Published Articles
South East Asia Aviation: What You Need to Know
“The liberalization of ASEAN’s aviation sector will be a major catalyst for the region’s economic growth by 2030” - Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysian Minister of Transport
The Malaysian Minister of Transport’s thoughts are backed by strong arguments as aviation plays a vital role in developing business, trade, sales, innovation, investments and tourism, all facilitating economic growth. With South East Asia being one of the most dynamic areas in the world, a boost in tourism and trade should have astonishing effects and bring countless opportunities - and challenges - for all aviation players. Latest news indicate that the Single Aviation Market (SAM) is due to be signed by this year.
Airport Innovation: 7 Easy Ways for Airports to Innovate
Innovation is today’s uber-hot bandwagon. Chances are, your organizational chart has sprouted a branch dedicated to Innovation, and if it has not, it soon will. But is the formation of an innovation team sufficient to shift the status quo? Today, I explore 7 easy ways for airports to innovate.
Airports Compete for New Talent
When folks find out I was President of Airports Council North America (ACI-NA) for eight years, I tend to get a lot of questions. Depending on who I am talking to, the first questions are often about whether I get free flights or parking or food (parking is a big one, everyone thinks free parking would be the coolest perk, but alas!).
After the frivolous subjects are dealt with, people always want to know more about what happens behind the scenes. And the more people learn, the more they want to know what kind of person it takes to run such an operation, both at the CEO and the operational levels. The more we talk, the more often I hear the same thing: "What an unusual combination of capabilities these people must have. Where do you find them?"
How Heathrow Promotes Innovative Technology
This is the 3rd part of a new series by Heathrow Airport’s innovation team. Part 1 was How Heathrow Innovates and part 2 How Heathrow Launched an Easter App. It’s a good idea to read both to best understand how we work when it comes to technology innovation. Today, we’ll look at a process we internally call showcase which we used to launch a new digital game. This method is also used to collect ideas that may not arise from a challenge-gathering team session.
Open Skies: An Update
In April 2015, I wrote about the fight brewing in the U.S. between the three major international air carriers (American, Delta and United) and the three Gulf carriers (Qatar, Emirates and Etihad).
My thesis was that this was part of a strategy to get better treatment from the U.S. government in a variety of areas, and to attain a favorable outcome during consideration in the US Congress of legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (the legislation includes many of the taxes and fees airlines and their passengers must pay). While there were some wild statements from both sides, I believed this was a more limited strategy. And if you read, for example, the speech given by Airlines for America CEO Nick Calio at the International Aviation Club in Washington last Fall, there is much evidence for that.
Open Skies: Invite to Complain or Compete!
Gulf carriers, such as Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways, have expanded enormously and have established an intense global competitive network. These carriers’ future growth prospects depend on their ability to gain access to markets in Europe and America. Existing bilateral air agreements and the US incumbent carriers lobby hamper the Gulf carriers' expansion plans through restricting market access
How to Manage Risks with Chronic Unease
When making everyday decisions, we rarely have all the information available. Sometimes, we deal with ambiguous information, so we may rely on assumptions. When managing safety, making sense of unclear and ambiguous information can be critical.
In this blog post, I will discuss chronic unease as a mindset that can support managers in dealing with vague and unclear information in their decision-making.
How Heathrow Launched an Easter Mobile App
This post is part 2 in a new series by the Heathrow Airport Innovation Team. In the previous post, Richard introduced the Heathrow innovation process; how we gather business challenges, score and prioritise them for trial projects. Today, we share a successful initiative that combines several smaller business challenges with innovative technology to produce a fully fledged passenger-facing, custom-made mobile app. The Easter Treasure Trail app enables families to play an interactive game using iBeacons. It uses location-based and context-aware services that were tested and launched in Heathrow Terminal 2.