Airport Business

MAY 2015

The airport professional's source for airport industry news, articles, events, and careers.

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FBO PROFILE May 2015 airportbusiness 31 produce a better product. "Some FBOs today still announce changes to their internal processes by pinning up a memo somewhere hoping all the employees will see it and take action. But they never really know whether everyone saw and understood what they read. IS-BAH suggests a read file that everyone signs off on, as well as regular risk assessments." MODIFY MINDSETS Agostino spoke to one of the biggest concerns for people new to any kind of quality and safety certifications … "effectively blending any new procedures and policies with the local culture of the current staff," people who often look at safety manage- ment systems and the like as nothing more than unnecessary paperwork. He spoke of employees at any FBO who are often the most experienced who believe they "don't need anyone telling them how to perform a job they've been doing for years." Agostino is realistic about the FBO's new certification and extends a word of caution to all operators. "Any SMS can be defeated by an individual if that person elects not to follow the process and the procedures. While SMS is non-punitive, that doesn't eliminate penalties for negligence or incompetency." He adds that a comprehensive training program established long before the IS-BAH certification gave American Aero per- sonnel a springboard to the buy in they needed to make the system work. Almost any safety reporting system could be viewed as a hindrance at first glance. The key is to also make everyone realize an SMS is not a witchhunt to punish violators, but rather a system to identify those annoying little workplace incidents long before they become costly accidents. Bauer reminds operators that "the lack of an accident doesn't indicate an operation is safe either. What about close calls that are never recorded," he asks. "The people on the ramp are sometimes the least educated about operations of anyone in the organization, but they're the only ones actually working on the aircraft." Before too long, IS-BAH will become as widely an accepted standard for FBOs as IS-BAO is for flight departments, predicts Brown. "It really is a tool for the employees and the company, but also for our customers to know that we take care of their aircraft when it's in our care," he says. "They can worry a little less. To us it means we'll also be going that extra mile to help our customers." "Nothing in our profession remains constant, certainly not the FBO business," adds Agostino. "IS-BAH is a vehicle to help that evolution occur in a much safer way." "[We] went through the IS-BAH process for a couple of reasons … to differentiate us from other FBOs, but also to validate and improve the FBO's processes where they were needed." BOB AGOSTINO, VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN AERO www.aviationpros.com/10132415

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