Airport Operations Human Factors: Procedural Compliance

Airport Operations Human Factors

Airport operations forms the major activity behind the successful operation of any airport. For an airport to function effectively, the human factor issues concerned with the airport operations needs to be addressed. Airport operations includes the following processes namely the ramp operations personnel, baggage handling, freight handlers, Fuelers, De-icing operators and personnel involved in other ramp activities excluding maintenance¹

There are several types of human factor issues related to airport operations, of which we will discuss about procedural compliance.

Procedural Compliance

The ramp activities happening in an airport involves a huge amount of human work and the personnel involved do a variety of jobs to ensure efficient and safe ramp operations. Occassionally there will be situations where the personnel employed may not be able to do his or her job in the required time frame which leads to some unwanted consequences like personal injury, aircraft damage, equipment damage, flight delays etc.

The two main categories of human performance impairment are errors and failure to follow the policies, procedures and processes developed by the company. This is called as procedural non-compliance. Although errors are unintentional deviations from the expected action,some individuals will do them intentionally. These violations may be due to simply finish the job and not for comfort or to reduce the workload. All the ramp operations are carried out on the assumption that the ramp personnel will follow the policies, procedures and processes. When this assumption is broken then the whole safety of the system is at risk.

In some cases the worker may commit the error because of the factors dictated by his or her immediate factors such as time pressure, insufficient staff and lack of equipments. In some rare cases the worker violates the rules while disregarding the consequences¹

Importance of Procedural Compliance

Procedural compliance leads to the increase of personal safety and efficiency of the ramp worker to ensure reduction in ramp accidents. The preocedural compliance when adopted, would improve worker satisfaction.

Developing a Procedural Compliance program

• A policy should be developed by the company and should be communicated to the personnel stating that, they should follow all company and regulatory authority policy and procedures at all times.

• Procedural compliance should be included in the company's job description and job performance expectations, and the use of procedural compliance should be a measure of the worker perfromance.

• Human factors training should be developed and provided for the front line supervisors.

• Investigations can be done on the ramp accidents and the routine casual causes due to which the accidents occur can be identified. A corrective measure can be developed to prevent future errors and accidents.

• A procedural compliance safety audit program can be developed and be put into practice involving the ramp operations¹

The successful implementation of the procedural compliance program results in

• Reduction in Aircraft and Equipment damage

• Decline in Injury rates

• High satisfaction levels shown by the workers¹

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Spice Jet new flights & summer schedule

SpiceJet adds new flights & connections in summer schedule

New flights effective from 16th April include Mumbai-Udaipur; Tirupati-Vijayawada and Vi-jayawada-Vishakhapatnam Enhanced frequencies between Delhi-Srinagar, Hyderabad-Chennai, Delhi-Dharamshala, Chennai-Vishakhapatnam & Hyderabad-Bengaluru among others Now connecting Tirupati from Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad with minimum connecting time. Also connecting Dubai, Colombo and Bangkok from Vijaywada and Tirupati

GURGAON: SpiceJet, country’s favourite low-cost carrier, has added three new flights and six new frequencies to its summer schedule, offering more seats connecting key metros and cities as a part of its enhanced network effective 27th March, 2016. With the introduction of the summer schedule, the airline will increase its operation to 306 daily flights from 240 flights operated in last summer schedule. To cater to the peak summer rush, from March to October, SpiceJet has launched direct flights for sectors like Mumbai-Udaipur, Tirupati-Vijayawada, and Vijayawada-Vishakhapatnam. In purview of both the leisure and business travellers and considering the tourist and commercial interest attached, the frequencies have been enhanced on sectors including Delhi – Srinagar (2nd non-stop flight) Hyderabad-Chennai, (4th non-stop flight) and Hyderabad-Bengaluru (4th direct flight) among others. SpiceJet is also connecting International destinations like Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo to its famous southern cities like Vijaywada and Tirupati via Chennai and Hyderabad. The airline has also increased its seating capacity on various domestic routes by undertaking an equipment upgradation from Bombardier Q400 which has a seating capacity of 78 seats to Boeing 737 which can accommodate up-to 186 passengers on the Pune-Goa and Delhi-Dehradun sectors. Ms Shilpa Bhatia, Sr. VP, Commercial, SpiceJet, said, “We would like to thank our customers for their continuous support in helping us achieve the highest load factor consistently for the past ten months. Our new summer schedule is an extension of our existing strategy that will cater to the robust market demand for the coming holiday season. ‘’ Bookings for tickets are now open on www.spicejet.com, SpiceJet’s mobile apps and through online travel portals and travel agents.

About SpiceJet Ltd: SpiceJet is India’s #2 budget airline that has made flying more affordable for more Indians than ever before. SpiceJet operates 293 daily flights to 40 destinations, including 34 domestic and 6 international ones. SpiceJet connects its network with a fleet of 26 Boeing 737NG and 2 Airbus A320 family aircraft along with 14 Bombardier Q-400s. The majority of SpiceJet’s fleet offers SpiceMAX, the most spacious economy class seating in India and perhaps the world, as an additional fee option. ·         Call Us Now   -7200081121 / 7200023412 / 7200081330/ 7200015600 ·         Email your queries to hr@worldptc.com or admin@worldptc.com ·         Visit website - www.worldptc.com  ·         Walk in from Monday to Friday 0900am to 0500pm ·         Address : Chennai - #16/29 1st Main Road, New Colony, Chrompet, Chennai-600044 ·         Bangalore – No 410, 2nd floor. 5th A Main, 2nd Block. HRBR layout (Near kalyan nagar bus stop) Kalyan nagar, Bangalore 560043. Contact- 8050005079

           Alertness Management in Airport Operations

Alertness is a critical pre-requisite for safe and efficient performance in all airport operations. Many incident and accidents are caused by the lack of alertness during operation. In particular, the pilots need to have high alertness during flight so that they can think wisely, act and able to perform the procedures in flying correctly. Hence, the biggest threat and culprit to pilot's alertness is the fatigue level of an individual. In Aug 1993, a DC-8-61 operating as American International Airline (AIA) flight 808 crashed into low level terrain short of approach end runway 10 (NTSB, 1994). The poor judgement and wrong decision making from the pilots were the result severe tiredness due to long duty hours. Fatigue is caused due to lack of proper rest and sleep during the scheduled operations and it causes physical and mental exertion of the personnel involved. Airport operations personnel who have worked extended hours recall that they were fatigued more, than they remember the work they performed. The entire workforce is susceptible to errors induced by fatigue. These factors contribute to the reduced alertness levels of the personnel involved in the airport operations. Alertness management becomes a more important safety concern in a diverse operating environment such as an airport and flying. Hence the development and implementation of Alertness Management Program (AMP) is essential to an operation that helps to identify system discrepencies, improves on it and reduces errors by human during operations.

Challenges of Alertness Management Program (AMP) in Aviation industry

Airports operate 24 hour a day and that would require great number of employees to work in different operations in the airport. Therefore it is impossible to operate with just one shift crews, and shifts scheduling are to allow employees work adequate hours and rest to regain their energy before next work day. Furthermore, reduced number of workforce involved in airport operations to increase productivity and reducing costs in spite of growing demands of the industry, add more pressures on the remaining employees. Hence, managers face great challenges in maintain the Alertness/Fatigue management program as the operation requirements and limited manpower contradict the properness of the program. However without this program to serve as a tool to measure and manage alertness, airport operations will face with more Human Factor issues.

The concept of extended shifts and shift swapping impose greater demands on the personnel involved as they do not get adequate amount of time to rest or sleep. The alertness management program offers the necessary guidance for the workforce to meet the demands of the extended shifts. Also the workforce must be trained to manage time effectively such that they can avoid all the effects of fatigue like physical and mental impairability. Moreover, employees must be taught to know the effects of fatigue and how to identify and overcome them. They must also know the problems that they will encounter when doing shift work, such as the effect of circadian rythmn that disrupt body clock biologically. Hence, while airport requires 24 hours operations, implementing Alertness Management Program minimises the risks threatened by the requirement itself and improves on the employees knowledge of how unnoticeable effects in our daily lives, like tiredness can impede human proper functioning and cause danger during operation.

Design and Implementation of an Alertness Management Program (AMP)

The Alertness management program provides a multi-component approach that addresses different aspects of fatigue and its associated risks.

The major activities that are important in designing a Alertness Managment Program include

Education on Alertness

• Education on Alertness
• Development of Alertness Strategies
• Healthy Sleep
• Scheduling

The educational content in an Alertness Management Program includes a general introduction on sleep basics, circadian basics, aviation fatigue and alertness strategies³. The risks of accidents and injuries were found to increase as work load increases especially after more than 12 hours of work a day (Caruso et al., 2004, 2006; Knauth, 2007; Nachreiner, 2001). This does not include the circadian rythmn, that a human body has a clock that tells you when you feel sleepy and when you will be most alert. One example is when you fly to another time zone country in the morning and you feel extremely sleepy as the time at home base is at mid night. This has to again take into consideration of shift changing from morning to night shift. When you could not get yourself to sleep in the morning shift week as last week you spend the night week working where you suppose to be sleeping. This has cause disruption in quality sleep and the body rythmn before the body accustom to the pattern.

Development of Alertness Strategies

The alertness strategy module provides guidance and information on their use as preventive and countermeasures. These preventive strategies must be followed by the workforce and their performance before and after can be measured during the actual airport operations schedules.

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Airport Operations Human Factors

Airport Operations Human Factors

Shift and Task turnover process in Airport Operations:

The shift and task turnover are the critical periods in all kinds of airport operations as the working personnel relay important information for ending a shift or task and for starting another shift. Maintaining continuity between shifts is very important in the case of continuously operating
sector like Aviation. The company policies, procedures, planning guidelines, team work and good communication practices are required for efficient and effective shift and task turnover process.

The shift turnover process typically includes

• A period of preparation by the outgoing personnel
• Shift handover - where the outgoing and incoming personnel communicate to exchange task relevant information.
• Cross checking of the information by the incoming personnel as they assume responsibility for the task².

Importance of a shift turnover process

In a work environment like an airport where there will be multiple aircraft movements in a day, there will be potential for multiple task turnovers that may result in communication breakdowns. Hence shift/task turnover process becomes a critical factor for effective airport operations.

The inadequate information exchange during the shift or task turnover can have serious consequences such as personal injuries and equipment breakdown. The poor shift/task turnover process is a contributing factor for the incidents occurring during the normal airport operations.

The challenges related to shift turnover includes

• Lack of team work and interpersonal communication skills which is of high demand in a continuously operating environment like an airport.

• The airport operations activities are being shared between the airline and the service provider personnel which increases the chances of communications gaps between the two.

• The risk and complexity of the airport where a number of tasks are to be completed in a short time frame makes the shift changeover process an important aspect of airport operations.

• The policies and procedures are not very structured and standardized.

• Lack of adequate verbal and written communication methods which is very critical during a shift changeover process.

• Inadequate shift overlap which reduces the time to give one-on-one briefings between the team leaving the shift and the team entering the shift. Also, the personnel involved are being given minimal training on the importance of a shift/task turnover process¹.

Therefore the development of high quality shift/task turnover procedures results in the improvement of safety and accountability to the personnel involved in the work and also reducing the occurrence of errors.

Development of a shift turnover process:

The different aspects of a shift /task turnover process includes

A) Creating and installing of standard policies, procedures and protocols.

• Formalizing the policies and procedures which makes the changeover process as important as the work.
• Developing, improving and enforcing the policies and procedures.
• The event investigation results can be used to educate the workforce about the errors made during the changeover process.
• All personnel involved must be communicated about the policies and procedures to be adopted.
• The documentation works during the shift changeover process must be considered and be best practiced.
• The company must ensure that all the work personnel involved are trained on the different procedures of the shift/task turnover process.

B) The time overlap between shifts must be adequate such that the turnover meetings can be held in a comfortable place which has access to computers and other data sources. The employee should be given a task turnover time within the shift timings and the shift/task turnover process should be planned to take place near the task site.

C) The quality of the written and verbal communications must be standardized and consistent level of detail on information should be ensured during the changeover process.

D) Initial and recurrent training on conducting a good shift/task turnover process should be provided to the work personnel involved. In doing so, the emphasis can be given on the critical aspects of a shift/task turnover process and its impacts on continuing safety. The personnel must be trained to use checklists, shift status reports and other applicable documents to make the changeover process error free¹.

Result of a successful shift turnover process

On successful implementation of the shift/task turnover process:

The errors will decrease and there will be increase in the performance. The quality of documentation will be improved which describes the shift and task turnover processes. There will be improvement in co-operation and communication between the employees and the management. Therefore, the shift turnover process is one of the important factor for the efficient functioning of any airport with regards to its operations.

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Qualities Of highly Sucessful...

Qualities Of highly Sucessful...

1. Drive

You have the determination to work harder than most and make sure things get done. You pride yourself on seeing things getting completed and you take charge when necessary. You drive yourself with purpose and align yourself with excellence.

2. Self-reliance

You can shoulder responsibilities and be accountable. You make hard decisions and stand by them. To think for yourself is to know yourself.

3. Willpower

You have the strength to see things through--you don't vacillate or procrastinate. When you want it, you make it happen. The world's greatest achievers are those who have stayed focused on their goals and been consistent in their efforts.

4. Patience

You are willing to be patient, and you understand that, in everything, there are failures and frustrations. To take them personally would be a detriment.

5. Integrity

This should not have to be said, but it's seriously one of the most important attributes you can cultivate. Honesty is the best policy for everything you do; integrity creates character and defines who you are.

6. Passion

If you want to succeed, if you want to live, it's not politeness but rather passion that will get you there. Life is 10 percent what you experience and 90 percent how you respond to it.

7. Connection

You can relate to others, which in turns makes everything reach further and deepen in importance.

8. Optimism

You know there is much to achieve and much good in this world, and you know what's worth fighting for. Optimism is a strategy for making a better future--unless you believe that the future can be better, you're unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

9. Self-confidence

You trust yourself. It's as simple as that. And when you have that unshakeable trust in yourself, you're already one step closer to success.

10. Communication

You work to communicate and pay attention to the communicators around you. Most important, you hear what isn't being said. When communication is present, trust and respect follow.

No one plans on being mediocre; mediocrity happens when you don't plan. If you want to succeed, learn the traits that will make you successful and plan on living them out every day.

Be humble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless. That is who you are, and who you have always been.

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Himalaya Airlines takes delivery of first aircraft

     Himalaya Airlines takes delivery of first aircraft

Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint-venture company, has taken delivery of its first aircraft—the brand new Airbus A320—to serve the international market starting next month.

Himalaya will be the third Nepali carrier in service to serve the international sector after Nepal Airlines and Buddha Air.
The 158-seater aircraft, dry leased from a Chinese company in Chengdu, landed at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Wednesday afternoon. The start-up private carrier plans to lease another A319 jet by June.

The airline is scheduled to conduct its maiden commercial flight on the Kathmandu-Delhi sector. Himalaya will be the sixth airline to operate on the sector after Nepal Airlines, Jet Airways, Air India, Druk Air and IndiGo.

It plans expand to the Kathmandu-Doha route from April 12. Himalaya will be the second carrier to connect Doha from Nepal after Qatar Airways. “We will be operating daily flights on Delhi and Doha routes by the beginning of April and expand networks to Lhasa, Chengdu and Beijing in China a few months later,” said Salina Nakarmi, brand officer at Himalaya Airlines.
With the arrival of the A320, the carrier will conduct test flights on a number of destinations before putting the aircraft into commercial operation. Nakarmi said they are yet to unveil the promotional fares on the proposed routes.

The airlines had previously planned to launch scheduled flights from October 2014, but the plan was deferred due to “some technical problems”. It was further delayed by the devastating April 25 earthquake.
The company plans to link various Asian and Middle East cities initially. It also plans to acquire 15 Airbus aircraft, including long-haul A330 wide-body jets, to expand operations to Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, and America in the next five years.

Initially, Himalaya had planned to operate Kathmandu-Lhasa flights to become the second international carrier linking directly to the administrative capital of Tibet after Air China, but the plan was changed given the A320 aircraft cannot land at Lhasa airport.
Himalayan Infrastructure Fund Aviation Investment and Yeti World Investment hold a 51 percent stake in the company, while Tibet Airlines owns 49 percent.

The company has a paid-up capital of $25 million. It is the biggest foreign direct investment from China in Nepal’s aviation sector.

Currently, 25 international and two Nepali airlines fly to 23 destinations in 13 countries from Nepal.
The country has signed air service agreements with 38 countries so far, the latest being New Zealand and Vietnam.

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