Airport Management as a career

Airports are service organisations, producing services rather than goods.

They cater to a variety of customers and they operate in a highly regulated
environment. They operate on a 24 hours a day basis, and they may be
subjected to disruptions and crisis such as congestion, aircraft accidents,
bad weather conditions, equipment breakdowns and security threats. As a
result, airport management differs, in some respects, from the management
of other types of enterprises.
The title of the top airport position can vary from country to country or from
one airport to the next: Airport Manager, Airport General Manager, Airport
Director, Executive Director, Director of Aviation, and Airport Chief
Executive Officer. For the purpose of this manual, we will use the generic
term Airport Manager.
As you learned in the previous section, there are many disciplines in the
field of airport management.
The position of airport manager being the highest one in an airport
organisation, it can usually be reached through advancement within the
organisation. Often, employees enter the industry at a junior level, and
through education, application and motivation work they way up the
organisation.
The Aviation Management Program, Distance Learning is a good place to
start one's career. In addition, many professional courses are available
through the IATA Training and Development Institute, through formal
classroom courses or through Distance Learning Training Programmes.
This course textbook constitutes a good preparation tool to that effect.
The job of Airport Manager varies greatly, from the director of a large
international airport processing tens of millions of passengers to the
manager of a small, privately owned general aviation airport. The former is
a high-level executive managing a large staff and budget and having
significant public relations functions; the latter will combine many responsibilities
and will do most of the work himself.
The Airport Manager is both a property manager or landlord, catering to the
needs of his land tenants and concessionaires, and a businessperson,
running an enterprise with many customers. The key skills required for this
job are:
(a) Leadership
(b) Vision
(c) Understanding the business and the needs of his customers
In all cases, the primary responsibility of an airport manager is to ensure
the safe, secure and efficient operation of his airport and of all its facilities

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SARP (Standard and Recommend Practises)

ICAO develops and adopts statements that must be applied by all member
states in order to achieve consistency throughout the world. There are twotypes of such
statements: Standards and Recommended Practices (SARP).
A Standard is a specification for physical characteristics or performance of
a facility or personnel, the uniform application of which is recognised as
necessary for reasons of safety or regularity of international air navigation
Its application by all member states is mandatory.
A Recommended Practice is a specification for physical characteristics or
performance of a facility or personnel, the uniform application of which is
recognised as desirable.
Where can you find these SARPs? They are published in documents called
Annexes. There are eighteen (18) such annexes, each of them dealing with
one particular aspect of aviation.
Out of these Annexes, three are of particular interest to you: Facilitation
(Annex 9), Aerodromes (Annex 14) and Security (Annex 17)