CNN is now reporting a total of over 2.7 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide which have resulted in one hundred ninety-two thousand fatalities. In the US alone, there are now just under one million cases with almost fifty thousand deaths. By the time you read this Blog, I am afraid that these numbers will have increased even further before indicating the predicted decline.
Based upon these numbers, and the impact they have had on global business interests, I think we can all agree that the present state of the aviation industry would be completely unthinkable only a brief six months ago.
Aircraft parked on closed runways, modern terminal buildings shut down, passenger load factors in the single digits, and acres of empty airport parking lots at major airports can only be described as elements of a nightmare. The sad truth is, however, this nightmare is our current reality from which we must quickly emerge taking into careful consideration both medical science and common sense.
Rather than trying to “reinvent the wheel” or waiting for some yet to be developed “super plan” to recover and restart operations, let’s consider working together with the tools we currently have at our disposal, namely a new and innovative application of the industry-proven Safety Management System (SMS) methodology.
For starters, let’s consider revising our safety policies and clearly state to our employees and customers that their health, hygiene, and well-being are of an equal corporate priority with necessary resources, open reporting, non-reprisal, and just culture.
We can follow this by ensuring that post-pandemic safety risk assessments (SRAs) are now taking into account health hazards associated with the cleanliness of aircraft, equipment, workplaces, and facilities as well as potential personnel exposure and contagion.
For the “new” SMS to work properly in this environment, we must do everything possible to maintain an open reporting culture, free from reprisal of any kind, in which health hazards are routinely reported, fully documented within an SMS Hazard Register, and then appropriately actioned. We have already seen all too well what happens when “silence” is allowed to be the norm.
How will we know when success has been achieved, or more importantly when it is not being achieved? The age-old adage of “what gets measured, gets managed” could not be truer today than at any time in the recent past. Now is the time to establish performance metrics and target levels pertaining to health, hygiene, and contagion so that we can legitimately assure ourselves that we are doing our best to protect the well-being of our customers, employees, and ourselves.
The events of the past several weeks have changed our industry, if not the world, forever. There will be massive changes taking place over the next few months which will need to be well-thought-out and effectively implemented without having the solutions generate more risk than the pandemic itself. Over the next few months, management of change (MOC) will evolve into a continuous process of effectively mitigating risk levels brought about by our “new normal”.
Lastly, we cannot just expect our work colleagues to know how best to protect themselves from potential exposure to contagion unless we educate them on the very latest guidelines and standards to follow in the workplace. Employee training courses must now include the unique challenges now being faced by various workgroups, and most importantly, how they can best mitigate the risk of front-line exposure and contagion.
Even in the new post-Pandemic world, we cannot allow the concept of delivering high levels of customer service to simply disappear. In fact, they must become our new reality.
Airport check-in staff can still begin the customer experience on a note of warmth and cordiality. Cabin crew will continue to welcome passengers on board and provide them with a safe and secure onboard experience.
The flight crew will still be able to interact with each other and cabin crewmembers utilizing well established CRM principles. Airport station personnel and ground service providers will continue to interact with each other while their traditional their respective duties and responsibilities.
Going forward, we will have to accomplish these tasks in somewhat of a different manner consistent with our new reality.
Each and every legacy standard operating procedure (SOP) will literally have to be “scrubbed” to ensure that the very latest health, hygiene, and contagion guidelines are taken into consideration and any pertinent Federal, State, and Local regulations are observed. The objectives remain the same, only the methodologies will be changed to protect the innocent!
While there will be many similarities involved in the forthcoming restarting of services, there will also be many new and even more challenging hazards. Traditional audit checklists will have to be updated to include the very latest State and Federal regulatory requirements and industry best practices regarding personnel health, hygiene, and contagion.
We have sometimes heard that there is no “playbook” for managing this type of global threat to our industry, must less recovering from it. We at GHS do not agree.
There is a Roadmap to recovery and restart. There is an industry-proven methodology ready to be put in place. As an industry, we have the expertise, capability, and resolve to turn this most recent tragedy into one of the most valuable learning experiences of our time so as to never allow ourselves to be so unprepared in the future.
We sincerely hope that we can work together and return to full operations as soon as medical science and good judgment will allow.
Please stay safe!