AOT Hosts ‘AOT Sister Airport CEO Forum 2022’ Under the Theme ‘Resilience, Reunion, and Reinventing for Aviation Sustainability’

Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) hosted the “AOT Sister Airport CEO Forum 2022” under the theme “Resilience, Reunion, and Reinventing for Aviation Sustainability” taking place on November 30 to December 2, 2022 at Pullman King Power Bangkok Hotel.  Presiding over the opening ceremony were H.E. Minister of Transport, Mr. Saksayam Chidchob, Mr. Chayatan Phromsorn, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Sarawut Songsivilai, AOT Chairman of the Board, AOT Board of Directors and Mr. Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President of AOT also attended. Attending this significant event together with high-level executives from airports around the world that have entered into the “Sister Airport Agreement” (SAA) with AOT, executives and personnel from AOT, airlines, government agencies and relevant stakeholders.

Mr. Nitinai  Sirismatthakarn, President of AOT, said that the objective of the “AOT Sister Airport CEO Forum 2022” under the theme “Resilience, Reunion, and Reinventing for Aviation Sustainability” is to present the opportunity for high-level executives under the SAA to meet face-to-face to exchange knowledge, experiences and outlooks on the aviation industry trends following the COVID-19 pandemic that has transpired and its impact on all segments of the industry, necessary changes that need to be made to the management procedures, the adoption of innovation and technology that are crucial to drive the business in order to recover and proceed continuously and sustainably. Where the forum keywords are concerned, Resilience is the quick revival of the aviation industry allowing the stakeholders in this business to resume normal operations; Reunion is the return of the aviation industry stakeholders to cooperate together to ensure the smooth resumption of normal operations; and, Reinventing is the adoption of innovation and technology to develop the organization covering all dimensions, to provide better care for passengers, to increase convenience and speed, to reduce contacts and to correspond to the New Normal Travel.

The “AOT Sister Airport CEO Forum 2022” was honored by Mr. Tao Ma, Regional Director of Asia & Pacific Office of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and Mr. Stefano Baronci, Director General of Asia-Pacific Office of the Airport Council International (ACI), who gave keynote speeches along with AOT President Mr. Nitinai  Sirismatthakarn, followed by a panel discussion on the topic of “Airport Business Transformation for Resilience and Sustainability” with Mr. Peter Adams, Principal and Aviation Safety and Risk Management Executive of Hazsafe, as the moderator.

The panel discussion was followed by the Sharing of Best Practices session moderated by Ms. Theresa Fleidl, Vice President and Head of Sister Airport Cooperation, Flughafen München GmbH. The discussion and the sharing of best practices were attended by aviation experts from airports under the SAA who could freely participate and share their experiences.

On the part of AOT, an action plan for the return to service in the New Normal era has been prepared encompassing many areas, namely, (1) Preparation on the capabilities of the airports, such as the opening of the Satellite 1 Concourse at Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2023 to increase the airport’s capacity to accommodate the increased number of passengers from 45 million per year to 60 million per year; (2) Preparation to maintain and improve the standards for airport operations at all six airports under AOT’s responsibility to ensure that the international standards for airport operations are upheld; (3) Preparations on the personnel to be ready for return to normal operation as before the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and (4) Preparations in regard to technology and innovation by developing the AOT Digital Platform project, which is an important step for AOT to enhance the service through the adaptation of various technology and information readily available throughout the organization to study, analyze, and link data from across the organization, and taking into account individual rights to drive the Company towards full digital management and services.

The project consists of four Modules: M1 – AOT Digital Airports, M2 – AOT Digital Operations Dashboard, M3 – AOT Digital Office and M4 – AOT Digital Cargo.

At present, AOT is accelerating the development of the AOT Digital Platform project to become an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system, which will become an important tool in changing or developing businesses to be more ready and adaptable in the digital world, to enhance the potential and the ability to compete in the global arena in order to be an organization that will continue to grow sustainably.

Mr. Nitinai said in closing that AOT hopes that the “AOT Sister Airport CEO Forum 2022” will be 
an important platform for senior executives from leading SAA airports to have the opportunity to 
exchange knowledge, experiences, and perspectives on airport management in a changing global environment which will lead to the realization on how to adapt to cope and to recover the business as seen at airports around the world, and to promote cooperation of all relevant organizations at the international level as well as supporting air transport linkage which will help drive Thailand’s economy to grow sustainably.

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