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~ Airport News Unleashing the Power of
Airports, Director General speech
23/09/2008
“Unleashing the Power of
Airports”
Angela Gittens, Director General ACI World
ACI World Annual General Assembly
22 September 2008
I am pleased to be with you this afternoon and join Jim
Cherry, the ACI Chairman of the World Governing Board, in
welcoming all of you to this 18 th World Annual General
Assembly.
I began my tenure as Director General of ACI five months
ago, and I have been most gratified by the tremendous
support and encouragement I have received from the board,
particularly our chair, Jim who gives so generously of
his time and wise counsel, from the regional directors
and their staffs and from my own staff who is working
with me and the board to develop a strategic realignment
to meet the needs of our organisation as expressed in our
recent membership survey. And I thank all of the airport
and World Business Partner members for their time and
thoughtfulness in filling out the survey. And I promise
that we will never make a survey as long as that again!
We will do it more often but make it shorter.
Further to gaining insight into our needs and priorities,
by the end of the year I will have attended each
region’s Annual Conference and Board Meeting:
Asia-Pacific in May, Europe in June, Africa in July, now
North America and Latin America/Caribbean in November.
Listening at these conferences to board members, other
airport members and World Business Partners, has been an
opportunity for me to appreciate both the differences and
the commonalities among airports around the world.
What is common among us is the desire for ACI to
represent airport interests, share best practices and
develop standards, and focus on the issues of safety,
airport economics, security, environment and
non-aeronautical revenue.
The assembly is a time to take a frank look at what is
happening around us and determine where we need to put
our energy over the coming year to defend our common
interests.
Representing Airport Interests
I spent the last two weeks in Montréal, at the ICAO
conferences on the new air traffic management technology
being developed by NextGen in the United States and SESAR
in Europe , and the ICAO economic conference, to consider
global guidelines for the state oversight of airport
economics. What I saw there was a fundamental lack of
understanding of the business imperatives and cost
structures of airports in the modern era. And I saw an
energetic campaign by the major International Airline
Trade Association, IATA, to blame airports for the
financial woes of airlines and make a case for them to
exert control over airport decision making.
I heard the old refrain that airports are monopolies that
face no competition, operate with no financial risk, and
that there is no need for airports to look out for the
interests of passengers — the airlines will take
care of that. On the technology front, we see wonderful
progress made to expand capacity in the air with scant
regard for the implications to airport capacity in the
terminal and surface access areas.
To meet the needs of airports around the world and to get
our story out to the institutions that make the rules for
us, we need to unleash the power we have by communicating
with our stakeholders, by collaborating with each other
and by coordinating our actions within and across
regions. These three tools will enable our two primary
drivers as an organisation that works for you: the
promotion of airport interests and the promotion of
airport excellence. Each one of those drivers supports
the other.
Communication
Advocacy depends on a well articulated expression of our
viewpoints and requirements in all the right forums. Many
of you, or your staff members, have been indispensable
contributors to the World and Regional standing
committees, subcommittees and working groups. This is
where and how our positions are formulated. They serve as
the basis of guidelines and best practices for airports,
reflected in the ACI handbooks such as this year’s
new IT Common Use Handbook and the newly revised edition
of the Policy Handbook, which you have been asked to
review and approve today. They help all airports
worldwide to work to the same high standards —
efficiently and cost-effectively.
And these same positions enable ACI to take your views to
ICAO, by far the most important international forum for
making airport needs understood and incorporated into
industry practice. Through the multitude of ICAO panels,
committees, and working groups, ACI advances your
positions.
We were happy to see this year that our input helped
shape the revisions to some of the key annexes on safety,
security and facilitation that directly affect airports
in all countries. We have been able to dissuade the
decision-makers from formulating new restrictions that
are impractical, as was the case with the revision of the
Prohibited Items List. We were able to make a strong case
relative to security restrictions for liquids, aerosols
and gels and call for harmonisation and mutual
recognition. We raised the issue of the impact that new
on-board restrictions for duty-free sales, which are so
critical for creating non-aeronautical revenue streams,
and pushed for a common sealed tamper evident bag (STEB)
definition for application worldwide.
In each case we worked with and mirrored the positions
adopted in the regions and push for global solutions.
Collaboration
The power of collaboration on the presentation and
defence of our positions was illustrated with the
just-concluded ICAO Conference on the Economics of
Airports and Air Navigation Services (CEANS).
Working with and through the World Economic Standing
Committee and each region, we were able to formulate 5
clear position papers, submit them in a timely manner to
ICAO in all six official ICAO languages, and then use
them during the conference as a basis of defence during
the review of airport charging mechanisms.
We unleashed the power of airports with every region
participating on the ACI delegation and airports from
every region participating on their State’s
delegation. For those regions with a concentrated
regulatory authority, Europe , North America and Canadian
Airports Council, the regional leadership advocated
directly with that authority. This is the pattern we must
use as we go forward: formulate a clear message, develop
a unified strategy, employ local, regional and world
tactics, to educate and advocate.
At this particular conference, it was a close call. There
is a direction of closer economic oversight based on
obsolete notions of the nature of airline and airport
relationships. While little harm was done this time, the
threat is manifest. We will need to continue to build
united responses and broadcast them at the appropriate
local, regional and world forums. Unleashing the power of
airports is the way we counter the influence and greater
presence of IATA, and, frankly, to bring them to the
table with us. Airports and airlines are not natural
enemies — we just act that way. The bigger threats
to both of us come from outside of the industry.
Airports share the same desire as airlines for the
provision of cost-effective airport services. Many
airports compete with other airports locally for
origin-destination traffic, and regionally for
gateway/connecting traffic. The competitive nature of
airport business therefore gives every reason to control
costs in order to fulfil their mandate of airport
development.
IATA calls for layer upon layer of regulation, instead of
recognising that the most productive approach is for
airports and airlines to work together locally on charges
and planning issues in order to seek mutually acceptable
solutions for which we would jointly advocate.
Coordination
One such case where we as an industry need to be well
coordinated arose the week before last. ICAO held a forum
on the “Integration and Harmonisation of NextGen and
SESAR into the Global Air Traffic Management
Framework.” Overlooked was the issue of the Global
Air Transportation System and the fact that the airport
is more than just the airfield. The availability of
significant capacity-enhancing technology products from
NextGen and SESAR are well within the time frame of most
airport capital plans, in fact, some of these products
are already available and are in selective use. As well,
we suggested that timely implementation of the technology
will be as much about political modernisation as
technological modernisation and that the airport sector
can help. ACI North America and ACI Europe have already
demonstrated an ability and willingness to do so, and we
need to follow through at the ICAO level.
This year we were invited to become an official observer
at the ICAO Air Navigation Bureau, a powerful branch of
the ICAO Secretariat which will probably take the lead
role in the technology integration and harmonisation. We
have increased our staff in Montréal to take advantage
of that status as well as to ensure more consistent
participation in the many working groups, particularly
those of safety and environment. Again, the power of
airports gets unleashed through participation at the
working group and committee levels and we applaud the
considerable work performed by member and regional office
staff in those forums.
Turning to environment — that is an area where we
must remain vigilant at ICAO to ensure that the current
focus on carbon dioxide reduction does not overshadow our
airport priorities on noise and air quality. Our advocacy
role is vital, as we do not always see eye to eye with
the airlines on how this can best be achieved. And the
ICAO member nations have divergent views as well, such as
the current debate on emissions trading, where ACI
supports a globally harmonised approach.
In addition to ICAO, there are more opportunites for
industry coordination in the fields of safety, security,
facilitation and environment. We are active participants
in the cross-industry Runway Safety Initiative, one of
particular concern and long term benefit for airports,
led by the Flight Safety Foundation. Another is the World
Health Organization where we successfully contributed to
the revision of the International World Health
Regulations to take into account airport needs and
constraints. And we have just recently been invited to
join their “roster of experts” so we will have
regular on-going input in planning for emergency health
situations.
We are active members of the Air Transport Action Group,
ATAG, and have contributed financially to the ATAG
cross-industry initiative called enviro.aero which
promotes the excellent work that aviation is
accomplishing in reducing our carbon footprint. Our
chairman Jim Cherry and over 300 of our ACI members
worldwide were signatories to the ATAG Aviation &
Environment Summit Declaration that commits our industry
to joint efforts in environmental responsibility.
And the post conference work continues. Thanks to the
hard work of our World Standing Environment Committee, we
are researching airport efforts and data on feasible
efficiencies and targets in order to develop guidance to
members. Through ATAG we are pooling industry data, in a
coordinated way so that we can propose realistic targets
at the next Aviation & Environment Conference March
31, 2009 . This same data will feed into the ICAO Group
on International Aviation and Climate Change, a panel of
experts who have been designated to speed up ICAO work on
environmental progress, and the World Economic Forum
which is facilitating the flow of information to the UN
group that will be formulating the replacement targets
for the Kyoto Protocols and where international aviation
stands likely to be incorporated this time around.
This is important work — it is about sustainability
and the fact that the local communities and our
passengers need to know that we take our environmental
commitment seriously, and that airports are actively at
work.
So we communicate, we collaborate and we coordinate.
These are keys to getting our message across and making
sure that we are united in our contribution to a
sustainable airport future.
Performance excellence
The second driver of ACI activity that I mentioned at the
outset is the promotion of excellence, through sharing of
best practices, benchmarking, formulation of standards or
guidelines, and training. Our goal is to help members
build their organisation’s performance, whether that
is technical or operational or business management. We
live in competitive times. We may get called monopolies,
but any airport these days that behaves like a monopoly
will not succeed.
ACI offers members several avenues for improving
performance. One of the fastest growing of these is the
Airport Service Quality benchmarking programme which
started in 2006 and to which we have added a regional
programme so that smaller airports can affordably
participate. Our ASQ programme has become an industry
reference for quality feedback to the airport
participants.
Now, the ASQ survey is not designed to be a popularity
contest, but as a tool to measure performance and guide
the airport in delivering its product more aptly and more
profitably. Nonetheless, each year the top ranking
airports in the 11 categories can step up to the podium
proudly to receive their award. The winners have gone
through their paces to win customer satisfaction. This
recognition is the fruit of team commitment to service
quality principles. The original programme has been
greatly expanded and now comprises four elements, with
each one looking at a different facet of customer
service.
To gain these service improvements, ACI has revamped its
training capability to reflect regional priorities and to
improve its quality assurance, consistency and
reliability. We are currently recruiting a new director
for the Global Training Hub which will be guided by a
Training Steering Committee. We are particularly proud of
the launch of the Airport Management Professional
Accreditation Programme, AMPAP, a joint effort of ICAO
and ACI which has extended our ability to pool expert
knowledge and experience as well as support our
relationship with ICAO. Directly following the assembly,
we will perform the first graduation ceremony for
International Aviation Professional (IAP) designation
– just 16 months after the launch. Many of them got
their start on their way to achieving the IAP through
elective courses in the Training Hub and the Airport
Executive Leadership programme. These initiatives open
the door to committed airport professionals who want to
be the leaders in guiding our airports into the future.
We invite you to remain for the ceremony to salute the
intrepid graduates that hail from every ACI region.
Of course, the promotion of excellence comes from
conferences and other events that provide learning
experiences. I draw your attention to three opportunities
coming up: the Safety Seminar in Beijing , and the
Environment Colloquium in Cairo , both in November, and a
conference in Economics and Finance in February in London
.
ACI also contributes to the promotion of performance
excellence in the wider industry. We have been an active
contributor to the industry-wide initiative Simplifying
Passenger Travel, to define and implement an ideal
passenger handling process. Airports have already put in
place components of the system with success, speeding the
passenger check-in process as well as achieving cost
efficiencies. Airports and ACI have worked with IATA on
standards for common use self-service implementation at
airports, and we have worked with ICAO on machine
readable transport documents and biometrics, two key
elements in enhancing passenger facilitation.
Traffic Outlook
Finally, let me close with the traffic outlook.
We are experiencing an abrupt change. For the past few
years, the industry steadily resumed its pre-September
11th vitality. Demand grew stronger, particularly in
international travel and freight, and in 2007, airports
reported record traffic results, handling 4.8 billion
passengers and 88.5 million metric tonnes of cargo.
2008, however, saw a slowing trend in consumer demand,
attributed to a series of pressure points that affected
the entire aviation community: volatile and less
accessible credit markets, persistently high fuel prices,
aging kerosene hungry fleets, a general economic
slowdown, the threat of heightened government controls
and taxation, and growing customer dissatisfaction with
delays at congested hubs.
Our airline customers are feeling the pinch. Airports
fully recognise the difficulties airlines face due to the
persistent rise in fuel prices. Indeed many airports
around the world have been affected by recent airline
decisions to realign their commercial offering and
improve balance sheets by modifying routes, consolidating
services and retiring aircraft, among other measures.
Increasing costs are problematic for airports as well,
but they must maintain their commitment to the
communities they serve to provide the infrastructure that
is critical to their economic vitality and that meets
current and future airline requirements. As we have seen
with past extraordinary economic pressures that have
challenged this industry, long-term demand for air
service has proven to be resilient. The industry must
stand ready to accommodate growth and avoid congestion,
and airports must take a leadership role ensuring that
our partners understand our constraints and our horizons.
Today we released our Global Forecast. It is telling us
we are going to have to be cautious in the short term,
but still plan to meet the longer term demand. Over the
next two years, passenger growth will slow worldwide,
reflecting the current uncertainties in the world
economies, but will pick up again in 2010.Medium and
long-term confidence in growth remains strong within the
airport industry. Global passenger volumes are predicted
to surpass the 5 billion mark by 2009, reaching 11
billion – or 30 million passengers per day – by
2027
We have a big challenge ahead of us. The solutions will
be found through communication, coordination and
collaboration — airports working with their local
customers and stakeholders: airlines, passengers,
shippers, community business and civic leaders and all of
the businesses working on the airport platform, and
airports working together through ACI.
The aviation industry will have high points and low
points depending on a host of global forces —
airlines will come and go. Airports are the
community’s infrastructure and economic engine, no
matter who owns or operates the facilities. That is
powerful. I pledge to work with you to unleash that power
to create a sustainable future.
Thank you.
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