CIDOT Interview with Andy Green, Airport Operations Manager for the CIAA

 CIDOT: Tell us a bit about yourself? Career background and role at CIAA
 
My aviation career started in 1988 when I joined Heathrow Airport on security. By 1990, I joined the Airside Operations team. Then in 2001, I became an Operations Duty Manager responsible for the whole operation of the airfield and holding the aerodrome license out of hours. In my time at Heathrow, I dealt with major aircraft accidents, volcanic ash that closed the airspace, as well as terrorist attacks and plenty of adverse weather situations. I then went onto work in Singapore and Dubai where I spent 6 years working for the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority

I arrived in Grand Cayman in September 2020. My role at GCM involves managing the airport operations teams with responsibility for the operation of the airside areas and the Airport Operations Command Centre with an influence on terminal operations.
 
 
CIDOT: What is the new airline schedule facilitation process and why did CIAA implement it?
 
Despite the success of the Cayman Islands as a holiday destination, the airport, pre Covid, suffered from outdated airfield infrastructure and a congested terminal. Airlines wanted to operate at their desired times, which at the time was not managed by the airport and this led to a very busy airfield resulting in safety being compromised and a very busy congested terminal resulting in a poor passenger experience.

With the new airfield infrastructure improvements, we have taken this opportunity to understand fully our capacity constraints. Significant modelling was done on all aspects of the airfield and terminal processes by Airport Coordination Limited and as a result our capacity constraints document enabled us to gain level 2 IATA status in scheduled facilitation—GCM is only the third airport in the region to do so.
 
CIDOT: Who is Airport Coordination Limited and what do they do?
 
Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) is based in the UK and manages the scheduled facilitation of approximately 46 airports globally. Their portfolio ranges from the world’s busiest airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Dubai and smaller airports similar to Grand Cayman that have the same type of operation including Dublin, Riga and all the airports in New Zealand. They coordinate 3.9 million flights carrying over 600 million passengers. As you can see, they are the global leaders regarding schedule facilitation.
 
CIDOT: What is the process like for an airline from submission to approval?
 
Schedules are required to be submitted six months in advance to enable the schedules to be facilitated for the forthcoming season. For instance, ACL are already working on the summer 2022 season—the schedule and the forecast shows demand as high as the winter season 2019.

Flights can be further submitted or adjusted by airlines and private operators at any time by email direct to ACL in a specific format or online through the online coordination system which gives an instant approval if the slot is available. If the slot is not available, it will give alternative times. This can be anything between 5 minutes to one hour.
 
CIDOT: How will this help us with reopening and safely welcoming back visitors?
 
We are really looking forward to accepting more visitors and the work ACL have completed so far is already seeing the benefit. They have a very good relationship with the airline network teams who have great experience in scheduling at the 300 plus global airports that have various levels of facilitation. As a result, the schedules submitted for the winter 2021 season have already, in some cases, been adjusted to ensure they do not breach our capacity constraints. This enables us to have a smoother and safe operation making us the benchmark for other airports in the Caribbean and allowing us to provide our guests with a world-class airport experience.