With the sequel of COVID-19 clearly impacting the aviation world even more than the first wave, it is becoming clear that many airports need to rethink the way they manage operations. This does not only mean reassuring passengers that traveling is safe but also the need to embrace a new reality.

Less travelers leads to a need to revisit overheads and thus find ways to ensure solid and long-term cost savings. This an ideal moment to revisit the need for capacity-related investments and revisit all key processes to assess how efficiently an airport works.

Do airports really have all tools needed to conduct a detailed analysis of operations? Where is most of the critical time lost? Where can we detect inefficiencies? This is where collaborative decision making comes into play as (A)CDM platforms bring all stakeholder processes together and make their full impact visible by combining them into one clear dashboard.

As EUROCONTROL states, (A)CDM aims to improve the efficiency and resilience of airport operations by optimizing the use of resources and improving the predictability of air traffic. It focuses especially on aircraft turnaround and the pre-departure process, areas where a significant amount of time is lost, often due to the different stakeholders not being aligned.

In a time where resources will get scarcer and where infrastructure expansion is no longer a given, all stakeholders will need to make better use of what is available. Every second counts when faced with reduced capacity and less resources. This is where A-CDM platforms, such as EMMA, come into play and can create substantial financial benefits during post-COVID times.