Airport Operators Association launches UK Airports Safety Week 2019

The Airport Operators Association has launched the fourth annual AOA UK Airports Safety Week. 

Until Sunday 19 May, airports across the UK are promoting all aspects of aviation and workplace safety, including wellbeing. This will be done through events for airport staff, staff of companies operating in and around the airport, and the public, to demonstrate and promote airports’ approaches to safety and safety culture. 

The AOA UK Airports Safety Week 2019 is hoped to inspire, engage and educate the public and staff at airports about the renowned UK safety culture and track-record. The excellent safety culture is thanks to successful collaboration across many partners: Passengers’ and workforce safety relies on everyone, landside and airside, putting safety first. That is why the AOA promote the UK airport safety culture through events, enabling the UK aviation industry to shine a light on success and find new ways to work together and spread learning. 

This year’s safety week will show that airport safety is an integral part of the communities that airports serve, both by providing a safe and enjoyable travel experience to passengers as well as by providing important employment opportunities, including apprenticeships.

Airports across the UK are running multiple events every day. Examples of these activities are:

• Baggage truck driving, push back and dispatching experiences for staff at Manchester Airport
• Passenger Day at Edinburgh Airport, where passengers will hear about security, counterfeit goods, first aid and more
• Emergency first aid demonstrations at George Best Belfast City Airport
• First aid demonstrations by the Airport Fire Service at Edinburgh Airport
• Fire-fighting demonstrations at Belfast International Airport
• Wildlife control information at Jersey Airport
• Dementia Awareness at George Best Belfast City Airport
• Airside driving workshops at Leeds Bradford Airport
• Improving mental and physical wellbeing at Manchester Airport, in partnership with MIND.

Chief Executive of the AOA, Karen Dee said: “Passengers, airport staff, airline crew, ground-handling employees and everyone else working in and around an airport are affected by aviation safety and have a role to play to ensure everyone is safe. If we get it right, much of this hard work will go unnoticed by passengers and staff alike. AOA UK Airports Safety Week 2019 is an opportunity to bring all this behind-the-scenes work out into the open, and show to airport users, the public and staff the different aspects of safety and safety culture at UK airports.

“It promises to be another exciting AOA UK Airports Safety Week, with lots of learning opportunities as well as a chance to say thanks to the many thousands of workers who make UK aviation and airports one of the safest in the world.”

AOA Operations and Safety Director, Tania Roca, said: “Safety runs through every minute of every day at an airport. Thanks to everyone working together and putting safety first, UK safety standards are amongst the best in the world. AOA UK Airports Safety Week 2019 will again promote best-practice sharing and learning between airports and across different functions within an airport. We are particularly pleased to have a number of European airports visiting UK airports to see how we do things here and share with us what they do at their airports.

“With record passenger numbers travelling through UK airports, the AOA UK Airports Safety Week is an opportunity to demonstrate how the sector is not only working for the safety of passengers and staff today but also developing for the future.”