Luis Felipe de Oliveira has led Airports Council International (ACI) World since June 2020, stepping into the role at a time when air travel was almost at a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Approaching the end of his tenure and preparing to leave Montréal for the – to him – more familiar surroundings of Switzerland, he looked back at the challenges and opportunities offered by the role.
De Oliveira laughed when asked how he had coped with what must have been a baptism of fire: “As I told my board at the beginning, COVID was not in my contract. I’m passionate about aviation, so as you can imagine, this was the perfect job in one of the most respected organisations in the world. But by the time I had started in the role, everything had changed. For me that was the most difficult part of my job. I’d never faced anything like it.”
A new role in itself can be daunting, but for de Oliveira this was compounded by spending his first fortnight working from quarantine: “We were in the worst crisis in the history of aviation, but the difficult part was arriving at a new organisation and not being able to meet people. Starting this job in a ‘virtual’ mode was a big, big challenge. It took years for me to really meet all my board members.”
De Oliveira considers collaboration with other organisations crucial to the success of ACI World
ACI World is a huge organisation, currently serving 757 members operating 2,109 airports in 191 countries. During his first months as director general, de Oliveira found that members were focused on their own challenges, understandably. Succeeding Angela Gittens, who had been in the role for more than a decade, he found himself in the throes of a global crisis and almost hamstrung by lack of meaningful interaction with stakeholders, thanks to the travel ban. This, he explained, meant that ACI World was missing the tools to deliver what was needed by members and the wider industry.
During the pandemic, the organisation also found itself in a perilous financial position – something to which it was unaccustomed. For de Oliveira, this meant having to deal with layoffs in his first month: “This was a big challenge in terms of my own self-perception. I had to remind myself that I was doing this not because I am a bad person, but because I needed to do it in order to keep the organisation afloat.”
Asked if there is anything he would have done differently, de Oliveira admitted that, had he known how long the pandemic would last, he would perhaps have gone further with his initial reorganisation of ACI World. The other thing he would have approached differently – also influenced by the uncertainty surrounding the duration of the pandemic – was when to move his family from Switzerland to Canada. He now feels it would perhaps have been better to delay their arrival in Montréal by a year, enabling his children to remain in school in Switzerland during the pandemic.
The benefit of hindsight, as they say.
Digital transformation
De Oliveira arrived at ACI World determined to digitalise the organisation. Faced with a sudden financial crisis, he remained committed to investing in new technology, confident that this would pay off in the short- to medium-term. He was convinced that digitalisation would not only improve the quality of work but reduce workloads.
One of the main steps involved digitalising ACI World's Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme. Since its inception, this had required ACI members to fill out paper forms and post them back. As de Oliveira noted: “You can imagine the process during COVID, with post offices closed.” Filling out ASQ forms is now done digitally – this year, for the first time, by 100% of participating ACI members.
The organisation also developed a digital portal – AC Hub – for its customers, enabling users to ‘slice and dice’ data, and deployed a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, to drive the more efficient payment of suppliers.
According to de Oliveira, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft are among the technologies airports should be planning for
Nor was it only external stakeholders who benefited from this digitalisation: “We implemented SAP Concur [an expenses platform]. ACI World is an organisation that travels a lot, and we were having to do our expenses by hand. It's very important that you have an easy process to report your expenses. As well as saving time, you save money and improve efficiency.” Staff also benefited from a new learning management system (LMS) and virtual learning.
Convinced that every investment made during the pandemic would pay off in time, de Oliveira noted that these technological developments meant that, now that ACI World is back on track in terms of organisational growth, itis in a position to do more with what is a significantly smaller workforce.
Digitalisation was easier for some ACI World staff to accept than others. Employees had been using the same working methods for years and convincing them to embrace the new systems was not straightforward: “We needed to show the systems’ advantages. I needed to lead by example, for instance by using the Concur platform to submit my own expenses. And we had to involve staff in the decisions. We tailored our communications so that we were not simply introducing new systems, but treating our staff as internal customers and ultimately deploying something that people perceived as an improvement.”
The coronavirus pandemic also saw ACI World change all of its publications to a digital-only format, not only cutting costs but making it easier to reach a global audience.
As head of a global organisation during a worldwide pandemic, it was years before de Oliveira met all 29 board members
Employee satisfaction
De Oliveira’s tenure saw ACI World win ‘Great Place to Work’ certification. The achievement is all the more remarkable in light of not only the pandemic, but the sweeping, and sometimes unpopular, organisational changes that he made on first arrival.
Collaborating with the Great Place to Work organisation required ACI World to survey its staff. The first survey, undertaken in 2022, was both qualitative and quantitative, and indicated where there were improvements to be made. The organisation took this onboard to such a degree that it now boasts an 85% positive score in employee satisfaction.
The next survey will take place in October, but first comes a move to a new office, for which staff were consulted on everything from the naming of rooms to the colours of the walls and how the space was divided. In addition to providing a better working environment for existing employees, de Oliveira hopes that both the office and the collaborative approach to the move will attract new staff. He confesses to being a little sad that he won’t see the end result of these and other changes, but is enormously proud of what he and his team have done, and admits to having recently brought his family to the new office for a sneak preview.
De Oliveira believes airports need to have already started thinking about the implications of hydrogen aircraft
What next for airports?
In five years’ time the airports sector will still be growing, with sustainability very much at the top of the agenda, de Oliveira predicts. He anticipates greater numbers of ‘green airports’, an increased push for the development of sustainable aviation fuel and further reliance on technology that will make the sector customer-centric and more sustainable. According to de Oliveira, the sector will double in 20 years, with the growth coming from countries witnessing socio-economic change – most likely China, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The sector may increase in size but, as de Oliveira points out: “We are not doubling the size of our buildings, we are not doubling the size of the workforce. The industry must embrace technology if it wants to do more with less.” He also predicts that airports will become energy hubs and stresses the importance of collaboration. According to de Oliveira, all stakeholders need to work together to attract new talent, from airlines to governments: “I would love to see more people [in the sector], like I was when I was a kid, going to the airport to see planes take off and land.” (De Oliveira admits to still being teased by his friends because the airport in question – at Erechim in Brazil – was a tiny facility catering primarily for student pilots; even today, it does not operate scheduled flights.)
Airports will remain under pressure in terms of meeting environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, predicts de Oliveira. They also need to have started thinking about the potential implications of hydrogen aircraft, for example, or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Crucially, they need to know how they will finance future growth.
That’s where the customer-centric approach comes in: “It is clear that if the passenger is satisfied, they will spend more money air-side. If the Uber trip, immigration, bag-drop and check-in are pleasant, it will help us improve revenues and generate the necessary income to invest for the future of the sector.” Technology will also play a key role, by freeing up staff to focus on tasks that require personal interaction.
Staff have had their say on the layout and decoration of the new ACI World office
For de Oliveira, the sector’s main challenge is accepting that it is a global industry: “We need to have a global and united approach in all areas of activities, regulatory framework, etc, so we can reinforce our message. The political instability in the world is creating issues for us, not least economic instability, but also in terms of the conflicts that affect our sector. These have generated a lot of uncertainty for us.
“As an industry, we also need to get across the message that we are part of the socio-economic development of the world. For me, the sustainable economic development of the world through aviation is one of the main challenges. In terms of sustainability, it has proven hard to communicate how much we are already doing.”
De Oliveira is adamant that collaboration is key: “We learned during the pandemic that collaboration and support are important across the whole ecosystem. That's why in any job, we need to have this collaborative approach that provides the support you need to make things happen.”
He feels strongly about the transformative potential of the wider aviation sector, noting that it represents 87.7 million jobs worldwide and accounts for 4% of the global GDP (10% if the tourism sector is included): “It’s about how we can continue to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the industry, and how we can use the sector as a provider of a better life for many people in different parts of the world.”
The ramifications of a thriving aviation sector are huge: “When you travel to a country, you take a taxi, you go to a restaurant, you stay in a hotel. You are generating employment, leading to people being able to afford education. They will earn more and contribute to global economic development.”
De Oliveira looks back on his time at the helm of ACI World as “this marvellous journey”
Words of wisdom
Asked what advice he would give incoming director general Justin Erbacci, de Oliveira replied: “That’s difficult to answer, because many of the things we do as leaders are based on our own ideas of what we believe we can achieve.”
De Oliveira said he has had “very good discussions” with Erbacci: “Justin is a great guy with the right knowledge and the right experience to take over the organisation. This is a confederated organisation, so it's important to pay attention to the needs and the ambitions of the regional offices as well. It's not an easy job, but I think one of the most important things is to really engage with the board members. We have 29 members, representing small, medium and large airports, and huge airport groups as well. That's why we need to be an organisation that covers all aspects of the industry.
“The pillars of this organisation are our seven committees. Their importance needs to be acknowledged, as does that of our ‘neighbours’ – international organisations such as the World Health Organization, the International Transport Forum at the OECD, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Federal Aviation Administration. We all need to be connected and working together.”
In conclusion
Looking back on his time as director general, a period he described as “this marvellous journey”, de Oliveira wanted to share one final point: his pride in what he and his colleagues managed to achieve in difficult times. He expressed his gratitude for the support given by his team, the ACI World governing board, and friends and partners around the world. As for what next for de Oliveira, it is very much a case of ‘watch this space’.
Luis Felipe de Oliveira was appointed director general and CEO of ACI World in 2020
