28 April 2020

COVID-19: Interview with the President of the Airports of Puglia Tiziano Onesti

"It is necessary to activate all initiatives aimed at improving travel safety in a sector, such as Air Transport, which is global by definition, with homogeneous and formalized rules all over the world."

Avion Tourism Magazine proposes, during the Covid-19 pandemic , a series of interviews with the CEOs and/or General Managers of Italian airports to understand how they are carrying out their work in these critical days of health emergency, to give a space and a voice to their stories and the initiatives they have put in place field. And, above all, to know what strategies will be adopted to make passenger transit at the airport safer and how the air transport sector is evolving.

AIRPORTS OF PUGLIA

Interview with the President of the Airports of Puglia Tiziano Onesti

Tiziano Onesti , CEO of the Airports of Puglia. © Airports in Puglia

Can you tell us how your work has changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and how the work in your airports has changed and been organized?

"We have all organized ourselves in smartworking mode; The day is marked by telephone or video meetings that are very efficient for the organization of time, but we arrive in the evening quite tired and adrenaline-pumping. There is a lack of sociability and sharing of the gesture, of a look, of a handshake ... But this period will pass and we will slowly arrive at our natural dimension, albeit with precautions and means to safeguard our health.

As regards the management of the infrastructures currently managed by Aeroporti di Puglia Spa, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary to radically intervene on the organisational model, starting with the widespread application of smart working, but also on the production perimeter, with the closure of 3 out of 4 airports , keeping only Bari Airport fully operational.

However, we ensure the levels of safety and supervision required by legislation and industry best practices. With the management, we have analyzed the chain of operational activities, involving everyone at all levels (to stimulate further sensitivity to certain issues dictated by the pandemic), from collaborators to partners, carriers and sub-dealers."

What are the initiatives you have carried out in recent days and with what objectives?

"Aeroporti di Puglia has promptly activated concerted actions with the trade unions for access to social safety nets, integrating the benefits in favor of workers, for example with company loans and the financial advance of the indemnity paid by INPS, and also favoring the use of the measures provided for in the Company Supplementary Agreement. With Partners (Airlines, commercial sub-concessionaires) we have initiated the necessary discussions aimed at safeguarding the investments made and commercial goodwill, adopting the most suitable contractual measures to overcome this temporary crisis and be able to emerge from it with a view to recovery and development. With the other stakeholders (e.g., Suppliers) service levels have been redefined with the consequent reduction of operating costs, just as much attention has been given to planning and liquidity management."

What measures have you taken to ensure the safety of all employees working at airports for Aeroporti di Puglia?

"Aeroporti di Puglia has promptly adopted the protocols and measures indicated by the national and regional government and by the health and surveillance authorities, providing logistical and operational support to the health control activities carried out at the airport. Since the early days of the pandemic, employees have been equipped with the necessary PPE, as well as extraordinary measures have been initiated to sanitize environments, vehicles and equipment. The shift has also been set up in such a way as to easily trace contacts and, therefore, to prevent any contagion."

After the lockdown, without prejudice to the application of the protocols that will be provided by the competent authorities, how do you plan to guarantee and strengthen health safety for passengers, in the different areas of your airports so that they can return to travel with peace of mind?

" Airports have always been a safe place where passengers are screened individually and where, more than anywhere else, passenger information is tracked both before and after the flight. Starting from this fundamental assumption, rapid and effective action must be taken to strengthen the perception of safety, also in terms of passenger health. Prevention systems will be used on airport infrastructures such as access and remote control of body temperature, plexiglass screens at check-in desks and boarding gates, the installation of detergent diffusers, the use of masks and gloves, in addition to the aforementioned sanitization measures of all environments, vehicles and equipment and implementation of ventilation systems. But the most effective interventions will come from the enhancement of IT services, from the evolution of booking, acceptance, biometric recognition, electronic payment systems, through Apps and enabling technologies (Blockchain, Internet of Things-IoT, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, etc.). Airports, therefore, will be increasingly "smart" with self-service routes, totems and electronic kiosks, with the aim of limiting possible contact. In this sense, Aeroporti di Puglia has launched a project to strengthen the entire airport information system for a value of about 15 million euros for the digital transformation of all airport procedures, through the use of new frontier technologies. However, we believe it is essential that a regulator establishes minimum parameters and protocols that all the infrastructures of a given area (EU, IATA, etc.) must meet in order to accommodate our passengers with the highest degree of physical safety."

As a result of this pandemic, what do you think will be the substantial changes in the way we travel in Italy and around the world and how will the air transport sector evolve?

"As already mentioned, it is necessary to activate all initiatives aimed at improving travel safety in a sector, such as Air Transport , which is global by definition, with homogeneous and formalized rules all over the world. The experience of 11/9/2001 with the attack on the Twin Towers has shown that the coordinated and organized intervention at an institutional and industrial level, with investments in technologies, plants and infrastructures, with the definition of new procedures and methods of access to airport areas, has then led to the overcoming of the shock of supply and demand, allowing air transport to resume the growth trend. In this sense, a public financing plan is needed for all infrastructural and organisational interventions, which must also be accompanied by effective communication campaigns and adequate pricing policies by airlines.

The necessary communication campaigns must have a "booster" effect, i.e. an acceleration and strengthening of the promotion of territories in the markets that are the source of incoming tourist flows. In recent years, in fact, tourist flows have been increasingly determined by the presence or absence of a direct air connection rather than by the destination itself. ) no longer put airports in competition, but territories, being able to channel the flows of "generated demand" to a specific location."

What message would you like to send to all passengers who, after the lockdown, will resume flying by choosing your airports?

"I am convinced that the Apulian Airports have seized this unexpected situation as a stimulus for change, oriented towards technological innovation and the improvement of environmental sustainability. Aeroporti di Puglia is one of the few airport management companies in Europe that adhere to the UN Global Compact and that aim to substantially comply with the principles of sustainability. In this sense, the Charter of Passenger Rights will also have to be updated taking into account the new regulations, the new standards of airport accessibility , safety (also in the health sense) and increasingly high levels of comfort of airport services. Aeroporti di Puglia, in fact, has been able to become a reference model in Italy as the only Airport Network pursuant to EU Directive 2009/12, precisely because it has managed to combine the role of instrumental subject of economic and tourist development of the Apulian territory with the role of concessionaire of airport infrastructures, in a context of public control. In this sense, the message I would like to send to all passengers who choose the Apulian Airports is that the airport infrastructures of Bari, Brindisi, Foggia and Grottaglie, which already ensure very high levels of comfort, safety and security, are involved in an intense adaptation plan that will make them even safer also from the point of view of the healthiness of the environments and health prevention, in a territorial context such as Puglia whose entire accommodation offer is adapting to the new standards in order to guarantee a safe, serene and healthy travel experience at 360 degrees. I close by saying that Puglia and the entire South East of Italy have tourist, hospitality and travel offers, which represent concrete and useful solutions and answers to combine the need for the holiday with that of the safety and security of people. Think of the widespread tourism in the farms, typical of this land of ours, which ensures a fair and appropriate social distancing, without however making it an insurmountable barrier of human relationships. If we all stick to simple rules of attention, we could all enjoy those special atmospheres that only a land of beauty that is not at all obvious and obvious like this area of our country can give us."

Curated by Angela Trivigno

Avion Tourism Magazine

Visual: Sisterscom.com / Rudzenka / Shutterstock