Scotland’s busiest airport sets new benchmarks for aviation incident management, leveraging Everbridge to improve critical communications and protect passengers, staff and service personnel
Everbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVBG), the global leader in critical event management and enterprise safety software applications to help keep people safe and businesses running, today announced that Edinburgh Airport Ltd has implemented Everbridge’s Critical Event Management (CEM) platform to improve efficiency and streamline communications during emergencies.
The system will replace and simplify multiple manual processes, speeding up the effectiveness of communication across operations from the emergency services team through to airlines, retail units and local agencies.
Edinburgh Airport Ltd is Scotland’s busiest airport. It accommodates 14.3 million passengers each year and is growing steadily towards 20 million. 227 routes fly to 157 destinations around the world and the airport is worth over £1 billion to the Scottish economy. Like all large airports, Edinburgh’s responsibilities lie not just with passengers and staff but also with the multiple organisations and services that support its day-to-day operations.
The airport had already made a commitment to improving critical communications as part of a focus on using innovation to streamline operations and enhance passenger journeys. To assess the effectiveness of its existing critical communications infrastructure, it undertook a review in-part based on recent critical events.
“There were two incidents that helped to shape our review of critical communications at the airport,” said Myles Grima, Senior Operations & Resilience Manager, Airport Operations & Assurance at Edinburgh Airport. “The first was a tram accident on our campus. While it thankfully only resulted in minor injuries, it caused disruption and restrictions to the tram service from Edinburgh City Centre to the airport. We also experienced a major Scottish Power outage which affected the airport, and this is always a threat to the smooth running of operations. Finally, we organised a counter-terrorism exercise involving over 20 organisations and 400 people. These three events gave us a huge amount of insight and enabled us to consider how technology could be used to improve our response overall.”
The main aim was to move away from the multiple processes that were previously being used to cascade information to different groups and instead migrate to just one platform. Edinburgh Airport selected Everbridge’s Critical Event Management platform because it has the ability to rapidly locate employees at risk and, crucially, will provide the airport with enhanced and actionable risk intelligence, and help with incident preparation and response.
“Previously our challenge was getting the right information to the right people,” continued Myles Grima. “In order to be more effective, we needed to improve efficiency and eliminate duplication. We are now doing this with Everbridge, and we can now accurately communicate with all the people who work on site in every operational area and manage this through a single, integrated view to mitigate the impact of critical events. By using Everbridge, we are aiming to set new benchmarks in aviation incident management.”
During phase one, Edinburgh Airport is using Everbridge to target emergency services, the airlines that are serving the airport, on-site retail outlets, and support agencies including Transport Scotland and Edinburgh City Council, who are involved with resilience planning. This will allow it to automate its management of critical incidents ranging from an aircraft accident through to the challenges posed by snowstorms and extreme weather events. Additionally, the airport is utilising Everbridge’s conference calling feature, which instantly connects key stakeholders, cutting the time and effort needed to arrange a traditional multi-party call.
The next stage for the airport will be phase two, ‘Airport Control Futures’, which will address technology such as perimeter security and fire alarms, and how these can be integrated into Everbridge.
“I have been involved with crisis teams for about eight years and encountered all sorts of events and emergencies. Even at phase one of the Everbridge implementation, we can really see the potential of the solution and this is very exciting for us. As soon as our team became involved in the project, they re-defined the art of the possible,” Myles Grima said.
Imad Mouline, CTO at Everbridge, commented: “We have a great deal of experience providing 76 of North America’s 100 busiest airports with the support they need to manage critical events and emergency responses. We are delighted to be at the heart of Edinburgh Airport’s commitment to setting new standards for incident management.”
For more information, visit www.everbridge.com
