Aviation is always striving to be
a good neighbour and Glasgow
Airport is no different. It works with
the local communities on a number
of initiatives, led by its involvement
in a charity called FlightPath Fund.
Peter Carroll, the airport’s
Communications Manager, said:
“We have four local authorities that
fall in our ightpath area – Glasgow
City Council, Renfrewshire Council
and East and West Dunbartonshire
Councils. The FlightPath Fund is set
up to support community groups,
charities and organisations in that
area. It’s been running since 2010
and to date we’ve given £1.3m to local groups.”
The nal total for last year (2017) has
yet to be calculated, but it is expected
to be £170,000. Grants range from
£500 to £50,000 and can be awarded to
environmental projects, community gardens,
groups for pensioners, mothers and toddlers,
and the disabled, and for special purchases
such as football strips.
“The three pillars of the fund are
education, environment and employment,”
Carroll said. “We meet every two months and
go through applications to pick the best ones
that suit the criteria. Myself and a colleague
sit on the committee as trustees on behalf of
the airport.”ENVIRONMENT
Glasgow Airport holds an ISO 14001
certi cate which specify “the requirements
for an environmental management system
that an organisation can use to enhance its
environmental performance”.
Kevin Sinclair, the airport’s Sustainability
Assurance Manager, said no application
had yet been made to join Airports Council
International’s Airport Carbon Accreditation
Scheme. “However, our ISO 14001 auditor
advised that we would comfortably achieve
Level 2 and possibly Level 3 if we were to
apply,” he reported.
From caring for communities and the
environment to caring for passengers,
Glasgow Airport aims not to overlook
anything. An initiative last September
illustrated this attention to detail.
Carroll said: “We became the rst airport,
perhaps in the world, to introduce soft-toy
tags. During the summer months we had
quite a high in ux of lost soft toys, with young
children leaving them on aircraft or leavingthem in the terminal. So we decided we
wanted to try to reunite them and introduced
teddy-bear tags. Our check-in staff and our
ambassadors hand out these ‘Take care of
my bear’ tags, which are a bit like collars
you’d have for dogs with ‘My name is ...; I
belong to... ; if I am lost contact ...’.
“It is a story that goes to the very heart
of Glasgow’s unique customer experience.
We weren’t quite sure how it would take off, if
you’ll pardon the pun, but it went worldwide.
I ended up doing interviews with Japanese
breakfast TV and German breakfast TV. Our
customers loved it.”
The idea came to Carroll when his own
son lost his toy on holiday a year ago. “We
lost it for three hours and it was the longest
three hours of my life, because I thought, ‘If
we don’t nd this bear, we’re in big trouble’,”
he recalled. The value of a returned toy is
two-fold: the family unit is happy and the
airport receives word-of-mouth praise, which
is accelerated by social media.
“It shows that we’re not just a big, corporate
money-making machine, but that the people at
the airport have a heart,” said Carroll.
The viral response to the tags emphasised
the value of social media. Bourienne
admitted that its effect had changed the
communications operation. “We get more
budget for social media. We had to recruit
an agency to help us deal with customer
complaints, comments and questions. It used
to come by phone, but we don’t have a phone
line any more, or by email. But now it’s 24
hours a day and the digital team and the PRteam could not cope, so we had to
go for external support. We also
created more jobs internally. With
digital, the way of working has
totally changed so we have had to
adjust to it,” he said.
Carroll added: “With PR as well,
you can see something bubbling
away [on social media] that [then]
becomes an issue. It’s also a great
tool for marketing and PR.
“However, people don’t have the
patience that they may once have
had, and they can instantly complain
about something.” He added that
someone who had an issue with
an occasional aw in the past maybe wouldn’t
have complained will now do so on Twitter.
“Now, if they are sitting waiting in a
departure lounge, what do we all do there?
We’re on our phone, on Facebook or
Twitter.” He said this does mean you receive
instant customer feedback. He gave the
example that people might tweet to say, ‘It’s
really warm where I am.’ “So we ask them
where they are and then we can check the
thermostat. You’re literally being able to
gauge the temperature of your passengers,”
Carroll quipped.
He agreed that achieving an outcome
where the reaction is roughly 80% positive
on social media, means that the operation is
doing quite well.
“I remember the bad old days when you
queued for an hour to check in, then had
another long queue for security. It’s not like
that nowadays. The expectations are very
different. Now you get someone who’ll tweet
that they are disgusted that they queued for
13 minutes. The attitudes are different. We’re
so much more an ‘instant generation’ in how
we react on social media.”
All this has led to Glasgow Airport, now
with around 30 airlines ying to more than
120 destinations, being named Scottish
Airport of the Year in 2015 and 2016, as well
as winning the Airport Operators’ Association
Best Airport (3-10 million passengers
category) in those same years. In 2016, the
facility also added ACI-Europe’s award for
best airport in the 5-10 million passengers
category.
The airport has to continue working towards
its master plan goals and deal with whatever
the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union
brings. From its recent track record though,
this team clearly likes to meet challenges.64 Aviation News incorporating Jets January 2018Above: Glasgow Airport has two check-in
halls, both of which were revamped in time
for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Bottom: Part of the terminal and apron
between the central and eastern piers.60-64_glasgowDC.mf.indd 64 01/12/2017 15:30