Case Study: Athens International Airport
Athens International Airport aims for consistency of aviation operations through training.
Overview
Since 2001, Athens International Airport (AIA) has offered high quality services, earning the trust of airlines, passengers, partners and stakeholders.
Having welcomed more than 300 million passengers and over 3.5 million flights, the airport creates significant benefits for tourism, the national economy and Athens as a destination.
2018 was a historic year for the airport, welcoming 24.14 million passengers, while in 2019, growth continues dynamically for a sixth consecutive year.
AIA continues its investment program of aesthetic, functional and operational enhancements at its premises and has been awarded Best Airport in Europe in terms of service quality and passenger satisfaction by ACI World for a second consecutive year.
Thanks to its top-notch services, AIA has earned 92 significant international distinctions and awards. Today, with more than 300 companies and 13,000 employees, the airport community constitutes one of the biggest employment engines in Greece.
The Challenge
With the introduction of the new EASA regulation (139/2014), AIA needed to ensure that their Airport Operations team was aligned to the new standards set by EASA for the certification of the airport by end of year 2017.
The challenge was the delivery of specialized training to an extensive number of fully operational employees within a limited time.
In addition to this, AIA wanted to ensure the consistency of aviation operations by training all operations employees at the same skill level in the future.
The Solution
To meet the EASA training regulations, AIA sought out training for Airside Operations as well as Safety. AIA decided that the training that best corresponded to their needs was the online training offered by ACI’s Online Learning Centre (OLC) including the following programs:
AIA made the decision to offer these courses to existing employees and to new hires / appointments in applicable positions in the future.
By the delivery of these courses AIA can maintain professional standards by ensuring that all employees are trained to the same level of competency. These courses are also deployed according to annual training needs analysis so that AIA is compliant with industry updates and requirements.
The Benefits
Training through the OLC has ensured that AIA’s Operations team has a consistent level of knowledge with readily available courses.
Iosif Nikos, AIA’s Airfield Services Manager, commented that “ACI’s OLC offers Airport Operations and Management, allowing for a more effective professional development experience especially to frontline duty personnel.”
At the click of a button, training was deployed cost-effectively, to groups of learners no matter where they were working in the airport. AIA knew that the nature of eLearning meant that the logistics and efforts required to implement the training would be reduced significantly.
While classroom training is still undertaken at AIA for Airport Operations training, it is directed to subjects that require interaction with instructors or when interdisciplinary teams are brought together.
Being able to deliver the ACI training online meant that airport operations weren’t interrupted as learners had the flexibility of accessing their courses at a time that suited them, as well as in their preferred location. Each learner appreciated the ability to access the courses as much as they wanted over a 12-month period.
Iosif Nikos commented that “The OLC’s online training is definitely at the top of the training priorities for our Airfield Services team, while most importantly, the people enjoy it and ask for it!”.
Appreciation
The OLC would like to thank Zeta Papageorgiou, Iosif Nikos and Athens International Airport for taking the time to assist us in developing this article.
