National Academies Press: OpenBook

A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations (2015)

Chapter: Chapter 2 - Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success

« Previous: Chapter 1 - Introduction
Page 6
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22221.
×
Page 6
Page 7
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22221.
×
Page 7
Page 8
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22221.
×
Page 8
Page 9
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22221.
×
Page 9

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

6C H A P T E R 2 Research for this guidebook revealed that airports with successful and industry-recognized winter operations program share three essential elements that set a foundation for their success: effective communication, collaboration, and coordination. These three elements are not exclu- sive to an airport operator’s organization. Given the number of stakeholders having key roles in maintaining safe flight operations during winter storm events, effective stakeholder communica- tion, coordination, and collaboration likely have an even greater impact on an airport’s program success. Many beneficial winter operations strategies and tactics, including those presented in this guidebook, require these internally and externally focused elements as an underpinning for successful implementation. 2.1 Identify Stakeholders The first step toward building relationships based on effective communication, coordina- tion, and collaboration is to identify the winter operations program stakeholders. Consider the entities that have the ability to impact winter operations performance through their actions or decisions. Conversely, consider who may be impacted by an airport operator’s actions or decisions. Advisory Circular 150/5200-30C, Airport Winter Safety and Operations, recommends this group of stakeholders be included in an airport’s Snow and Ice Control Committee (SICC) (2). Within an airport organization, individual departments should be identified as unique stake- holders because their functions and areas of focus differ. Common internal airport operator stakeholders include, but are not limited to, terminal and airfield operations, airfield mainte- nance, facilities maintenance, engineering, public relations (PR) and communications, executive management, finance, public safety, and airport rescue and firefighting. There are many external winter operations stakeholders including, but not limited to, the FAA, air carriers, fixed-base operators (FBOs), aircraft deicing contractors, snow removal oper- ators, and the multiple organizational components of large external winter operations stake- holders that should be individually identified. For example, FAA stakeholders may include the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT), Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), and Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC). Air carrier stakeholders may include the local station and the System Operation Center/Airline Operation Center. While the list of stakeholders may be lengthy, it is important to maintain detailed contact infor- mation for each. When possible, obtain the names of individual personnel. After all, these are the people with whom your organization will need to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate. Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success

Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success 7 2.2 Communication Effective communication is essential prior to, during, and following winter events and winter seasons. Without it, attempts at coordination and collaboration would be futile. Communications during pre-season planning, pre- event briefings, Snow Control Center (SCC) operation, and performance evaluation meetings, as examples, will ideally incorporate the following communication characteristics: • Clarity—Avoid unnecessarily complex communications and the use of potentially ambiguous terminology to increase the likelihood of understanding. Make sure the point of the message is abundantly clear. • Concise—Be concise in verbal and especially written communications to facilitate rapid understanding. Sup- porting or background information can always be pro- vided later, if needed. • Targeted—Target messages to specific audiences, or pro- vide the messages in a manner that enables the intended audience to easily extract the information directly rel- evant to it. • Timely—Disseminate information as soon as is practical to enable the intended audience to understand, consider, and act on the information, if necessary. • Recurring—Communicate important information more than once to ensure it reaches the intended audience, particularly if the information is relevant and to be retained over an extended period of time. • Two Way—Utilize two-way communication when it is important to ensure both parties understand each other as intended. Two-way communication is critically important in resolv- ing differences. Face-to-face communication is a preferable form of verbal two-way commu- nication, especially when dealing with complicated or contentious subject matter. It will also make collaboration much easier. 2.3 Coordination Given the number of airport departments and stakeholders that play an active role in airport operations during a winter weather event, effective coordination of each party is required to maintain safe airport operations. Winter operations coordination practices will ideally reflect the following characteristics: • Planned—Planning requires the definition and communication of the overall operational goals and objectives, how these goals and objectives will be achieved, and what roles and responsibilities individuals have in achieving them. • Efficient—Winter operations efficiency is achieved when individuals and organizations under- stand and execute their specific assigned roles and responsibilities without requiring duplication or redundancy. • Defined Authority—A clearly defined chain-of-command increases operational efficiency and minimizes the potential for miscommunication or uninformed decision making. • Effective Leadership—Effective leadership is required throughout the coordination process, from planning to execution, and enables clear direction and responsive, unimpeded, two-way communication flow between employees, supervisors and management. BEST PRACTICE—Cooperative Relationships with Stakeholders Airports that invest in 365/24/7 cooperative relation­ ships with air traffic control (ATC) and key airport stakeholders have a higher probability of coor­ dinated, effective, and successful snow removal operations. Most large airports conduct regularly scheduled daily operational teleconferences to maintain communication throughout the year. Some airports host daily face­to­face briefings. Airport operators at smaller facilities cultivate working relationships with FBOs, key tenants, and pilots. Some airports host on­airport events as a means to create and improve important relationships. Investment in personal relationships pays dividends during a snow and ice control event.

8 A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations • Inclusive—Airport departments and stakeholders actively participating in winter operations should have liaisons to the command structure to facilitate integration of operations and timely information exchange. • Adaptive—The coordination process must withstand unanticipated events by remaining flexible and allowing airport employees, supervisors, managers and stakeholders to adapt to changing conditions (3). • Reliable—The coordination process must provide reliable information and produce reliable outcomes. Without reliability, plan deviations will increase, efficiency will decrease, and deci- sion making will become isolated. 2.4 Collaboration ACRP Report 92: Guidebook to Creating a Collaborative Environment Between Airport Opera- tions and Maintenance defines collaboration as two or more individuals or organizations with complementary skills interacting to develop a shared understanding and achieve shared goals that none had previously possessed or could have achieved on their own (4, p. 110). Collaboration among airport departments and stakeholders is imperative in the pursuit of improved winter operations outcomes for all parties involved. Chapter 10 of this guidebook relies on effective collaboration as part of evaluating winter operations performance and specifically investigating and improving performance shortfalls. Collaboration is a well-documented business management concept. However, despite common acceptance of the need for collaboration, it does not always occur unimpeded. Building a collaborative environment with others requires the commitment of all involved. While the need for collaboration within a multi- stakeholder airport setting has long been recognized, ACRP Report 92 confirms that challenges to collaboration remain within and beyond airport organiza- tions. Effective collaborative efforts include the following characteristics: • Outcome Oriented—Progress toward achieving shared goals will sustain a collaborative effort, while a lack of progress will erode confidence among participants that a collaborative effort is worthwhile. • Leadership—While there may be a number of participating stakeholders, the airport operator needs to offer effective leadership to facilitate buy-in, collective decisions, and ultimately progress toward the group’s shared goals. • Understanding—Individually, participants in collaborative settings need to make a concerted effort to listen to each other for the sake of understanding. Doing so will encourage others to listen. • Respect—All participants need to respect each other’s opinions and perspectives, and acknowledge that, while differences may exist, they will each benefit from achiev- ing shared goals. • Compromise—Given the inevitability of competing indi- vidual interests, compromise will, at times, be required to continue moving forward. While this may sound idealistic, compromise is realistic if participants’ focus remains on the benefits of achieving the shared goals rather than on how that is accomplished. • Trust—In the presence of understanding, respect, and compromise, trust between the airport operator and its stakeholders will grow and facilitate progress toward shared goals. “Effective collaboration is attained through broader participation. Addressing the state of just one division or department in an airport neglects to understand the entirety of the issue. Instead, a practical approach to fostering collaboration must be utilized. Any and all other agencies that affect the decision-making process, such as federal and state agencies, airlines, and other tenants, must also be considered in the effort.”—ACRP Report 92 (4, p. 6).

Relationships as the Foundation for Winter Operations Success 9 2.4.1 Collaborating with Peer Airports As with many aspects of airport management, maintaining close relationships with peer air- ports can prove invaluable in the planning and conduct of winter operations. Collaborating with airports that experience comparable winter conditions is an ideal way to gain insights into equipment needs, performance, and operation. Aviation industry conferences focused on winter operations present invaluable opportunities for group and one-on-one information sharing. Most of the airports with industry-recognized winter operations that were contacted during the research phase for this guidebook cited staff attendance at winter operations conferences as contributing to their program success. Specifically, these airports benefitted from others sharing lessons learned and from their staff developing a professional network to facilitate further winter operations collaboration.

Next: Chapter 3 - FAA Requirements and Guidance Related to Winter Operations »
A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 123: A Guidebook for Airport Winter Operations provides direction to airport facilities as they prepare for, operate during, and recover from disruptive winter events. The report also provides tips for managing the overall passenger experience and provides guidance on the levels of investment needed to implement an effective winter operations program.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!