AOA UK Airports Safety Week 2017: leading the way in airport safety

The AOA UK Airports Safety Week came to a great conclusion on Sunday 14 May, with the team at London City Airport running a charity runway run. It was the culmination of tremendous creativity and effort by airports across the country. It helped create a new reality for safety awareness – not just by focusing on issues traditionally associated with aviation safety but also occupational health, environment and well-being.

The AOA UK Airports Safety Week has been a truly collaborative effort at individual airports and collectively across the country. From outreach in schools by, for example, Leeds Bradford and London City Airports, to fire and first aid demonstrations at Belfast City, Cardiff, Aberdeen International and almost every other UK airport, airports really raised the bar in this second UK Airports Safety Week. At Heathrow Airport, they made sure everyone at the airport had a chance to get involved with an UK Airport Safety Week roadshow that went to every part of the airport.

Airport partners got involved as well, with Police Scotland at Edinburgh and Border Force at Cardiff raising awareness of trafficking. At airports like Southampton and Doncaster Sheffield ground handlers showed pushback safety and at, for example Glasgow Prestwick, they showed fuel safety and fuel quality checks. Meanwhile, the fire service at Gatwick Airport showed the damage texting and driving can do.

Airports also visited each other and hosted visitors from abroad who looked to this UK initiative for inspiration for their own aviation safety initiatives. All in all, there were simply too many events to mention. On the AOA UK Airports Safety Week website, blogs will be posted in the coming weeks highlighting different initiatives and events by a range of airports. To top it all off, at the AOA Annual Conference & Awards Dinner three awards will be awarded to the best initiatives of AOA UK Airports Safety Week 2017.

Looking back is also a moment to look forward. The AOA will be looking how the AOA UK Airports Safety Week 2018 can showcase even more of the excellent work being done at UK airports to ensure staff and passengers have a safe and comfortable experience at our airports. Check back here or on the UK Airports Safety Week website for more information later this year.