, in one way or another, may impair or totally disrupt the provision of air traffic services by Generation Next (ICPPT, n.d). The following arrangements will be in place to ensure that the management of the contingency plan gives the expected outcome.
Ground Delay Committee
The aviation service providers at each airport will be required to establish a ground delay committee comprised of representatives from all key aviation service providers. The committee composition will be based on the local aviation service provider structure and tailored to the local airport situation.
The committee central coordinating committee will be made up of an appropriate airport representative, who looks at the whole picture and is aware of the situation, an appropriate government agency representative, as well as public participants.
Other aviation service provider representatives will also form part of the team. Figure 4 shows the list of other people required so as to guarantee success.
Figure 4: Ground Delay Committee
Committee Goal
The goal of the committee will be to establish and enhance contingency plans through a collaborative decision making process. This is to ensure that all actions result in a unified level of customer care throughout all aviation service providers during the lengthy onboard ground delay events.
Committee Actions
The work of the committee will include developing the contingency plan, coordinate the pre-planning activities so as to agree on the committee’s actions before the delay, activate the contingency plan by agreeing on the committee’s actions during the delay, conduct debriefing sessions and ensure that the contingency plan is properly updated at the end of the delay, determine the most appropriate communication strategy to be used such as conference calls or face to face meetings.
Committee Responsibilities
The committee’s main responsibilities will include activating the contingency plan when lengthy onboard ground delays occur or are reasonably anticipated, facilitating shared communication for the entire duration of the delay, ensuring that the necessary resources are available during lengthy onboard ground delays, fostering an integrated and seamless approach among airport, airlines, government agencies, and other aviation service providers.
The committee will also focus on integration of business processes so as to ensure consistency and shared situational awareness. The committee will see to it that information is exchange information across all aviation service providers regarding who should provide appropriate services when a trigger event occurs.
The information exchange will also help to identify other stakeholders that may be requested to provide support services so as to deal with any outstanding needs identified. It will be critical for the committee to also recognize that airlines maintain operational control of their aircrafts.
Resources Required
There are various mechanisms that can affect joint communications and response during a lengthy onboard ground delay that require the appropriate resources from members of the ground delay committee.
The ground delay committee should take advantage of the existing resources and assets and this may include conference calls, internet communication and web technology and shared situational awareness tools, existing databases, and any other necessary facilities.
Airline Contingency Plan
The airline’s contingency plan will include a discussion and implementation of the following areas.
Communication
This is very essential and should involve all the stakeholders.
Communication with Passengers
Communication with passengers and all other affected parties will be frequent and very timely. This is the key to ensuring that any lengthy onboard ground delay is handled effectively and in a professional manner. Communication before, during, and after a lengthy onboard ground delay should be given a very high priority.
Airlines will also be required to make available any information relating to passenger resources and responsibilities in the event that travel delays are experienced.
This includes ensuring that information about the possibility of a lengthy onboard ground delay is made available to travel agents and directly to passengers before travel.
Passengers will also be provided with information about appropriate preparations for air travel such as bringing onboard essential items such as medical supplies, baby and child care products, communication tools, and other important items that are critical to health, nutrition, hydration, safety, and personnel comfort (Kazda & Caves, 2007).
With support from the airports, airlines will be required to develop processes for communicating the status of their flights to passengers using one or more of the available options.
Such alternatives include flight status lookup on the airline’s web site, telephone numbers that allow inquiries regarding the status of flights, proactive communications through voice or electronic messaging, up to date flight arrival and departure displays in airports, as well as information available to travel agents and others through global distribution systems.
Airlines will also be required to have processes that will provide up to date information to ensure that company employees will be able to pass on the information to passengers in a timely manner.
Communication with Service Providers
Airlines will be required to develop processes that will make it possible to directly communicate with other aviation service providers when a lengthy on the ground delay occurs.
Communication Procedures
When developing the contingency plan, the airline will be required to write procedures that will be followed to address communication with passengers regarding flight status, resources available in the event of a lengthy onboard ground delay, and information on planning for air travel as well as that for communicating with other aviation service providers.
Preplanning
Pre planning is a very critical step that must never be overlooked. To ensure success, good preplanning must be carried out. The planning may cover the following areas.
Anticipation of Lengthy Onboard Ground Delays
When practicable, airlines will choose not to board passengers until it is reasonably certain that the ground delay will not exceed a specific duration of time. However, lengthy onboard ground delays are unavoidable in certain situations. Therefore, when practicable, passengers will be advised to prepare accordingly for any eventuality.
Airlines will be required to make good use of processes to mitigate lengthy onboard ground delays and to minimize disruptions to customers as much as possible.
This should be clearly outlined in each airline’s contingency plan and should include allowing operations control center and station personnel to track arriving and departing aircraft on the ground, providing manual as well as automated alerting capability indicating lengthy onboard ground delays, making use of an airline diversion recovery process, in collaboration with air traffic control, as well as TSA and CBP, if this is applicable.
This process will allow the return of diverted flights to the destination airport when necessary.
Proactive Cancellation
Airlines may use an array of tools to reduce the incidence of lengthy onboard ground delays that are consistent with safety standards and an airline’s obligation to transport passengers.
One approach is to proactively cancel a flight when weather or other conditions make the likelihood of a lengthy onboard ground delay unacceptably high. In limited circumstances, a proactive cancellation may be appropriate if it minimizes the inconvenience to passengers and has a minimal impact on subsequent operations.
Before deciding to proactively cancel a flight, the airline should consider the travel season and the ability to rebook passengers within a reasonable timeframe.
If an airline determines that a proactive cancellation is appropriate, the airline should proactively communicate this information to the passengers by explaining the cancellation and the passengers’ options, preferably before their arrival at the airport. This will provide passengers with the ability to make informed decisions.
Every single airline should consider procedures for evaluating a situation to determine if a flight should be proactively cancelled, communicating such a cancellation to all passengers, rebooking or otherwise re-accommodating passengers who had been booked on flights the airline proactively cancelled.
Restriction Waivers
Another tool that airlines may use when certain conditions make travel disruptions likely is to offer waivers of ticket change and cancellation restrictions within a reasonable timeframe of the original travel date.
These waivers will allow passengers to change travel plans without penalty if the passenger determines he or she is unwilling or unable to bear the possible travel disruption, including a potential lengthy onboard ground delay.
In addition, airlines may offer customers various options for rebooking travel, such as airport kiosks, rebooking desks, ticket counters, travel agents, web sites, and call centers (Rothstein, 2007). This will allow passengers to choose the option that best meets their needs without having to queue at the airport, if this is a less desirable option for the passengers.
When developing a contingency plan, each airline should consider procedures for individually evaluating a situation to determine if a waiver of ticket change and cancellation restrictions is appropriate, communicating such a waiver to passengers, and rebooking passengers who take advantage of such a waiver.
Triggering Events
There are different types of triggers as explained here.
Initial Trigger
The initial trigger takes place when the flight crew or airline operations control center is alerted to a situation that may result in a lengthy onboard ground delay. The initial trigger ensures key airline personnel are aware of the delay and leads to initial communication between the flight crew, airline operations control center, and local airline and airport operations personnel.
The flight crew should notify the onboard passengers of the possible onboard ground delay issues to the fullest extent possible and make flight status announcements no less frequently than every 30 minutes for the duration of the delay.
Subsequent Triggers
Subsequent triggers take place when a predetermined period of time has passed after the onboard ground delay began. That time period may vary based on the airline, airport, or other variables. At that trigger, the flight crew and airline operations control center will evaluate the situation (Sharma, 2005).
The flight crew should regularly communicate with the onboard passengers no less frequently than every 30 minutes for the duration of the delay even if there is no change in status. At this point, the airline should notify other relevant aviation service providers of the delay and coordinate responses as necessary.
The airline also should assess gate and staffing availability. In some cases, the airline should consider remote pad deplaning if gates are unavailable, consistent with safety, passenger preference, and other situational constraints. The airline should notify the airport of the possible use of airport bus service and confirm response time.
Deplaning Trigger
The timing and the circumstances for the deplaning trigger may vary depending on experience at the particular airport and conditions such as weather, crew member time, passenger disposition, airfield situation, fuel, and other resource availability (Turnbull, 2008).
The crew members should continue to have regular communication with passengers, the airline operations control center, and ATC to determine if takeoff is imminent, and to keep passengers informed to the fullest extent possible.
The deplaning trigger occurs when current events warrant deplaning, such as when the flight crew determines that a medical emergency exists, a number of passengers need to deplane, or the passengers can no longer be supported with adequate food, water, toilets, hygiene, or accurate information.
If passengers will be deplaned, the flight crew confirms the deplaning plan and, if needed, verifies that buses or other equipment and associated staff are available. Finally, the airline should coordinate with other aviation service providers such as airport operations, TSA, CBP, as applicable so as to prepare to get passengers off the plane if it is safe, necessary, and practicable to do so.
Establishing Triggers
Triggers are specific events or points in time during a lengthy onboard ground delay when communication with involved stakeholders including passengers when appropriate is initiated, a decision is made, or an action is taken. Each airline has its own guidelines for establishing triggers. It is common for the triggers and the associated timelines to vary by airport, even within a single airline.
An airline’s internal guidance on trigger timelines should be consistent with its external commitments, both to passengers and to government agencies. Information on these commitments should be provided to airline employees, especially those who have the most direct contact with inconvenienced passengers (Grothaus, 2009).
At trigger points, airlines should consider a number of factors when making a determination. These include passenger disposition, including physical and emotional factors, national airspace system weather, crew member resource planning and legality, airfield situation and safety, gate availability, and hardstand availability.
Including Triggers in the Contingency Plan
When developing a contingency plan, each airline should include its trigger policies, the threshold for each trigger, and what actions to take or decisions to make at the trigger time. It is vital for each airline to include responses that consider the needs of the passengers.
During a Lengthy Onboard Ground Delay
Different measures may be taken at different times as discussed in the following subsections.
Before Boarding at a Gate
If an airline anticipates that a flight may be subject to a lengthy onboard ground delay before boarding passengers, it should make a general announcement to inform the passengers about the possibility of a lengthy onboard ground delay.
This will enable passengers to take appropriate actions, such as determining whether they want to board or seek alternate transportation, cancel travel plans, or reschedule the trip as long as this is consistent with airline ticketing policies (Stambaugh, 2009).
If a passenger decides to board, this communication will help the passenger to manage his or her expectations and prepare for a possible lengthy onboard ground delay. It also gives the passenger the ability to communicate with others regarding the delay, obtain food and drink before boarding, or make other preflight arrangements.
Airlines should enable passengers to make informed decisions by providing them with information regarding the possible consequences of their decision to decline boarding (Kilkenny, 2006). Such consequences could include rebooking difficulties and change fees.
After Boarding Before an Aircraft Leaves a Gate
In the unusual situation where an airline anticipates a flight may be subject to a lengthy onboard ground delay with the flight’s scheduled arrival delayed after boarding passengers but before leaving the gate, the airline should inform the passengers about the possibility of a delay.
This will enable passengers to determine whether they want to remain onboard, deplane to obtain food and drink, seek alternate transportation, cancel travel plans, or reschedule the trip consistent inline with airline ticketing policies. This communication will help passengers to manage their expectations and prepare for a possible lengthy onboard ground delay (Price & Forrest, 2008).
Airlines should enable passengers to make informed decisions by providing them with information regarding the possible consequences of their decision to deplane. Passengers on a delayed airplane at the gate should receive flight status announcements no less frequently than every 30 minutes for the duration of the delay, even if there is no new information to report.
After an Aircraft Leaves a Gate
Airlines may consider establishing plans that include a series of triggers. This will help facilitate additional communication with passengers, coordination within the airline, and coordination with the airport and other aviation service providers during a lengthy onboard ground delay after an aircraft leaves a gate. Airlines should consider the following in its plans.
In no event should a flight crew go more than 1 hour without company communications.
Triggers should be determined by each airline based on time and the specific scenario and the airport service criteria
Triggers may vary within and among airlines and should be tailored to accommodate operational variations.
The airline should coordinate its triggers with the appropriate airport, TSA, and CBP personnel if international flights arriving in the United States are involved.
Keeping Passengers Informed and Meeting Passengers’ Basic Needs
During a lengthy onboard ground delay, the crew members should keep passengers informed to the fullest extent possible and make flight status announcements no less frequently than every 30 minutes for the duration of the delay, even if there is no new information to report (Elias, 2010).
Consistent with applicable Federal regulations and when practicable, the flight crew members should make refreshments and entertainment available, make every reasonable effort to ensure the lavatories remain serviceable, allow the use of communication and entertainment devices, allow passengers to stretch and move about the cabin.
Responding to Passengers’ Medical and Special Needs
The crew members should respond to passengers’ basic medical needs when alerted about a situation. They should ensure that the needs of any passengers with special needs are communicated to other relevant decision makers.
Plan for Deplaning During an Event
During a lengthy onboard ground delay, the airline should have procedures in place for deplaning passengers following predefined trigger events or circumstances. It is essential for airlines to coordinate with airports so as to identify an appropriate means of deplaning. However, deplaning options will be subject to the availability of facilities, equipment, and personnel at the airport.
Addressing the needs of passengers after deplaning at the conclusion of a lengthy onboard ground delay may involve the airline, the airport, government agencies, local lodging and transportation providers, and other aviation service providers.
The airline’s role may include arranging for onward transportation, providing compensation in line with airline policies, returning the passengers’ checked baggage, and directing passengers to local lodging.
Attending to Passenger Needs during the Event
This may involve meeting the needs when passengers are onboard the aircraft or when they are in the terminal.
Attending to Passenger Needs with Passengers Onboard the Aircraft
The airline should have procedures for ensuring that identified passenger needs are fully met during a lengthy onboard ground delay. The airline should also have procedures to ensure that it can address the needs of any passengers with special needs.
Attending to Passenger Needs with Passengers in the Terminal
When passengers in the terminal area are impacted during a ground delay, each airline, in coordination with the other aviation service providers as appropriate, should have procedures for responding to passenger needs, including those of passengers with special needs.
Conclusion
Generally, contingency planning involves more than a simple arrangement to recover from unexpected events (Gustin, 2010). Besides ensuring that an organization is well prepared to deal with any eventualities, a contingency plan will also see to it that the organization’s critical functions continue to be available even during disruptions.
A good contingency plan is therefore a very critical requirement for airport operations. The contingency planning strategy has several elements in common which include emergency response, recovery procedures, resumption of operations, implementation, testing and revision.
Reference List
Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement (ACPE)., 2008. Development of Contingency Plans for Lengthy Airline On-Board Ground Delays. Washington, DC: Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement. Web.
Balanko-Dickson, G., 2006. Tips and Traps for Writing an Effective Business Plan. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Biggs, D. C., 2009. Guidebook for Conducting Airport User Surveys. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Bledsoe, B. E. & Benner, R. W., 2006. Critical Care Paramedic. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
DIANE Publishing Company (DIANE)., 2004. Guidelines for Contingency Planning for Information Resources Services Resumption. Gaithersburg, MD: DIANE Publishing.
Elias, B., 2010. Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization: An Overview of Legislative Action in the 111th Congress. Gaithersburg, MD: DIANE Publishing.
Florio, F. D., 2010. Airworthiness: An Introduction to Aircraft Certification. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.
Geering, W. A. & Amanfu, W., 2002. Preparation of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia Contingency Plans. Rome, Italy: Food & Agriculture Org.
Grothaus, J. H., 2009. Guidebook for Managing Small Airports. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Gustin, J. F., 2010., Disaster and Recovery Planning: A Guide for Facility Managers. Lilburn, GA: The Fairmont Press, Inc.
Indonesian Contingency Plan Project Team (ICPPT)., n.d. Indonesia Air Traffic Services Contingency Plan Jakarta Fir – Part I. Jakarta, Indonesia: Indonesian Contingency Plan Project Team. Web.
Kazda, A. & Caves, R. E., 2007. Airport Design and Operation. Oxford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Kilkenny, S., 2006. The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning. United States: Atlantic Publishing Company.
Myers, K. N., 1996. Total Contingency Planning for Disasters: Managing Risk… Minimizing Loss… Ensuring Business Continuity. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Pinal County (PC)., 2010. Special Events Emergency Contingency Plan Guide. Florence, AZ: Pinal County. Web.
Price, J. C. & Forrest, J. S., 2008. Practical Aviation Security: Predicting and Preventing Future Threats. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Riley, K. J. & Hoffman, B., 1995. Domestic Terrorism: A National Assessment of State and Local Preparedness. Santa Monica, CA; Rand Corporation.
Rothstein, P. J., 2007. Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan (2007 Edition). Quincy, MA: Rothstein Associates Inc.
Sharma, R.P., 2005. Industrial Security Management. New Delhi, India: New Age International.
Socha, T. M., 2002. Facility Integrated Contingency Planning: For Emergency Response and Planning. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc.
Stambaugh, H., 2009. An Airport Guide for Regional Emergency Planning for CBRNE Events. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Swanson, M., 2011. Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems. Gaithersburg, MD: DIANE Publishing.
Turnbull, K. F., 2008. Interagency-Aviation Industry Collaboration On Planning For Pandemic Outbreaks: Summary Of A Workshop, Part 3. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Virgin America (VA)., 2011. Virgin America Contingency Plan for Lengthy Tarmac Delays. Burlingame, CA: Virgin America. Web.
Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport is considered the busiest airport on the planet. The airport has expanded over the years to accommodate a large number of flights each year. After several years of growth, it became necessary to expand the airport in order to meet the overwhelming demand. This research paper will address the construction of the fifth runway at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The paper will focus on the May 2006 opening of the new runway at the airport. Furthermore, this research paper will highlight the impact that the construction had on the air transport system (Pascoe, 2001).
The expansion of the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the construction of the fifth runway were as a result of several reasons. To begin with, it was forecasted within the aviation industry that, at the rate at which the airport was growing, it would become necessary to have an extra runway. Additionally, it had become necessary for the airport to acquire a new runway in order to reduce the delays experienced at the airport. There were numerous delays as a result of the many flights that had to utilize the same airport resources at the same time. A new runway would also facilitate better customer service delivery at the airport. Customers would be served more efficiently, and the number of flight delays was bound to reduce with the construction of a new runway (GA, 2006)
The plan to add the fifth runway came about as a result of the foresight by the Atlanta Department of Aviation. The fifth runway cost $1.2 billion to construct. Constructing the fifth runway involved; constructing a runway that is 9000 feet long including its complementary components including the dual north and south as well as the parallel taxi ways. It also encompassed the construction of a 400 Ft Air Traffic Control Tower for the Federal Aviation Administration. Furthermore, it included the construction of a double bridge with the capacity to support a one million pound aircraft. Other components of the construction included underground utilities, lighting, and mitigation of wetlands and the relocation of roadways as well as high voltage power transmission lines (GA, 2006). In its construction, the fifth runway needed approximately 220,000 cubic yards of pure concrete. Additionally, up to 27 million cubic yards of soil needed to be transported to the runway’s construction site from a different location. However, despite the magnitude of the project and the limits that had to be stretched, the fifth runway was completed on schedule and was opened on 27th May 2006.
The fifth runway is credited as America’s most important runway. This is due to its complexity that is unrivaled the world over. The construction of the fifth runway has significantly impacted the aviation transportation system. To begin with, the fifth runway is among the few runways in the world that can comfortably accommodate the simultaneous landing of triple aircrafts. Additionally, the construction of the fifth runway came along with the construction of a runway bridge that holds the world record for its length. It will, therefore, ease the flow of air traffic across the entire national air transportation system. Despite the fact that the fifth runway was an engineering feat, it has set the standards for other metropolitan airports to emulate in future. The fifth runway made travelling much easier and more convenient than ever before.
References
GA, A. (2006). Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Celebrates the Opening of Fifth Runway. Web.
Pascoe, D. (2001). Airspaces. Scotland, ED: Reaktion.
This paper describes the different database structures used in various functional departments of Abu Dhabi Airport. This paper will begin by identifying four database structures used in at least four functional departments of Abu Dhabi Airport. After that, it will discuss how Abu Dhabi Airport benefits from the identified database structures.
This paper will then discuss the types of transaction processing that are possible with these databases. In addition, this paper will highlight how such database structures can be connected or linked, and the benefits and problems associated with this procedure.
Abu Dhabi Airport has eight different functional departments, and they include supportive services department, Air Navigation services department, Strategic and International Affairs department, Safety Affairs department, Air Accident Investigation department, Security Affairs department, Procurement Department, and Planning and Development Department.
The supportive services department is the chief database center of Abu Dhabi International Airport. As a result, it has the organization’s database dictionary. A database dictionary contains the logical structure of the organization’s information. All other departments gather relevant information such as clients’ information, orders, bookings, or security details from the Support Services department.
On the other hand, the Planning and Development department has a database structure which stores information of all the investors and business partners. In addition, this department keeps all relevant information related to planning and development.
The list of all investors and business associates is also stored in the procurement department. The procurement department also stores information of the current and future projects (Procurement Department, 2012).
Moreover, Strategic and International Affairs has a database structure which stores data related to all international business associates. This department also has a database structure with relevant information on potential threats to the organization’s international affairs, international relations, and operations.
Abu Dhabi Airport relies heavily on the database structures present in its different functional departments. First, the supportive services department has all the critical information required in the monitoring and running of the airport (Abu Dhabi News, 2012).
This department has database structures which store all the organization’s critical data. As the information center of the organization, the supportive services department necessitates the functioning of all other departments. As a result, the Airport can operate even if other departments have problems with their database structures.
The procurement department is another key department. Since it is involved in the management of procurement goods, works, and services, the database structure in this department helps to document all the current and future projects.
Thus, other departments like the Planning and Development department can easily track all the developmental activities that are ongoing or those that are yet to commence. On the other hand, Abu Dhabi airport relies heavily on the database structure present in the Planning and Development department.
This is because this department has crucial information on of all the investors and business partners. Such information enables the organization to stay in touch with its key business partners and also plan its activities accordingly.
Furthermore, the database structures present in the Strategic and International ensures that the organization stays in touch with its international business partners. In addition, the database structures in this department help in the identification of potential risks to the international affairs of the organization.
Looking at the database in the procurement department, it is evident that online transaction processing is commonly used. Potential contractors often submit their application fee via the department’s online transaction processing. In addition, the supportive services department uses online transaction processing to handle online payments.
This is very essential when clients submit payment for various services including flight tickets. On the other hand, the database structures present in the Strategic and International Affairs rely heavily on online analytical processing. This is exceptionally essential in building business intelligence.
Online analytical processing is used in database structures of the Planning and Development department (Qatar News, 2011). This also assists the department to gather business intelligence.
Most of the Airport’s database structures are linked via the internet (ACI, 2011). As a result, information from all the departments can be accessed through computer networking. Such networking is exceptionally beneficial to the airport’s performance and decision making processes.
Linking the department’ data structures saves time. The airport’s staffs do not need to move from one department to the other in order to collect the necessary information; rather, they can locate the intended information by simply logging into the prospective database structures. This has been necessitated through the use of the internet.
Connecting the various databases from the airport’s departments provides each department with timely information essential in decision making. Such connection also enables other departments to plan for their activities. It minimizes workload, delays, and improves the overall efficiency of the functional departments.
Such connection has its own demerits. Sometimes the internet’s service provider encounters technical problems which at times hinder internet connectivity. Such connection might also lead to the sharing of confidential information.
In addition, it may lead to the loss of company secretes and plans. Furthermore, such connections might compromise the airport’s operations in case one of the department’s database structures is misleading. Delays may also be experienced during system failure.
References
Abu Dhabi News (2012). Flying from the Best Airport in the Middle East. Web.
Airports Council International (ACI). (2011). Abu Dhabi International Airport. Web.
Procurement Department. (2012). Procurement and Tenders. Web.
Qatar News. (2011). Etihad Airways to Ho Chi Minh City. Web.
Critical analysis of the Heathrow Terminal 5 project
The provision of Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport aimed at establishing quality and advanced services and accessible transport channels to the visitors, investors, local population, political and economic agencies (Stretton 2002). This paper will analyze the managerial aspect of the terminal 5 projects from its initial stages of development to its final stages. On the other hand, this paper intends to illustrate the purpose and success of integration in the megaproject. There were numerous challenges that affected the construction of the Terminal 5 project from its initial stages (Caldwell, Roehrich & Davies 2009).
Research shows that the expansion proposals of the airport started in the early 80s at the state and government level. In 1995, a public based inquiry commenced facilitating a detailed and long term solution on the Heathrow airport. This indicates that there were numerous hindrances in the early stages of development and construction of the airport (Stretton 2002). The main cause of the initial hiccups resulted from the fact that the airport was originally a base for the British Army and the government wanted to create some space between the running and involvement of the army and the public.
The mid-stage of the ‘Terminal 5’ project involved the construction procedures in the development and establishment of the project. Numerous challenges were experienced during the entire process of construction and advanced planning of the terminal 5 projects. The provision of quality and timely delivery of the entire construction process witnessed some managerial hiccups. The differences between the management team and the project employees and differences among the management team presented numerous delays in the construction of the ‘Terminal 5’ project. The provision of Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport aimed at establishing quality and advanced services and accessible transport channels to the visitors, investors, local population, political and economic agencies.
The final stages of construction, before the grand opening, experienced detailed and authentic processes in the facilitation of the adequate and reliable establishment of the long-awaited project. Numerous people were used in the pilot study of the success and proper working condition of the terminal before the grand opening (Deakin & Koukiadaki 2009). The challenges were immense at this stage since there was no room for any mistake in the finalization of the construction of the megaproject. In addition, the project involved the integration of different systems, a collaboration of communication and transportation facilities and the satisfaction of the public together with the different state branches of governance.
According to Davies, Gann and Douglas, the success of a megaproject depends on the system integration and collaboration of different groups in the establishment of quality and long term solutions in the different industries (Davies, Gann & Douglas 2009). On the other hand, there exist different individual groups that operate and run parallel with other institutions or groups from different regions.
The centralization, integration and collaboration of these groups in instituting advanced growth and development procedures resulted in the achievement of a major establishment. I agree that the integration and collaboration of different transport and communication companies and institutions during the construction of the Terminal 5 project presented a major establishment on the importance of the two aspects on the success of the project (Szyliowicz & Goetz 2000).
Assessment of the project manager’s role in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project and Denver Airport project
Denver International Airport is the largest in the United States of America. It is located in Colorado and is ranked in the fifth position in service delivery and on the fifteenth position worldwide. On the other hand, Terminal Heathrow Airport is ranked as one of the most used airports worldwide and is located in the outskirts of London. The provision of Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport aimed at establishing quality and advanced services and accessible transport channels to the visitors, investors, local population, political and economic agencies. The commencement of the project facilitated different managerial hiccups and other internal and external forces. The two airports have similar and different managerial roles in their construction and in their establishments (Burke 2006).
The key differences between Terminal 5 and Denver Airport are the number of passengers that visits the two locations in a given period of time. It is clear that Denver Airport has a long area but serves little clients and passengers as compared to the busy Heathrow Airport. The system integration and collaboration of different groups in the establishment of quality and long term solutions in the different industries serve as the main advantage of Terminal 5 to Denver Airport (Davies & Brady 2007). This shows that the use of different systems from various institutions and companies in the establishment of a common goal and facility acts as one of the backbones that will assist in the major development strategies.
If I am the project manager at Denver and Heathrow Airport, I will facilitate the effective use of the integration and collaboration tools in the establishment of a long term solution to the communication and transportation industry.
References
Burke, R 2006, Project Management: Planning and Control Techniques, Burke Publishing, China.
Caldwell, D, Roehrich, JK & Davies, AC 2009, Procuring complex performance in construction: London Heathrow Terminal 5 and a Private Finance Initiative hospital, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, vol.15, no. 3, pp.178 -186.
Davies, A & Brady, T 2007, From Hero to Hubris Reconsidering the Project, Management of Heathrow’s Terminal 5, vol. 28, pp. 151-157.
Davies, A, Gann, D & Douglas, T 2009, ‘Innovations in megaprojects: system integration at London Heathrow terminal 5’, California Management Review, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 101-125.
Deakin, S & Koukiadaki, A 2009, Governance Processes, Labour Management Partnership and Employee Voice in the Construction of Heathrow Terminal 5, Industrial Law Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 365- 389.
Stretton, A 2002, ‘Program management: types of relationships between a program’s component Projects’, PM World Today, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 1- 5.
Szyliowicz, J & Goetz, AR 2000, De-escalating information technology projects: Lessons from Denver International Airport, Mis Quarterly, vol. 2, pp. 417- 447.
An airport can influence the community living near it in various ways, both positive and negative. On the one hand, it creates jobs and stimulates the economy by creating a stream of travellers to and from the location. On the other, this new stream of people can overload the location’s infrastructure, and the airport also generates noise and pollution that can significantly affect the environment and the inhabitants’ health. Due in part to the emerging paradigm of corporate social responsibility, airports worldwide have been taking measures to reduce their negative influence on the community without jeopardising their benefits. The Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, which is one of the busiest in the world, is an excellent example of how to benefit the community while minimising the damage. To illustrate its efforts and their results, this essay will review the socio-economic and environmental effects of the airport and provide further recommendations.
Socio-Economic Influence
Schiphol Airport generates massive amounts of traffic, which make it a significant contributor to the regional economy. InterVISTAS (2015) claims that it has processed 52.5 million passengers and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2013, in addition to the services it provides to airlines. As a result, it likely generates vast revenues, which are then distributed throughout the community in the form of staff salaries, various supply payments and other forms of spending. With that said, it should be noted that, according to the Royal Schiphol Group (2020a), its January-August traffic has declined by 66.2% compared to the same period in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has harmed aviation worldwide, is most likely the principal cause of this decline. The airport will probably recover from the situation, but it may take some time for it to do so.
The indirect impact figures of the Schiphol Airport support the notion that its income is spread through the surrounding region. Aside from various utilities and necessities such as food, an airport also needs to procure numerous other items, including transport, electronic devices, uniforms, cameras, lighting, and other minor products. As a result, the Schiphol Airport is connected to a vast network of companies, both domestic and foreign, which receive a substantial portion of its revenue. Estimates by Droogleever Fortujin et al. (2018) suggest that local supply for the airport creates jobs for 50,000 workers (or 40,000 full-time equivalents) worth €3.2 billion, bringing its total associated staff to 114,000 workers that contribute to 1.3% of the Dutch GDP. However, the airport’s socio-economic effects are not limited to this figure, as its induced and catalytic impacts also have to be considered.
It is challenging to evaluate the first category, as the earnings of the Schiphol Airport’s employees are not publicly known. Similar to most businesses, the facility does not disclose the exact figures. With that said, it is still possible to assume the overall economic effects of the workforce, at both the airport and its suppliers, and Droogleever Fortujin et al. (2018) do so and project an added value figure of €9 billion. These workers spend their earnings in the region, as well, further improving the overall circulation of wages in Amsterdam. When viewed from this perspective, it becomes apparent that the Schiphol Airport is a critical element of Dutch infrastructure that contributes heavily to its surroundings.
With that said, the existence of the airport has effects beyond its direct contribution to the economy. InterVISTAS (2015) states that over 500 global firms use its grounds for office, warehousing, retail and other spaces. The location is highly convenient because its extensive local and worldwide connections via road, rail and air facilitate efficient time usage for local and foreign workers. Per Graham and Dobruszkes (2018), the emergence of this district was the result of a concerted effort by the government and Schiphol Group to develop real estate at the airport and near it. As Drljača et al. (2020) note, such districts, which have become known as airport cities, ultimately generate dedicated production-oriented infrastructures. As a result, additional local businesses emerge, further increasing the employment in these areas and stimulating further growth.
The social effects of Schiphol Airport are extremely challenging to evaluate due to its location. It serves Amsterdam, which, per OECD (2017) data, was central to the Netherlands’ growth with a $49,676 GPD per capita in 2015. As such, the direct influence of the airport on the regional economy can be challenging to estimate, as the city houses a substantial portion of the nation’s GDP, and the Schiphol Airport is a single contributor of many. With that said, the airport’s role in this success cannot be understated, as it has contributed dramatically to Amsterdam’s emergence as a worldwide travel and commerce hub. InterVISTAS (2015) praises Schiphol’s rise to becoming one of the four major European airports despite its small domestic market. Without it, the people of Amsterdam and the Netherlands would likely not have seen their living standards increase to the current levels.
Environmental Effects
The most prominent environmental concern surrounding the Schiphol Airport is noise, which has been a source of substantial complaints. Aeroplanes, especially larger ones, tend to be loud, and airports, where they take off and land, are a significant source of noise pollution. Franssen et al. (2002) find that the airport noise led to annoyance, sleep disturbances, cardiovascular disease and reduced performance among nearby residents. Franssen et al. (2004) confirm this finding, surveying 11,812 people living within 25 km of the airport and discovering statistically significant increases in health complaints and medication use. Areas where aircraft was louder demonstrated lower self-reported health outcomes, reinforcing the notion that noise pollution was responsible. In addition to lowering the citizens’ quality of life, the noise is also likely to provoke complaints, creating tension between the airport and the community.
With that said, the studies mentioned above are substantially dated, and the Schiphol Airport has since had an opportunity to address the noise concerns. Berti Suman (2018) describes how, in spite of the Dutch government’s refusal to acknowledge the noise issue, the people living around the facility developed a citizen sensing approach that identified noise levels and associated risks. The airport’s management would eventually recognise the concerns of the community and respond with measures that are designed to minimise noise. Hansman (2015) describes a park designed to mitigate noise that was completed in 2013, featuring a large number of landscaped furrows that deflects various varieties of noise better than traditional barriers can. The project succeeded in halving the average noise emanating from the airport and bringing it within acceptable levels, but the airport is researching additional noise-reducing measures it can take.
Waste is another notable concern, as airports have the potential to produce substantial amounts of it due to the heavy passenger traffic moving through them. With that said, most of it is organic and biodegradable, and the only notable waste concern for Schiphol is related to illicit drugs that are dumped by criminals (Maurer & Brandt, 2019). However, that problem is crime-related and unlikely to generate substantial amounts of pollution on the national or regional scale. Moreover, this mode of waste is best managed by expanding the measures taken to pursue and stop drug producers as opposed to improving waste management systems. Presas (2017) also confirms that the airport has excellent waste and wastewater management systems in place, contributing to Amsterdam’s overall reputation as a clean city. As such, while it may have an impact on the environment, it is well-managed and minimised effectively.
Emissions, on the other hand, are a significant problem, typically originating from aeroplane engines and spreading throughout the region. Presas (2017) mentions frequent complaints regarding odour, which are attributed to traffic, as well as carbon dioxide emissions, though neither substantially damage the air quality in terms of health hazards. With that said, air quality still has to be managed, as it may have subtle and underresearched long-term effects on population health and the environment. Pirhadi et al. (2020) discover that airport departures, arrivals and associated activities, notably car traffic to and from the airport, contribute to 79.3% of the total polluting particle emissions near Schiphol. These problems, as well as those of odour, need to be addressed to improve the overall well-being and satisfaction in the region.
Schiphol Airport has taken multiple measures to address its emission issue, but success has been mixed. As Senguttuvan (2016) explains, it has attempted to address the 40 million passengers per year environmental limit by transferring short-haul traffic onto rail as opposed to air traffic. Trains can use electric engines, which reduce their emissions, and carry large amounts of passengers with relatively low energy expenditures, making them more environmentally attractive than cars or aeroplanes. Another measure the airport has undertaken in the past is a “green tax,” which is imposed on airlines for the pollution they produce. However, Jakhu (2016) highlights how, in 2008, Schiphol lost 18% of its passengers to neighbouring airports as a result of the tax-related price increase, which prompted the abolishment of the measure. Ultimately, other actions that do not affect airlines and passengers as severely are required.
As a major airport, Schiphol also consumes energy on a large scale to power its various amenities and operations. The Royal Schiphol Group (2020b) claims that it uses over 200 GWh of energy annually, which is the equivalent of 50,000 households. These requirements have a substantial effect on the power grid, and the methods involved in the production of this energy will likely generate additional waste and emissions. It should be noted that, per Benito and Alonso (2018), the Schiphol Group has committed to exclusively using wind-generated electricity at all four of its Dutch Airports. The environmental dangers of that mode of production, such as the condemnation of land, threat to animals, and noise, both auditory and electromagnetic, should still be considered (Govorushko, 2016). Ultimately, most modes of energy generation involve substantial amounts of pollution, for which the airport is at least partially responsible.
With that said, the airport is actively taking measures to address its energy consumption. Notable approaches that are highlighted by the company include replacing lights with LEDs and switching off systems (Royal Schiphol Group, 2020b). Sturgis (2019) describes an innovative approach known as the “circular economy” for the former, where the burden of designing the lighting system and maintaining it is on the supplier, incentivising them to develop efficient techniques to minimise their costs. The seller is only required to provide a given illumination level and paid for it regardless of the effort needed to achieve it, being driven to achieve it with the fewest light fittings. Sanseverino et al. (2016) add that the airport’s adjacent business district has been designed with sustainability and energy savings in mind, as well. Overall, Schiphol Airport’s effect on energy consumption and associated pollution is substantial, but it is taking measures to address the issue.
Socio-Economic Improvement Recommendations
The Schiphol Airport is a high-performing enterprise, as demonstrated as its status as one of the busiest airports in Europe and the world as a whole. It has likely achieved this success through excellent economic practices, and the paragraphs above demonstrate its recent attitude shift toward socially friendly practices. Gitto and Mancuso (2017) confirm this notion, collecting passenger opinions and only finding negative responses regarding the lounge as well as neutral views toward the food and beverage provided, with the rest positive. As such, all of these services warrant research and improvement into how they underserve customers and how their operations may be improved. In doing so, the airport would attract additional visitors and generate revenue based on the increased popularity of its amenities.
On that note, the passenger data collection methods employed by the Schiphol airport warrant additional consideration and potential refinement. The study by Gitto and Mancuso (2017) used blog data as an example of how information may be gathered online. It was able to produce 54 customer impressions for Schiphol alone while discussing five different large European airports. A more focused and well-funded analysis would likely create a superior quantity and quality of results, which can then be applied in practice. Moreover, it is unnecessary to restrict the search to blogs, as there is a large variety of sites that host customer reviews and impressions of locations and services. Overall, the Internet presents substantial opportunities for data collection, and, with the advent of modern technologies such as big data analysis, the Schiphol Airport can use it as a knowledge base for its service improvements.
There is likely a multitude of other advances that the airport can employ to improve its overall economic performance, but most of them will be relatively minor. The facility does not appear to have any fundamental large-scale flaws in its operations, as indicated by the steady growth of its business. Mastrigt et al. (2019) find opportunities for boarding improvement at Schiphol by overcoming the hand luggage, lack of preparation and communication bottlenecks, and most initiatives will be similarly small. By developing a multitude of small advances internally, the airport will be able to achieve substantial economic performance improvements over time.
The COVID-19 situation is the last item that warrants consideration, as it has damaged the Schiphol Airport’s performance dramatically. A large portion of flights worldwide is still cancelled, reducing the revenue that the facility generates without lowering the fixed costs of operation. The incurred losses also have a social effect, as the airport has been forced to lay off several hundred workers to cope with its €246 million loss in the first half of 2020 (The Associated Press, 2020). With the expectations of traffic returning to normal levels by 2023 at the earliest (The Associated Press, 2020), the Schiphol Airport will need to downscale its operations, at least temporarily, or develop other substantial cost-cutting measures. Some social damage is likely unavoidable, but it is unlikely that the airport will have the resources to compensate for it in the near future, and it should instead focus on economic recovery.
Environmental Recommendations
The Schiphol Airport already devotes substantial effort and resources to its noise mitigation efforts, as the construction of the park mentioned above demonstrates. However, while it has succeeded in reducing the noise, the fundamental issue has not been resolved. In the future, the airport will likely expand its traffic, and the current efforts may be inadequate for keeping it within acceptable levels. Moreover, further improvements in current reduction efforts would probably be appreciated by the community living near the airport. Upham et al. (2003) define this issue as the environmental limit on the growth of airports. However, Ho-Huu et al. (2017) propose an algorithm for optimal departure routes that enable traffic increases while reducing noise and emission levels. Through measures such as the one indicated, concurrent growth and environmental performance improvements can be achieved with limited investment.
There is also some potential for optimising arrivals to reduce the amount of emissions produced and create overall efficiency. Ellerbroek et al. (2018) propose a continuous descent approach that they claim can save 39 million kg of fuel annually, increasing CO2 savings by over 123 thousand tonnes. In a constant descent, the aircraft increasingly relies on its momentum to move as opposed to engines, reducing the usage of the latter and thereby saving fuel. With that said, the practice will slow the pace at which the aircraft descends, as the goal is to minimise fuel use as opposed to landing as soon as possible. Ellerbroek et al. (2018) admit that the approach can add significant flight time to the current figures, which can create dissatisfaction among passengers. As such, the airport will have to consider the trade-offs of the proposal before committing to a decision.
Regardless of the airport’s quality of waste and wastewater treatment system, there are always opportunities for further growth and improvement. Potential problems can be addressed, and innovative methods that further reduce the pollution produced by the airport should be implemented when they become available. Caspeele et al. (2018) discuss the implementation of a predictive sewage system maintenance system at Schiphol that use digitally collected data to identify potential problem areas and address them before any failures can occur. Currently, the airport conducts repairs after breakdowns are determined, creating the potential for waste leakages that harm the environment. Lodder and de Roda Husman (2020) also highlight the possibility of using wastewater to track the spreading of diseases, notably COVID-19. As a travel hub, the Schiphol Airport can supply substantial quantities and qualities of information regarding the spreading of epidemics and the measures that are effective at stopping it.
The energy usage matter can be challenging to resolve, as the airport has limited opportunities for savings due to its busy operations. As such, this essay would recommend investigating alternate power sources that supply it with the required energy without creating excessive pollution. The option that the author would recommend involves nuclear energy, which is inexpensive to produce compared to the alternatives and generates little to no pollution. Nuclear power (2020) states that, while the Netherlands currently only possess one atomic reactor in Borssele, many private investors are interested in the prospect of establishing new plants. The airport could collaborate with the broader region to commission the construction of a local plant that supplies power for Schiphol and Amsterdam.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Schiphol Airport is a largely positive force for the surrounding community. It generates a large number of jobs and contributes to a substantial portion of the nation’s GDP. At the same time, while there have been environmental issues in the past, the airport has taken measures to address them, including an extensive noise-reducing landscaping project. As one of the busiest and most successful airports on the planet, the Schiphol Airport has developed a robust relationship with the community that can be useful to other facilities worldwide as a reference. With that said, issues such as COVID-19 still affect it strongly, and opportunities for improvement are present. The airport may be able to enhance and expand its future operations further by considering some of the recommendations presented.
References
Benito, A., & Alonso, G. (2018). Energy efficiency in air transportation. Elsevier Science.
Berti Suman, A. (2018). Challenging risk governance patterns through citizen sensing: the Schiphol Airport case. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 32(1), 155-173.
Caspeele, R., Taerwe, L., & Frangopol, D. M. (Eds.). (2018). Life cycle analysis and assessment in civil engineering: Towards an integrated vision. CRC Press.
Drljača, M., Petar, S., Raad, M., & Štimac, I. (2020). The role and position of airport city in the supply chain. Production Engineering Archives, 26(3), 104-109.
Droogleever Fortuijn, J. C., De Klerk, L. A., Van Dijk, J., De Mulder, E. F. J., & De Pater, B. C. (2018). The Netherlands and the Dutch: A Physical and human geography. Springer International Publishing.
Ellerbroek, J., Inaad, M., & Hoekstra, J. M. (2018). Fuel and emission benefits for continuous descent approaches at Schiphol. ICRAT 2018: 2018 International Conference on Research in Air Transportation.
Franssen, E. A. M., Staatsen, B. A. M., & Lebret, E. (2002). Assessing health consequences in an environmental impact assessment: The case of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 22, 633-653.
Franssen, E. A. M., van Wiechen, C. M. A. G., Nagelkerke, N. J. D., & Lebret, E. (2004). Aircraft noise around a large international airport and its impact on general health and medication use. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 61, 405-413.
Gitto, S., & Mancuso, P. (2017). Improving airport services using sentiment analysis of the websites. Tourism Management Perspectives, 22, 132-136.
Govorushko, S. (2016). Human impact on the environment: An illustrated world atlas. Springer International Publishing.
Graham, A., & Dobruszkes, F. (2018). Air transport – a tourism perspective. Elsevier Science.
Hansman, H. (2015). This crazy land art deflects noise from Amsterdam’s airport. Smithsonian Magazine. Web.
Hiemstra-Van Mastrigt, S., Ottens, R., & Vink, P. (2019). Identifying bottlenecks and designing ideas and solutions for improving aircraft passengers’ experience during boarding and disembarking. Applied Ergonomics, 77, 16-21.
Ho-Huu, V., Hartjes, S., Visser, H. G., & Curran, R. (2017). An efficient application of the MOEA/D algorithm for designing noise abatement departure trajectories. Aerospace, 4.
InterVISTAS. (2015). Economic impact of European airports: A critical catalyst to economic growth. Web.
Jakhu, R. S. (2016). Routledge handbook of public aviation law. Taylor & Francis.
Lodder, W., & de Roda Husman, A. M. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater: Potential health risk, but also data source. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 5(6), 533-534.
Maurer, H. H., & Brandt, S. D. (Eds.). (2019). New psychoactive substances: Pharmacology, clinical, forensic and analytical toxicology. Springer International Publishing.
Nuclear power in the Netherlands. (2020). World Nuclear Association. Web.
OECD. (2017). The governance of land use in the Netherlands: The Case of Amsterdam. OECD Publishing.
Pirhadi, M., Mousavi, A., Sowlat, M. H., Janssen, N. A., Cassee, F. R., & Sioutas, C. (2020). Relative contributions of a major international airport activities and other urban sources to the particle number concentrations (PNCs) at a nearby monitoring site. Environmental Pollution, 260.
Presas, L. M. S. (2017). Transnational buildings in local environments. Taylor & Francis.
Royal Schiphol Group. Monthly transport and traffic statistics August 2020. Web.
Sanseverino, E. R., Sanseverino, R. R., & Vaccaro, V. (Eds.). (2016). Smart cities atlas: Western and Eastern intelligent communities. Springer International Publishing.
Senguttuvan, P. S. (2016). Principles of airport economics. Excel Books.
Sturgis, S. (2019). Targeting zero: Whole life and embodied carbon strategies for design professionals. RIBA Publishing.
The Associated Press. (2020). Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport cuts hundreds of jobs. ABC 8 News. Web.
Upham, P., Callum, T., Gillingwater, D., & Raper, A. (2003). Environmental capacity and airport operations: Current issues and future prospects. Journal of Air Transport Management, 9, 145-151.
Wang, D., Zhao, X., Shen, L., & Yang, Z. (2020). Industry choice for an airport economic zone by multi-objective optimisation. Journal of Air Transport Management, 88.
This document presents an evaluation of the security systems at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) airports. The UAE has emerged as one of the leading trade and commerce centers of the Middle East. The country has neighbors such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and others which have seen increased militancy and terrorist activities. Therefore, airport security in the UAE must manage the latest challenges and threats to passengers, airport infrastructure and assets, and cargo. The dissertation will use a mixed-method approach with primary and secondary research methods. Secondary methods will review the literature of airport security systems and the findings will be used to design a semi-structured interview instrument with open and closed-ended questions. Respondents for the interview include airport security managers who manage different departments and IT experts. Findings from the primary research will be triangulated with secondary research outcomes, and the results will help to make recommendations for airport security improvements in the UAE.
Topic of Literature Review
This section reviews the literature on airport security, societal changes, technology upgrades, and the new threats that airports face. The findings will help with developing an understanding of the subject and with creating the semi-structured interview instrument.
Research Background
The UAE is at the center of Middle East trade and commerce, serving as the hub for many multinational oil corporations and a large number of western luxury and retail brands. The Arab state has 21 airports catering to the high volume of passenger and cargo traffic. These include airports at Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Mustafa, Al Futaisi, and many more. In 2017, Dubai alone processed more than 88.2 million passengers, and the total inward arrivals were more than 100 million (Saadi 2018). Airfreight traffic cargo movement is high, and Abu Dhabi handled 800,000 tonnes of cargo in 2016. Airfreight traffic is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2 % between 2017 and 2021 (Rahman 2017). Airfreight is shipped in containers and it is possible to smuggle drugs and arms. Most of the passengers visiting for business, leisure and recreation, and for tourism. The assessment, however, is that some passengers may have illegal intentions such as smuggling of drugs, arms, and bullion. It is also possible that some passengers are affiliated with international terror organizations.
Ensuring safe passage for travelers is of prime importance and while the leading Middle East carriers have had very few incidents of accidents or other events, airlines consider only the number of incidents, accidents, hijackings, or bombings reported on their flights. Potential terrorists and illicit material may pass through these airports unchecked. The UAE, with its high growth rate, serves as a gateway to the Middle East, and it offers smugglers or terrorists a convenient way to enter the Middle East, Europe, or the Americas. Over the past several years, 93 fatal accidents have occurred with Middle East carriers, resulting in 4,692 deaths (Dudley 2016). These statistics are relative since they do not reveal the number of illegal goods and arms smuggled into and out of the UAE. The figure could be expected to reach very high volumes if all such violations were detected.
It appears that the UAE serves as a conduit for a large number of illegal transfers of arms and even nuclear weapons technology and equipment. It is possible that some of the weapons could be diverted and used in the US, Europe, or the UAE. While the UAE government denies responsibility and knowledge of such traffic, media reports indicate that such incidents happen (MEE Staff 2017).
According to Kaspersen (2016), airport security faces clear and present dangers and threats in several areas. These include cyber attacks on reservation and airport systems that can crash the system or cause aircraft accidents by disabling landing and navigation systems. Criminals are one step ahead of the security agencies and they use identity theft, impersonation, spoofing, and other hacking methods to help a terrorist with munitions board a flight. Baggage and body scanning equipment detect metal objects, but plastic and liquid explosives in small quantities can be concealed and carried on aircraft and detonated. The use of drones and self-driving cars has allowed terrorists to reach the tarmac area. While face recognition software is available, it is slow and it cannot match millions of records from global databases. These trends indicate that airport security, which is overburdened with a large number of passengers, needs to develop adaptive systems that are fast and reliable.
Theory and Models
Several theories and models are available that can be applied to understand airport security. The ‘Concept of Operations’ model considers four interlinked usage scenarios. These are capacity planning, operational planning and design, airport performance, and security policy and planning (De Lange, Samoilovich, and Rhee 2013). The basic idea of this model is that an airport is a complex machine where all activities are interlinked. Security underlies all these activities, implying that each activity must be designed for functional capability and security considerations. This means that when capacity planning of the airport is conducted, with tasks such as airplanes landing, taking off, parking, and undergoing maintenance, security aspects should also be considered.
Security policy and planning is based on probabilistic risk assessment in which different scenarios of security incidents are simulated for each activity area. Capacity planning is done by adopting one of several models such as the deterministic queue model, Markov model, stochastic queue model, hierarchical control theory, and others. Technology is available to detect suspicious objects, people, and events. It is important that security systems become a central part of the activity management, and it should not be considered as a mere extension of it (Shafieezadeh, Cha, and Ellingwood 2015). One of the major models used in designing airports in the agent-based model. This model helps to define flows in all operational areas such as ticketing, gates, baggage security, restaurants, immigration, and others. Figure 1 illustrates the flows in an airport.
Figure 2.1 Agent-Based Model (De Lange, Samoilovich, and Rhee 2013:159).
An important factor while designing airport security systems is to understand the peak load time. Some airports see the highest number of aircraft landing and taking off during the early and late hours. Queues will be longer at such times and all services including security will experience the maximum load. Airport security needs to be in its maximum state of readiness at this peak time (Wu and Mengersen 2013).
New Threats and Trends in Airport Security
Airports and aircraft have seen a large number of threats, attacks, hijackings, and bombings by suicide bombers or through bombs placed in cargo. These threats are only a part of the overall threats that airports face. Some of the threats are laser illumination, where powerful green and blue hand-held or tripod-mounted lasers are pointed at the cockpit, blinding pilots. More than 200 such attacks occur every day in the US. These attacks are carried out when a plane is landing, vulnerable time, and helicopters also face these attacks. The windscreen goes opaque and there is a high risk of accident (Esler 2016).
Although passengers are checked for drugs and other banned materials, insiders pose a greater threat. These insiders include catering and baggage handling crews, maintenance and cleaning staff, temporary staff, and cabin crew that have access to the tarmac and the aircraft. Verification and monitoring of contract staff is a major issue. Other threats that need to be considered are aircraft bombing through passengers, baggage, and cargo; armed attacks; leave-behind-devices; vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices; cockpit doors; passenger screening and profiling; and many others. In recent years, drones have come to pose a great threat since these devices are manually operated and they are not expensive. They can be fitted with radio-controlled bombs and made to fly near an aircraft or into its path and then detonated. While threats and attacks have been around for many decades, the methods for delivering the threats have changed (Price and Forrest 2016). Liquid bombs or explosives made from fluids and gases can escape detection by standard airport scanners, creating a dangerous security threat (Hoijtink 2017).
Societal Changes
With the introduction of budget airlines and tours, the number of passengers has grown tremendously. As noted in section 2.1, with more than 100 million passenger inflows, screening and verifying passengers becomes very difficult. People have become ‘mobile’ and air travel has become convenient. As a result, the load on airports and security has increased, while funding for airport security has not seen a proportionate rise. Many airports in the US use facial recognition, fingerprint, and iris identification systems, where the face of a passenger is scanned and compared with database records. Success depends on matching photographs in the database with the passenger being processed. If a male passenger has grown a beard or mustache, then the system can fail. These systems are useful and their accuracy can increase when very fast matching is possible and the databases of airport systems from different countries are linked (Ali et al. 2015).
Threats from Advanced Computing
Advances in computing have made airports a connected world where almost all transactions and events are managed through computer networks, leading to increased cyber attacks or malfunctions. A recent incident in May 2017 with British Airways saw 800 flights grounded (Scott and Trimarchi 2017). Assets such as air traffic control systems, passenger screening and ticketing systems, cargo handling stations, and many other airport security systems and databases are under threat of attack. Attackers can be hackers with a profit motive, terrorists, insiders or contract workers and airline staff, disgruntled employees, organized crime syndicates, ransomware hackers, and several other types. If the cyber system is made highly secure, then data flow suffers. Many airports in the US and Europe have developed interconnected systems that try to reduce vulnerabilities (Johnson et al. 2016).
Airport security policies
The European Commission has established a common EU aviation security policy and regime. This policy covers all operational and functional aspects, supply chain and logistics, passenger processing, baggage handling, all types of aircraft, and all other areas related to airport security. As an example, it specifies if toothpaste, gels, and perfumes are considered liquids. However, the policy does not specify performance parameters and technical specifications of the security system apparatus. While the policy is extensive, implementation, and auditing of the security policy are not always accurate. As a result, security threat events occur often, and each time the security system fails in identifying the threat before it occurs (European Commission 2018).
A risk assessment matrix helps security management to assess terror groups, organized crime, anti-system groups, social conflicts, radicals and religious sects, and other threats by creating a profile of the group. This profile details information such as leadership, will and means, infrastructure and funding, sympathizers, and combat mechanisms. Threat levels are assigned such as low, medium, and high (International Civil Aviation Organization 2018). It is important to construct a risk assessment matrix at the required level of detail, update it when required, and follow risk mitigation methods. Fig 2.2 illustrates a sample risk assessment matrix.
Figure 2.2 Risk Assessment Matrix (International Civil Aviation Organization 2018:A20).
Variables from the review
The review has brought out several variables from different categories. A partial list of these variables is presented in Table 2.1 and the list will be expanded in the dissertation. These variables will be tested in the research.
Table 2.1 Partial List of Variables.
Category
Variables
Passenger scanning
Method of scanning
Method of verification
Iris/ Face/ Fingerprint scanning
Profiling
Others
Baggage and cargo
X-ray
Ultrasound
Radio imaging
Radioactivity detectors
Others
Staff
Personal verification
CCTV cameras
Frisking
Cybersecurity
Firewall
Incident reporting
Policy
Risk assessment matrix
Operational areas
Functional areas
Logistics
External groups profile
Airport periphery
Perimeter security
Drones
Lasers
Auto driven vehicles
Objectives
The research objectives framed are:
Evaluate the threats that airports face and methods adopted by the UAE to recognize and address them.
Evaluate the extent of readiness of UAE airport security to handle major incidents.
Identify methods used by international airports in the US and Europe and the extent to which UAE airport security systems match them.
Make recommendations to fill gaps between international and UAE security systems.
Project Outcomes
The expected project outcomes are that gaps and shortcomings in UAE airport security systems and their ability to identify new threats and methods to fill these gaps will be documented. Recommendations to fill these gaps will be made and when these recommendations are implemented, airport security will improve.
Why are you interested in the project?
The UAE has become the central hub of aviation for the Middle East. UAE airports serve as a conduit for agents of trade, commerce, and tourism. While UAE airports have not witnessed any major security incidents, any major event could damage the brand’s reputation for safety. Therefore, airport security must be the best in the world and ensure safe passage. This project will help to increase airport security and maintain the image of our airports.
What are the key questions the project attempts to answer?
The research question proposed is “How effective are UAE airport security systems in identifying and preventing security violations, and what measures can be adopted to improve them?”
What is the status of air security at UAE reports and how it can be enhanced?
What are the possible risks that UAE airports face?
What security systems are used by airports across the world?
In what areas should security be enhanced at UAE airports?
What specific technologies and policies should UAE airports consider?
What Research Methods do you intend to use?
The intention is to use secondary and primary research methods. The secondary research will use a literature review to obtain information about current air security threats and the methods used by Western airports to manage them. Based on these inputs, a semi-structured interview instrument will be designed. Respondents for the instruments will be airport security officers from various UAE airports and IT experts. Their responses will be analyzed using keyword associations, and the results will be triangulated with the literature review. Conclusions and recommendations will be drawn from these studies. Details of the research methods are described in the following sections. The Research Onion Framework suggested by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2015) is used in this study. The framework is illustrated as follows.
Figure 7.1 Research Onion Framework (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill 2015:108).
Research philosophy: Research philosophy is about the development of knowledge, its nature, and its relation to the world. Several research philosophies are available, including positivism, realism, interpretivism, and pragmatism. For this research, the interpretive philosophy has been selected, as interpretive research matches the goals of understanding security threat events and the behavior of actors, and identifying multiple causes and effects. In this research, the objective is to find trends in airport security, assess if the UAE follows them, and make recommendations. Along with secondary research, primary research is planned. Interpretive research will help to analyze and interpret the results, cross-reference findings with the literature, and conclude.
Research approach: Research approaches include deductive and inductive types. A deductive or top-down approach is used to form a theory and hypothesis, collecting and testing data to prove the theory. An inductive or a bottom-up approach is about collecting and analyzing data to draw observations and then forming conclusions. This research uses the inductive approach since we do not already know the trends in aviation security or the gaps in UAE airport security. The inductive approach will be appropriate for gathering and analyzing data, interpreting the results, comparing them to existing literature, and drawing conclusions (Bryman and Bell 2015).
Research Strategy: The research method defines the methods and processes used to collect and analyze data. Section 3 presented the research objectives and section 6 listed the key questions. The research strategy focuses on meeting these objectives. The plan is to use a semi-structured instrument to obtain answers to the questions. This method is used along with interpretive and inductive methods. The reason for using a semi-structured instrument is that it allows open and closed-ended questions to be posed to respondents, who can provide answers as per their understanding of the issue. Thus a diversity of opinions and views can be obtained (Hair 2015).
In this research, the theme of airport security has many factors, and each respondent will have personal views about the importance and strength of the dimensions. The survey instrument will help in capturing different perspectives. The survey instrument will have closed and open-ended questions. These questions will be based on the variables listed in Table 2. A partial list of closed-ended questions is given in Table 7.1, and these questions will be detailed in the dissertation.
Table 7.1 Partial List of Closed-Ended Questions.
Category/ Questions
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Passenger scanning
Passengers, males, females, children, babies are very thoroughly scanned for bombs, contraband, etc.
Passenger verification is done when issuing the boarding pass
Passenger verification is done when tickets are booked
Passenger verification is done with a cross-reference to criminal databases
Responses to the questions will be analyzed by using a 5-point Likert scale. Scores will be calculated for each question and response by assigning a numerical value such as Strongly Disagree 1, Disagree 2, Neither Agree nor Disagree 3, Agree 4, and Strongly Agree 5. Table 7.2 presents a partial list of open-ended questions (Eriksson and Kovalainen 2015).
Table 7.2 Partial List of Semi-Structured Questions.
Category/Questions
Keywords Themes
Passenger Scanning
How effective are the passenger scanning methods used in UAE airports? Response:
How much time is spent on scanning each passenger and is this sufficient? Response:
Keywords from each respondent for each question will be extracted and added to a keyword list of all respondents for each answer. These will be analyzed by using keyword analysis with cross-references to secondary literature.
What primary and/or secondary data sources do you intend to use?
Secondary data sources are books, journals, and reliable websites. Information will be accessed from multiple sources and arranged as per their significance and usefulness. These will be analyzed to draw out key observations.
Primary data sources are airport security managers in the UAE and if possible from major airports in Europe. A sample size of 10 is considered. These respondents will be contacted personally and a request for an appointment will be made, and the questions will be administered personally. If a face-to-face meeting is not possible, then they will be contacted by email or telephone, and the questions will be mailed to them. A mail will be sent, requesting them to complete the instrument. Responses will be collected and analyzed.
Please provide a draft chapter heading for your report
The following chapters are proposed for the final dissertation.
Chapter 1. Introduction.
Chapter 2. Literature Review. A detailed literature review with a full list of variables will be given.
Chapter 3. Methodology. The complete methodology along with the full list of open and closed-ended questions will be given.
Chapter 4. Analysis of findings. A detailed analysis of the semi-structured interview for open and closed-ended questions will be given.
Chapter 5. Discussion. Findings from the analysis of interviews will be triangulated with literature review observations and a summary of findings will be presented.
Chapter 6. Conclusions and recommendations. Conclusions will be drawn and recommendations for UAE airports will be made.
Plan
A Gantt chart with a list of major milestones and their schedule is given in Fig 11.1.
Figure 11.1 Gantt Chart of Project Plan.
List of References
Ali, A.S.O., Sagayan., V, Saeed, A.M., Ameen, H., and Aziz, A. (2015) ‘Age-Invariant Face Recognition System Using Combined Shape and Texture Features.’ IET Biometrics 4, (2) 98-115.
Bryman, A., and Bell, E. (2015) Business Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
De Lange, R., Samoilovich, I., and Van Der Rhee, B., (2013) ‘Virtual Queuing at Airport Security Lanes.’ European Journal of Operational Research 225, (1) 153-165.
European Commission (2018) Aviation Security Policy. Web.
Hair, J.F. (2015) Essentials of Business Research Methods. London: ME Sharpe.
Hoijtink, M. (2017) ‘Governing in the Space of the “Seam”: Airport Security after the Liquid Bomb Plot.’ International Political Sociology 11, (3) 308-326.
Johnson, C., Shreeve, M., Sirko, P., Delain, O., Ruhlmann, O., Vautier, E., Graham, B., and Meloni, M.T. (2016) Defending European Airports: Cyber-Physical Threat Analysis in Total Airport Management. In: 11th International Conference on System Safety and Cyber Security (SSCS 2016), London, UK. 2016.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A. (2015) 7th Edn. Research Methods for Business Students. London: Pearson.
Scott, B.I., and Trimarchi, A. (2017) ‘The Digital Aviation Industry: A Balancing Act Between Cybersecurity and European Consumer Protection.’ Air and Space Law 42, (4) 443-462.
Shafieezadeh, A., Cha, E.J., and Ellingwood, B.R. (2015) ‘A Decision Framework for Managing Risk to Airports from Terrorist Attack.’ Risk analysis 35, (2) 292-306.
Wu, P., and Mengersen, K. (2013) ‘A Review of Models and Model Usage Scenarios for an Airport Complex System.’ Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 47, 124-140.
Cold and ice are a major problem in airports of the cold countries – especially in places like Ottawa. The first thing for the team is to understand the twin problems of de-icing and anti-icing, how they can be addressed, and lastly the gravity of the task and the serious dangers involved if the work is not done properly. Put simply de-icing is the removal of the ice and frost that already adheres to the framework of the aircraft and anti-icing is the taking of preventive measures to see that ice does not form from the time of de-icing to the taking off the moment when the plane is airborne. This is done with the help of some special de-icing and anti-icing fluids.
Ice that forms on the framework of the aircraft and its engines or air inlets needs to be removed. This is de-icing. Anti-icing is steps taken to prevent the further formation of these conditions. Water freezes at 0°C. If the temperatures near the plane drop below this, ice forms from drops of water as soon as it comes in contact with the plane. The icing on the frame reduces the performance, causes loss of lift, alters controls, and in the end stalls the aircraft. It could also cause weakening or loss of communication (Novotny, 2005).
There are two types of ice formation or accretion. Rime ice forms when extra cool water drops freeze upon contacting the sub-zero surface. The small droplets instantly freeze trapping air. Rime ice is rough and brittle having a white color from afar. Rime ice collects on the edges and can harm aerodynamics obstructing air intakes by the engine. Rime has no particular shape but coats the edges roughly. As development advances it protrudes into the air although there are limitations on the size of the “horn” it forms (Ellis, 2003).
Under such parameters, it is found that ice, glazed or clear; tends to accumulate with the help of bigger cold droplets that take more time to solidify. The ice is clear and transparent. Freezing is relatively slow allowing the even spread of the water. It causes the formation of an ice sheet that may not be easily detected. The speed of solidification of the droplets depends on the size of the globules. A larger water globule takes more time to freeze and the ice becomes more transparent. Sometimes when the weather is extreme the size of ice on the edge may look like a “double ram’s horn” at various angles and on multiple locations on the exterior of the aircraft. Glaze ice being large it has more of a structure than rime ice (Novak, 2000).
Mixed or cloudy ice is the name given to ice formation that has the appearance of both rimes as well as clear ice. It is the most common form of accretion with either of the two characteristics dominating. There are other types of ice formations – supercooled large drops, runback ice formation on the tail and wings of the aircraft, and inter-cycle ice that forms between cyclic activation of a mechanical or a thermal de-ice system. Thus ice formation is a vital part of aerodynamics – a complex issue because of the various types of ice formation and the dangers connected with it (Fisher, 2006).
De and or anti-icing operations on the ground have three targets – removing any frozen or even semi-frozen dampness from the important exterior parts of the aircraft on the ground prior to taking off, providing protection to these places from the same problem from the time the treatment is done on the ground to the time of the plane being airborne and thirdly removing of any frozen or semi-frozen dampness from the intakes of the engine and fan blades and providing future protection before taking off. Thus the airplane has to be first thoroughly inspected for any frozen ice already sticking to the surfaces and wherever found it has been cleaned by using the proper kind of de-icing fluid (Hartwell, 2008).
Secondly, a meticulous note has to be made of the current weather conditions. If fresh ice or snow adheres to the surface of the frame of the aircraft or it is apprehended this will occur when the plane takes off, then the proper anti-icing fluid has to be applied by the ground crew engaged for this purpose. After taking off the fluids applied on the ground have no effect. The process of ground de-icing and anti-icing targets three goals – removal of any frozen moisture from the outsides of the aircraft on the ground that is ready to take off, protecting these areas from being frozen while taking off, and the removal of any such freeze from intakes by the engine and blades of the fan and also ensuring that these regions are protected before getting airborne. For this purpose ground de-icing and anti-icing fluids have to be used (Switzenbaum, 2004).
The next step is to study the existing weather conditions. If there is the possibility of further freezing while on the ground and immediately after taking off, then the appropriate anti-icing fluid would have to be applied. The fluids are so designed as to give the required protection no later than the time the aircraft is airborne. It means that the fluids applied on the ground are no protection against the risks that may arise after the plane takes off.
Aerodynamics requires that the frame of the aircraft is free from frost immediately prior to taking off. This is referred to as the concept of clean-aircraft. If this is not done and frost or semi-frost adheres to the frame when the plane is airborne it may cause sudden control loss soon after take off. Ice adhering to the inner wings may be ingested by the engines causing sometimes thrust loss – either partial or total. Adverse effects on engine operations may cause fire outbreaks (Davis, 2004).
The first thing is to thoroughly inspect the frame of the aircraft to find traces of frost or semi-frost. The surface temperature has to be noted – it is as important as the prevailing outside temperature. The temperature relating to the weather conditions after the beginning of the treatment would also have to be anticipated to find out if anti-ice treatment is required. Thirdly the correct de-icing and or anti-icing fluids would have to be applied. The holdover-time has to be determined so that the crew does not attempt to take off within that period. The note must be taken that if weather conditions change so too may the hold-over time. If applicable hold-over time is not there then take-off cannot be allowed (Cancilla, 2003).
Some of the fundamental questions that would be asked are:
How would you assess potential regulatory impacts?
How would you use thermal blankets for B737 and 320?
How would you use solar radiation in the deicing process?
How would you evaluate the geographical location of an airport?
In-pavement deicing, which is a more useful method, mechanical or chemical?
The team is expected to detect snow or slush within the nacelle of the engine but it may be impossible by resorting to the usual visual inspection. Removal of the frost may prove to be equally difficult. Therefore prior protection has to be taken to prevent the ingress of ice and snow by the use of covers and plugs. These have to be perfectly made secure and recorded in the logbook. Failure to de-icing may cause the failure of the plane to take off, to lose control immediately after it, or during retraction of the flHigh-speed-rejected-take-off off may result due to failure of de-icing while on the ground. It may also result in forced landing for failing to shed ice from wings. These happen when it has not been properly ascertained if there is frozen moisture (May, 1999).
Formation of frost on important surfaces of the aircraft – wings, pro,pellers and stabilizers may change the airflow and reduce the lift while increasing the drag. The extra weight of the ice adds to the aircraft’s total weight increasing the lift that is required for taking it off the ground. Even small quantities can lead to grave consequences. De-icing fluids melt the frost. On top of these anti-icing fluids prevents, for a certain period of time, the formation of new ice on critical parts of the aircraft. The de/anti-icing operations are done as close as is possible from the taking off time (Kent, 1999).
Deicing is a very important mechanism in airport maintenance. A well-developed and properly research and the formulated de-icing system is a real-life saver. Two kinds of accidents can occur during flights because of ice forming on the frame of the aircraft. The Aircraft eats up the power reserves of the plane. Subsequently, it cannot maintain altitude and or speed. While flying over mountainous regions it may collide with the peaks. Secondly the wings and tail need extra protection from ice formations because if the ice load becomes abnormal there is a danger when the plane attempts to move with the extra load. Thus, it is important to carry on research regarding this problem for a long-termed benefit in a well formulated transport management system. It is not about just techniques, it is about life-saving applications and thus it is important for the team to prepare perfectly for the job. Though there are only 8 members in the team maintaining 25 aircrafts, it is important to prepare them for the worst condition.
References
Cancilla, D.A. (2003). Studies of the environmental fate and effect of aircraft deicing fluids: Detection of 5-methyl-1H-benzotriazole in the fathead minnow. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 22(1), 134-140.
Ellis, J.B. (2003). Transport and the Environment: Effects of Temperature on Water Quality. Water and Environment Journal, 11(3), 170-177.
Fisher, D. (2006). ‘The acute whole effluent toxicity of storm water from an international airport. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 14(6), 1103-1111.
Hartwell, S.I. (2008). Toxicity of aircraft de-icer and anti-icer solutions to aquatic organisms. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 14(8), 1375-1386.
Kent, R. (1999). Canadian water quality guidelines for glycols-An ecotoxicological review of glycols and associated aircraft anti-icing and deicing fluids. Environmental Toxicology, 14(5), 481-522.
May, E.B. (1999). Aircraft de-icer and anti-icer: Problems. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 13(7) 1179-1182.
Novak, L.J. (2000). Acute toxicity of storm water associated with de-icing/anti-icing activities at Canadian airports. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 19(7), 1846-1855.
Novotny, V. (2005). Urban and highway snowmelt: minimizing the impact on receiving water. NY: Water Environment Research Foundation.
Switzenbaum, M.S. (2004). Best management practices for airport deicing stormwater. Amherst: Water Resources Research Center.
