Integrating Crisis Management and Business Continuity at Airports: A Practical Guide (2024)
Chapter: Summary
SUMMARY
Integrating Crisis Management and Business Continuity at Airports: A Practical Guide
Continuity planning gives airports the knowledge to survive and even thrive during a crisis. Although continuity has historically been viewed as part of the recovery phase of a crisis incident rather than a critical element of crisis response, there is an opportunity to reframe the role for continuity planning to claim it as a tool for constant adaptability to the world’s many disruptions.
Continuity, or the ability to adapt processes to meet the demands of a disruption to their regular operations, is a challenge encountered by airports of all sizes. When airports integrate continuity with their crisis management strategy, it can be a defining factor in whether disruptions to operations result in setbacks or creativity.
This guide provides concepts, tools, and resources to build critical thinking skills and adaptability so that airports are prepared for anticipated and unforeseen crises that threaten to disrupt operations. It sets a path for building continuity leaders at every level of an airport by equipping them with a working knowledge of continuity through activities anchored in the four essential elements of a practical program (see Figure 1). The four essential elements to a practical program are: plans, people and stakeholders, resources, and training and exercises. A successful continuity capability will have strategies to address each element.
Integrating continuity as a tool for crisis management is a strategic and tactical approach that brings business considerations into the fold of response operations. The strategic purpose of this approach is to position an airport ecosystem in such a way that emboldens and informs the adaptability needed to respond to a disruption. This, in turn, augments the overall success of the airport ecosystem (see Figure 2). When an organization is faced with a disruption, its ability to respond will fundamentally shape one of three outcomes: growth, survival, or failure.
The terms and training approaches presented here are defined to support airports with instilling the creativity that can facilitate growth. These structures within the core guide are complemented by a full staff training plan provided in Appendix I: Training Plan.
