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Weekly Updates1. INTRODUCTION
Airports are safer today than they were in the past. Blakey (2005) appearing before the US Senate Commerce subcommittee on aviation safety issues said that "three year average commercial accident rate is 0.017 accidents per 100,000 departures" meaning accident rate is the equivalent of one fatal accident for every 15 million passenger carrying flights. In today's world intelligence, security partnering and information sharing has help to reduce incidents and accidents at the airports take the Germany plot on the 5th September 2007 by Islamic militants against America target in Germany the threat was real, massive and imminent. A CNN source said the detonator was sophisticated, like the ones used in military device hard to come by, very precise kind of high-tech and can inflict more casualties than lower-grade detonators.
This paper examines how baggage and passengers are processed through the airport for their on-ward journeys, the health and safety perspective of manual handling, and work place injuries and reportable injuries. Movement in and out of the case study airports was examined. A passenger profiling at each of the airports was carried out by the researcher to see first hand the experiences of each passenger on the day of travel and also to have a fair and proper evaluation of performance and performance related issues in the case study airports in terms of airport facilities.
The research methodology examines the process undertaken by the researcher in developing the key performance indicators from beginning to completion of the final KPI list. The study developed a three 'AAA' model (Airport--Aircraft--Airport) and a 3 stage approach to the research process; which involved a review of the IATA level of service standard, followed by a review of the CAA incidents and then a review of the airport operational procedures and practices. The airport was fully examined including departures and arrivals, covering a complete journey circle from airport to aircraft and from aircraft back to airport.
The level of service was examined and related to airport capacity and their influence on the design of the airport and the facilities provided by airports. Attempts were made to relate the case study airports to the IATA space standards and examine how the level of service is determined at each facility in the airport. The dwelling time of each passenger can be estimated from information available and this has a huge implication for both the designers of airport as a facility and the managers of the airport in planning for facility usage and human resource implications. Also discussed is the CAA data; analysis and presentation. Here the CAA data was presented in tables, originally data was collated in MS Excel and statistical tools (Chi-square) was used to test for independence of incident. Where [H.sub.0] = incidences are independent, and [H.sub.1] = incidences are dependent.
The philosophy of performance measurement was also a key focus of the research study; this study differs from previous studies, as it concentrates on looking at how FM impacts upon airport performance in relation to safety and security. The rationale behind the focus on Scottish airports was the logistics to accessing key people at each airport and collecting relevant data in conjunction with the belief that to some extent operating procedures will be similar across the world in terms of the security and safety function. A more international perspective is perhaps an additional research activity for the future and is outside the scope of the current project.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Airports take proactive measures to solve operational vulnerabilities through procedures, awareness, airport infrastructure, education, enlightenment, training and technology. Airport safety requires a coordinated approach between the various interest groups and the government as well as the stakeholders and workers. Facilities Management uses a wide range of measures in performance measurement from traditional financial accounting measures to indicators of managerial behaviour as well as different other measures of effectiveness (Amaratunga and Baldry, 2003). Measurement is still one of the critical aspects of today's management, just as it has been in the past being a key aspect of scientific development since the seventeenth century. The concept of performance measurement has been embraced by facilities managers and project managers, who increasingly use it as a benchmark against which effectiveness can be measured, and a basis for which improvement can be determined (Enoma and Allen, 2007).
Crisis management scholars have developed several models of crisis management all offering different explanations of crisis with no real convention on how to deal with crisis, however no particular model has been tested empirically in the context of terrorism and organisational response to crisis (Paraskevas and Arendell, 2007). Quarantelli (1986) observed that crisis management of disaster does not follow automatically from disaster planning but from activities of emergency organisations and identified areas of problems in disaster management to be communication process, the exercise of authority, and the development of coordination. However prior planning can limit the extent of management difficulties and the effect of the disaster but can not eliminate the occurrence completely (Smith, 1990). In crisis management risk assessment and contingency planning are vital tools for effective control strategy and at the same time identifying specific element that has to be in place at each stage of the disaster lifecycle. Faulkner and Vikulov (2001) in their framework on crises ranging from employee strikes, terrorism and economic recession introduced broader strategic issues like environmental scanning, strategic choice and control, resource management and organisational learning. But this very generic framework will be of limited use to those studies wishing to develop anti terrorist strategies aimed at preventing terrorist attack on our institutions.
The role of Facilities Management (FM) in the delivery of safety and security within the airport will depend upon the ability to identify, communicate, and manage opportunities and threats to help support the airport business objectives at the earliest possible time. This involve a more holistic view for the FM function as reflected by strategy facilities management and the ability to address its requirements at an early stage of the development process, where considerations is given to FM can be as early as the design stage. This will entail major developmental shift of airport as construction projects to FM services provision. This orientation makes the development of the scheme one of designing for FM. In airport redesign for safety and security, all airport facilities are examined for their support/contributions to the overall business objective of the airport at the same time looking at how they fit to regulatory framework of the authorities. FM has a major role to play in ensuring safety and security at the airport.
3. AIRPORT SUPPORT FACILITIES
Airport support facilities are needed to achieve efficient and effective airport system, to facilitate flight operations, airport maintenance and airport administration as well as the maintenance of aircraft and other airlines related services. Mainly airline support services, on site air support functions are necessary for the normal operations of the airport.
Aircraft maintenance facilities are a major support facility, made up of hangars ranging in height and number depending on the airport and the planes that it serves, the hangars can range from 28 m to 39 meters above grade, this facility is usually for line maintenance with heavy maintenance procedures been undertaking not so often. You also have the ground handling equipment maintenance; airlines and their agents operate, maintain and store different types of ground handling equipment, design for use in the apron areas of the airport.
Fuelling facilities, part of the airport support facility most airport have fuel depot where most of the arriving and departing aircraft are refuelled, while most of the aircraft are refuelled by using trucks others can be refuelled using permanent hydrant.
Aircraft kitchen and cleaning services are responsible for all kitchens' prepared and packed meals for in-flight service and at the same time responsible for cleaning the aircraft making sure the aircraft is clean before passengers are allowed into the aircraft for their onward journey. Most of these facilities are located near the airside and would not have restricted but controlled access to the apron in the airport terminal to carry out their functions.
There is also the aircraft waste facility; this facility has the capacity for processing aircraft sewage, normally sewage truck with tanks makes way to the waiting aircraft in the apron and extract all the sewage from the aircraft for onward processing at the waste facility or for disposal at the local council sanitary sewage, this particular facility can be located near the airport or located outside because there are specialized vehicles for processing waste.
Airports provide facilities to help aircraft movement, cargo and the processing of passengers. Some of the facilities have been discussed above others are; Emergency response and coordination, policing and security, airport airfield maintenance, administrative and support staff accommodation. Emergency response and coordination are responsible for any emergency on airport property and aircraft crash and rescue; they are responsible for hysteria control when there is an accident of any nature, their responsibility stresses beyond call to duty it also entail coordination of the activities of the rescue team and setting up support for both victims and their relations or love ones, counseling and information dissemination. You also have the fire service in case of any fire within airport properties and aircraft. In cases of emergency the government emergency services will always help and it is the responsibility of the in house response team to coordinate and control the services of the outside emergency teams.
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