'Go-To Point' For Development And Deployment Of Airport Best Practices

Lion and Gazelle, a provider of Business Transformation services to organizations, is launching the Airports Center of Excellence (ACoE): the first initiative of its kind and a go-to point for the development and deployment of best practices in airport-related processes.

The Airports Center of Excellence will identify operational and technological issues and develop innovative solutions, as well as undertake research and analysis based on Six Sigma methodology. The center will be operating at full capacity during the coming summer months.

Ferrovial Airports, the leading private airport operator in the world, is entering into a partnership with the ACoE and will be the only operator affiliated with the project. Heriot-Watt University will also join ACoE as the lead research partner. To strengthen its capability and services ACoE will be an ACI Europe World Business Partner and a member of the Institute of Six Sigma Professional (ISSP).

The ACoE plans to launch a number of research and improvement projects during its first year, spanning areas such as Operations, Commercial, Back Office and Technology. Among other airport-related processes, the center will focus on improving financial and operational performance whilst improving the passenger experience.

When fully operational the center will comprise a team of 20 industry-leading professionals, with 300 years of accumulated experience contributing to excellence in airports across the globe, led by Stan Ahmed, who is the founder and Managing Director of ACoE. The project will also involve a significant investment from Lion & Gazelle Ltd  over the next two years to meet its ambitious thought-leadership goals.

"Airports are massive eco-systems and air travel continues to be the safest and widely growing mode of transport in the world," said Stan Ahmed. "Excellence in areas such as operations, retail and the use of technology is becoming an increasingly relevant differentiator, and those are the challenges that we will tackle at the Airports Center of Excellence”.

“Innovation and Excellence have always laid at the core of our operational model, and we look forward to improve our world-class value proposition through our partnership with the ACoE," said Gonzalo Velasco at Ferrovial Airports.

Professor Antony from the Heriot-Watt University said “The School of Social Sciences team can bring specific and relevant research expertise on Process Excellence topics such as Lean and Six Sigma to the ACoE. Joint research proposals will lead to cutting edge solutions to achieving and sustaining operational and service excellence”.

ACoE aims to provide a unique marketplace for airports by building up a community of organisations from the airport supply chain. ACoE is now actively growing the exclusive membership of ACoE from airports, airlines, 3rd parties and solution providers with a view to launching the full service by the end of Summer 2017.

(Source: ACoE news release)

FMI: www.airportscoe.com