To mark Business Continuity Awareness Week here’s a blog from AGS Airports Ltd.’s Group Head of Assurance.
As well as being a former Senior Fire Officer, Gillies is a Specialist of the Institute of Risk Management, a member of the Business Continuity Institute and the Chair of the West of Scotland Regional Resilience Partnership Transport Function Group.
All businesses are susceptible to things going wrong, some with graver consequences than others. This can vary from the effects of a fire or flood, through to a temporary loss of power. The one constant though, is the need to ensure we are prepared for all eventualities; in other words, we are prepared for anything.
In the past year, the global pandemic has demonstrated the need for robust business continuity planning measures which are deliverable in their simplicity and effective in their evolution. The aviation industry has been particularly hard hit with estimates of over 90% reduction in passenger numbers in 2020 compared to 2019, and this will continue through 2021. Business Continuity Awareness Week also sees the start of the new traffic light system for aviation recovery, however, there is still a very long way to go before pre-pandemic normality returns.
Notwithstanding, it is not just the global pandemic that we need to deal with; across AGS Airports, we have suffered several events in recent years which we have managed in such a way that they had no major long-lasting consequences on our business.
We have witnessed many and somewhat varied events across our airports in Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Southampton and thankfully, we are well known and respected for our continuing ability to step up to the challenge during periods of extreme operational challenges. These successes are mainly down to good pre-planning and our staff’s engagement and willingness to go that extra mile.
Preparation and planning are vital in ensuring that our business not only survives disruptive events but that we are seen by our customers, stakeholders, business partners, staff, and the wider media to be in control and directing the restoration of normality.
This year, the theme of the BCI’s Business Continuity Awareness Week is “Business Continuity Starts with You”. We all need to be prepared and plan for the worst eventualities that may befall our business. The Chinese philosopher Confucius sums this up nicely when he said “Success depends on previous preparation and without such preparation, there is sure to be failure”.
Business Continuity Awareness Week is a timely reminder of the importance of the business continuity plans, procedures, and processes which ensure that organisations such as AGS Airports Ltd will successfully bounce back from such eventualities.
Glasgow Airport is one of only a handful of airports globally to be awarded the Business Continuity Management System ISO 22301 with our sister airports in Aberdeen and Southampton on course to achieve this within the next two years. This demonstrates AGS Airports Ltd’s commitment to business continuity management and the Group’s investment in resilience by ensuring that we are all capable of dealing with any disruptive event which may present itself at any time. As I say to all our staff - business continuity starts with you!
You can find out more here.