Posts about stuff relating to airports
On the Road to Recovery?
ChatGPT suggested I write a post about the aviation industry’s recovery from the impacts of COVID-19. Still, this week's news suggests that this road to recovery remains bumpy. But I do love data and numbers, so let’s see how we are going.
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #4
For quite a while now, I’ve been tracking the impact of the COVID-19 air traffic downturn on wildlife strike rates. Early warnings highlighted the potential for and early indications were that there was a risk of increased wildlife strike rates while the industry returned to the skies. Since then, a lot more research has been done and presented. I presented my full year 2020 findings at the Australian Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group’s (AAWHG) 2021 Webinar Series last October with the video going online last week.
Check it out here…
Header image: Asad Photo Maldives (via Pexels)
Opening Up: What Surprises Lurk within your Aerodrome?
Depending on the nature of the COVID-19 outbreak in your area, aerodrome operations may have ground to a halt, barely hiccuped or maybe even increased. For those in the first category, that have struggled through intermittent and/or prolonged lockdowns, the end could be insight. But getting going again could be fraught with insidious risks.
Header image: Mateus Rauber (via Pexels)
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #3
It’s time for another update on the impact of COVID-19 traffic downturns on wildlife strikes. My first (and updated) post was looking at the initial months of the pandemic and the second looked at the northern summer period but it has been a big three months since I’ve looked at these numbers.
And in that time, someone published some statistics that don’t exactly match mine!
Run the Runways 2020: My Version
Over the past 9 months, I’ve been seeing many people in my LinkedIn feed, let’s say, transitioning out of the airport/aviation industry. That’s a nice way of describing what must be a pretty tough time for either you or many of our colleagues. I feel very lucky that I still have a job in the industry that I love.
This December, I’m going to run the equivalent lengths of a bunch of runways I know in a hijack of the very worthy cause and challenge set by Aviation Action.
Header image credit: João Cabral (via Pexels)
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #2
It’s been a couple of months since my first attempt at tracking bird strike rates following the COVID-19 traffic downturn. At that time, viral infection rates in Europe had settled down, Australia was coming down from its second wave and even the US seemed to be cresting its second phase. On the aviation safety front, bird strike rates were showing a pretty clear sign of exceeding the 5-year average.
So how are things looking three months on?
Image credit: Alan Wilson (via Wikipedia)
ASW #1: COVID-19 & Safety: A Bow-Tie Risk Assessment Approach
Today’s theme is “maintaining airport safety through COVID-19”. Obviously, this can be a big topic. There are thousands of ways COVID-19 has impacted our daily lives - some large and some subtle. So, in thinking about this topic, I wanted to create a structure we could use to analyse the virus’s impact.
And I landed on the Bow-Tie model. Check it out.
Header: Karolina Grabowska (via Pexels)
(UPDATED) COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #1
UPDATE: What I thought was happening with wildlife strike rates during the COVID-19 downturn was not quite the case. I had a little issue with the time taken for reports to be included in the FAA Wildlife Strike Database and thankfully, this issue was picked up by a helpful colleague. See the details within.
Image credit: Azim Islam (via Pexels)
Heads Up: Watch Out for Wildlife (Updated)
No need to rehash the current situation, aviation is hurting and traffic numbers are going down.
So why post about wildlife strikes? With traffic down, we should see less strikes, shouldn’t we? Maybe not…
Over the last couple of months, I have been doing some deep diving into the FAA’s wildlife strike database. It is an aerodrome safety nerd’s paradise. There is so much data and a little crunching can reveal some very interesting things.
I want to share one of these insights with you in light our current circumstances.
Image credit: (cc) Quintin Gellar on Pexels