Case Study: Bucharest Airports National Company

Bucharest Airport engages staff with online training during the pandemic.

Overview

Bucharest Airports National Company (BANK) manages the two main airports in Romania: Henri Coandă International Airport and Aurel Vlaicu International Airport. Henri Coandă International Airport is the largest Romanian airport and serves 67 external destinations and 9 domestic destinations. In 2019 the airport handled 14,729,894 passengers, an increase of 6.4% compared to the previous year. The airport processes approximately 75% of inbound and outbound traffic in Romania including passenger, freight and mail traffic.

The Challenge

How do you keep your personnel motivated and prepared during a pandemic? More importantly, how do you ensure, when travel bounces back, those in critical roles haven’t forgotten the true nature of their positions, policies and procedures in a post-COVID-19 world?

As with many workplaces worldwide, a large portion of the workforce was working from home, and the company saw this as a perfect opportunity to keep staff motivated.

The Solution

BANK took a hybrid approach to their training needs to retain and introduce new skillsets for their personnel. This included internal training on company policies and procedures as well as using experts in the field, the ACI Online Learning Centre (OLC), to deliver a range of online courses.

“Training is not a universal panacea but, in times when people can’t do their regular jobs, it’s one of the best moments to refresh their knowledge and to remind them about rules and revisions they should comply with,” said Amalia Marian, training Centre On-Site Co-ordinator at BANK.

During May to October, 2020, 106 students attended 11 online courses with the OLC including:

Escort and Follow Me Operations
Airport Digital Transformation
Cybersecurity for Airport Executives
ACI ICAO Global Reporting Format 12
Aviation Service Excellence while Physical Distancing
Airside Safety Training
Managing Operations during Construction
Accident and Incident Investigation
Human Factors Safety Training
Safety Management Systems Training
Airport Operations Diploma

COVID-19

COVID-19 was a factor in turning to online training as the company could no longer deliver traditional classroom lessons. Training was required that could be completed by personnel both from the office and at home.

New training was also required to help personnel understand how to work in an airport during the pandemic eg. how to work while physical distancing. The online courses that were completed prompted discussions related to the economic, financial and operational challenges that were very beneficial.

The Benefits

The online training was a beneficial tool to continue professional development when no face to face meetings where possible. The online courses ensured that all personnel were trained to the same level of competency and knowledge and resulted in a highly motivated and engaged at-home workforce.

BANK welcomed the discounts offered by the OLC during the downturn. The registration process was very straight-forward, personnel’s training progress was easy to track, and the system was very user friendly.

Student Feedback

Alexandrescu Traian, Marshaller, Platform Management, completed the Escort and Follow Me Operations course and found it to be extremely interesting. To his surprise, he found two questions quite difficult but was able to answer them correctly after careful revision. “You can have 100 years of experience, but you can still find out new things by learning. A big thank you!” Said Traian.

“This course abounded in information, methods and modern procedures necessary to fulfil the professional activities and improve work performance. The theory and concepts presented are relevant to my professional responsibilities. I identified efficient instruments to approach and solve problems, and I accumulated important knowledge and developed abilities to better do my job.” Said Viorica Rosca, Specialist, Quality Department.

The OLC would like to thank Amalia Marian and students Alexandrescu Traian and Viorica Rosca from BANK for taking the time to assist us in developing this article.