It’s clear to me the wind is at our back going into 2022.
The worst of the pandemic appears to be over. Vaccines are making into arms—albeit slower than anticipated, but even some of the hesitant are finally getting it. People are traveling again. Airlines are getting back in the black.
Morgan Stanley recently released its Airline Corporate Travel Survey results showing a potential rebound in traffic in 2022. While corporate travel budgets are expected to be half of 2019 levels, they will rise 78 percent compared to 2021.
Private aircraft use is also expected to grow in 2022, meaning the business aviation boom is going to keep soaring into the foreseeable future.
Airports are getting $25 billion in new funding to take care of a massive backlog in repairs as part of the federal infrastructure bill. This cash infusion coupled with AIP funding and PFC revenue is providing airports a once in a lifetime opportunity to move past the past and create the facilities of tomorrow.
But funding and vaccines alone won’t get us out of the doldrums. The industry saw its workforce challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. Technology will replace some of these positions, but automation isn’t the only answer.
One of the most overlooked issues on the labor shortage may be airport badging policies. Security badging is an extremely important step to keeping the public safe, but policies can vary widely.
While recently attending the ACI-NA Annual Conference in Reno, I spoke with several consultants about badging and learned some airports can take nearly a month to issue a security badge while others take days. It doesn’t matter how many other airports have given them badges before the process still isn’t expedited.
An engineer or an architect waiting weeks for a badge is inconvenient. But a concessions worker or someone pushing wheelchairs making $10 an hour can’t afford that decision. An AOA worker or a mechanic can find plenty of other jobs doing similar work with half the headaches of airfield maintenance, much less waiting a month to start working there.
Building better infrastructure and embracing technology will go a long way to building the best air system in the world. But take the time to consider internal policies like security badging to make sure you’re not creating a self-inflicted challenge to improving operations.
No matter how much concrete, steel and glass you put into your terminals to improve them, it doesn’t do a lick of good if there’s no one there to make it run.
