Airport Business - 45

RISK MITIGATION

AMERICAN AERO FTW

increased emergency response plan drills.
Emergency procedures must be put to
the test so you can learn if they are still
applicable to a constantly changing
environment. It is also a good way to
gauge how your people would react in
an emergency.
Any organization seeking to maintain
the IS-BAH standard must insist on
quality in emergency procedures based on
the size and scope of the operation. Part
of that is how often you drill and what
have you learned, changed or added from
performing those drills. We also brought
in a third-party manual service. Due to
the constant change to standard operating
procedures, we needed to streamline and
publish new versions of our manual after
each revision.
In addition, we continued our
development of computer software to
aid in tracking SPIs and risk assessments.

Organizational Changes

also affiliated with a corporate f light
department that has extremely high
standards and is IS-BAO Level III
certified. Those flight department pilots
experience FBOs around the world, and
their expertise has enabled American
Aero to avoid shortcomings and adopt
best practices.
To make our most recent leap
from Stage II to Stage III certification,
American Aero worked to expand safety
performance indicators (SPIs) in order to
evaluate the overall functionality of safety
performance. We took a "deep dive" into
years of data to match where our safety
targets, alert levels and goals should be
for an operation that has been measuring
safety performance for five years. We
also knew that progression to Stage III
required that our SPIs reflect "continuous
improvement" from the Stage II audit.
As part of that effort, American Aero

For a safety culture to exist, all levels
of management must be involved,
committed and accountable. That
buy-in creates a strong pipeline for
information. As preparation for a Stage
III audit, American Aero strengthened
the relationship between the safety
manager and the accountable executive.
We increased briefings and optimized
the pipeline of safety information, which
resulted in a more informed management
structure and improved decision making.
Finally, we worked to ensure a "just
culture." One of the main tenants of
IS-BAH is a shared accountability. Any
organization that seeks to maintain a just
culture must hold itself accountable for
negative outcomes created by errors or
oversight in the training it provides, or in
the systems and procedures it puts in place.
Equally, employees within that
organization must be held accountable
for following procedure and participating
in the SMS. It's all about continuous
improvement, and American Aero is 100
percent committed to that culture, from
top to bottom.

Overcoming Challenges
There are many challenges that may face
ground handlers around the world: the
human element, operational inefficiencies,
a lack of standardized procedures and
less-than-ideal airport design, to name

a few. There's also the cost associated
with providing an elevated safety culture,
although the cost of not doing so can be
far greater.
Ground handlers can better help
operators identify hazards and mitigate
risk by incorporating an SMS into all
aspects of operations, as outlined in
IS-BAH standards. Without an SMS,
ground handlers are reactionary. With
an SMS, ground handlers are proactive
and can better prevent major incidents.
Customers of our FBO understand
that we are proactive about their needs.
We are constantly evaluating our efforts
and asking ourselves how we can better
serve the needs of our customers.

An Appreciable
Difference
Since American Aero opened its doors
in 2012, there has never been a major
incident. That said, no operation
is bullet proof. We are constantly
measuring performance and looking for
trends. We're actively learning, actively
modifying and proactively doing things
to mitigate against potential risk.
While much of this is behind the
scenes, our customers are noticing the
difference. When they taxi to our FBO,
they see a highly trained marshaller.
They see two wing-walkers and notice
that we double chock the plane when it
is parked. They see a well-maintained
and clean fuel truck.
Other FBOs might do some of these
things, but our customers also notice the
questions that we ask. And they feel the
difference with every employee, because
every single team member participates
in maintaining our safety culture in
some way.
American Aero is proud to be the
top-rated FBO at Fort Worth Meacham
International Airport and among the top
5 percent of FBOs in the world. We
attribute that recognition to exceptional
customer service, employees committed
to going above and beyond at every
touchpoint, and unmatched facilities
and amenities. But our customers also
know we are committed to their safety,
and the safety of their equipment. Our
commitment to leading the industry in
ground handling safety is a ref lection
of that. 

MAY 2019 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 45
http://www.AVIATIONPROS.COM
Airport Business

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