Sydney Airport wins award for incident and emergency management

More than 150 airports around the world have taken part in the Australian-led Airport Safety Week.

Sydney Airport staff members, from left, Todd Keogh, Nupur Sain, Poppy Coleman and Linda Suh take part in a foreign object debris walk. Picture: Hollie Adams

More than 150 airports around the world have taken part in the Australian-led Airport Safety Week that aims to promote a safe working environment for ­airport staff.

Established in 2014 as a partnership between the Australian Airports Association and New Zealand Airports Association, this year’s event has seen airports participate in a series of events ­including foreign object debris walks where airport staff and contractors walk sections of the aerodrome to look for items that could interfere with flights taking off or landing.

About 105 Australian airports have taken part in the week-long event alongside 15 in New Zealand, nine in other countries and 27 aviation organisations that have also signed up.

“Airport Safety Week brings together airport and aviation ­industry operators at our largest international gateway airports and some of our smallest regional aerodromes to strengthen safety awareness for people working in airport environments,” said Caroline Wilkie, the AAA chief executive.

“We understand the limitations on airports and other businesses and encourage everyone to participate in any way they can. Every activity, no matter the scale, goes some way to ­improving safety awareness and that’s what Airport Safety Week is all about.”

The weeklong event also hands out awards to recognise airports and individuals who have shown a sustained commitment to improving airport safety. This year’s event saw Sydney Airport win the major airport award for its incident and emergency management strategy. Barrow Island Airport won the regional award from the same category while Moorabbin in Melbourne took home the metropolitan airport award.

Sydney picked up its gong for its incident and emergency management strategy, which has seen the airport invest more than $1 million over the past three years to put in place a system that improves emergency response communications and better weather tracking and forecasts.

“Winning this Australian Airports Association award has been testament to the great work of our teams and the investment in our safety initiatives,” said Sally Fielke, Sydney Airport’s general manager of corporate affairs. Technology enhancements at Sydney Airport include the instal­lation of “NOGGIN”, an ­auto­mated text messaging software system that keeps stakeholders up to date on incidents and emergencies that are unfolding at the airport.

“This allows us to plan and manage our communications and operations to better co-ordinate incidents and emergencies,” Ms Fielke said.

Sydney Airport invested in a technology called Weather Zone that provides more accurate weather observation for its staff, giving them better visibility around fog, thunderstorms and other weather events that could impact operations.

“This means you can disperse and dispense information much quicker and let people know what’s required much quicker than what we’ve done in the past,” Ms Fielke said.

Other award winners from the week include the airfield electrical team at Perth Airport for building a positive safety culture as part of the team delivering the $36m CATIII instrument landing system upgrading project.

Individual awards went to Greg Picken, facilities manager at Alice Springs Airport, for his work in improving the design, accessibility and lighting for hanging walkways used by contractors in the airport’s roof space.

The major airport individual award went to Kym Littler, ground transport customer service officer at Adelaide Airport, for his contribution to the workplace safety culture and his maintenance and cleaning project for wheelchairs that are provided for customers using the airport.