AAI organises domestic airport lab at Tiruchirappalli airport

New Delhi: A two–day domestic airport lab on "Re-Engineering the Key Approaches within Airport Commercial Planning and Implementation to Maximise Non-Aeronautical Revenue," organised by state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), was inaugurated on April 26 by Anuj Aggarwal, Member (Human Resources), at Tiruchirappalli International Airport.

On this occasion, EP Hareendranathan, Executive Director (Training-IAA) & Head of Airport Lab Committee, AAI; Sanjay Jain, Executive Director (Human Resources); S Sreekumar, Regional Executive Director, Southern Region and K Gunasekaran, APD Trichy airport were also present.

This two-day highly interactive workshop will offer professionals an opportunity to discuss, collaborate, and learn from other airport professionals that have demonstrated leadership in a specific airport subject

In his keynote address, Aggarwal emphasised on the need to focus on maximising non-aeronautical revenues, while making air travel more affordable to the common man.  

He said, "This problem-solving lab is an initiative to utilise the expertise of international airport professionals of AAI and to come out with innovative solutions to further devise, accomplish and boost non-aeronautical revenues at par with best global practices." He further elaborated on the equal responsibility sharing with stakeholders in the long term concessionaire agreements to ensure the enhancement of the services along with the revenue and also to revisit challenges from time to time to have solutions.

This two-day highly interactive workshop will offer professionals an opportunity to discuss, collaborate, and learn from other airport professionals that have demonstrated leadership in a specific airport subject. This exercise would facilitate sharing of best practices and innovative ideas for enhancement of non-aeronautical revenues. This, in part, serves the airport which benefits from the perspective of a diverse team of global airport professionals. The idea is to utilise the collective wisdom and rich experience of these airport professionals to find innovative solutions.

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Speaking on the occasion, Hareendranathan said that the primary purpose of Airport Labs is to bring International Airport Professionals (IAPs) together to share expertise on specific best practices in various aviation-specific areas. AAI has a large pool of more than 150 executives, designated as IAPs. Executives are designated as IAPs after successfully completing Airport Management Professional Accreditation Programme (AMPAP), a joint program of Airport Council International (ACI) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

In a series of airport Labs, AAI had earlier organised two domestic airport labs at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, and Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneshwar, in the year July 2016 and October 2017, respectively, and international Airport Lab at NSCBI Airport in Kolkata in November 2017. These labs were a great success in terms of the betterment of customer services and preparedness for Airport Emergencies.

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