Case Report

On
Birmingham International Airport

By:
ANKIT MALHOTRA
SEC A
SMBA 11005

Introduction
Birmingham Airport, formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located
(10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan
Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England. The airport is a base
for Bmibaby, Flybe, Monarch, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways.
The airport offers both domestic flights within the UK, and international flights to
destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, North America and the Caribbean. After
handling a record 9.6 million passengers in 2008, passenger numbers declined to 8,572,398 in
2010, making Birmingham the seventh busiest UK airport.
BHX offers excellent transport links by road and rail, including the free Skyrail service direct
to Birmingham International Train Station.
BHX's two terminals provide a comprehensive range of passenger amenities including
restaurants and bars, shops, currency, business, family-friendly and special needs facilities.
Case analysis
The case study discuss about how to manage various ongoing activities at an airport
(Planning, organizing, supervising, express operations & scheduling) .
The other thing which case tries to make us understand is how operation activities take place
at BHX, and roles and strategies that are required to be implementing as an operation
manager moreover, how the operations manager is responsible for the airport Operations and
supervision of several activities and coordinate with different departments.
The case also describes the duties & challenges which the airport director has to face in order
to operate the airport efficiently & effectively.
Q1. Identify some of the micro operations to be found at the airport. For each one:
a) Identify the transforming and transformed resources
b) State which is the predominant transformed resource
c) Describe the output of each micro operation and say who you think its customers

a) Micro Operations
Transformed Resources
Baggage Handling
Ticketing

Transforming Resources

Baggage Handler
Ticket Clerk

Bag
Ticket

Fuel Loading

Fuel Handler/Company

Fuel

Building Maintenance

Maintenance Team

Building

Aircraft Cleaning

Cleaner

Aircraft

b) Resources are the most vital part of every production process, thus it is sensible to
follow the way of transformed and transforming resources.
Transformed resources - The raw materials that undergo makeover to be converted
into final product for the markets.
As asked in the question we need to provide transformed resources, so the predominant transformed micro resource would be Passenger
Whereas, the pre-dominant macro resource would be Passenger Information

c) Using the data from Q1(a), we can prepare another table which provides us the
output & customers for each micro process.
Micro
Operation

Transforming
Process

Transforme
d Process

Output

Baggage
Handling

Baggage Handler

Bag

Ticketing

Ticket Clerk

Ticket

Fuel
Loading

Fuel
Handler/Compan
y
Cleaners/Team

Fuel

Arrived at Passenger
Correct
Destination
Accurate
Passenger
ticket
informatio
n
Fuel Tank Crew
full
Members

Maintenance
Team

Building

Aircraft
Cleaning
Building
Maintenanc
e

Aircraft

Clean
Aircraft
Hygienic
Building

Customer

Customer
Productivit
y
Happy

Content

Safe
Journey

Both(Passenge Cleanliness
r & Crew)
Client of the Safe to use
building

Q2. Summarize the job of the operations director. What are the main problems/issues he faces
in managing the airport?

The job of operations Director is full of challenges & he needs to be present & on the foot to
face any situation. For an operations director no 2 days at the airport are the same.

The operation Director is responsible for duties which include:

-

Evaluating, and coordinating airport operations activities

Safety and security needs
Assist in enforcing airport policies and regulations
Setting the safety and customer service standards for everyone to adhere to
Allocate the best infrastructure to the airlines
Controlling Wildlife animals
Emergency evacuation plan
Adhere to Environmental policies
Airfield Maintenance
Dealing with unsatisfied customers

Q3. What do you think Richard Heard actually does each day (how does he spend his time)?
According to me, Richard Heard spend most of his day by dealing with customers. Every
customer is different from another; one could praise him for providing them the best services
whereas another customer could be largely dissatisfied with the services. So in order to
maintain good terms/relations Richard Heard need to know how to tackle his customers and
also must give their customers full satisfaction.
In addition, to ensure the success of the concern, Richard Heard should also spend some of
his time to re-examine and reassess any development. He also must allocate his time to pay
attention to the customers feedback which is a very good way to serve the customers they
want.

Q4. Discuss the relationship between the day to day tasks and the long term issues and
explain how Richard manages to oversee both at the same time?
Day to day responsibilities/activities in fact is fundamentally important for an organization to
have better strategy in future. Successful day to day operations will lead to a smooth &
efficient decision making for the long term. Day to day issues contain such as maintaining the
runaways, agreeing slot allocation with the airlines, developing and implementing safety
management systems etc. Whereas long term issues engage, Developing new infrastructure,
Car park etc

Richard, being the operations director on the other hand is responsible to oversee both the
long & short term goals. So to achieve the goals he appoints a manager in every department.
By appointing a manager in a certain department and area, Richard Heard can get a fast
feedback about the day to day operation from each department. Furthermore, Richard also
gets time to manage & handle the customers problem by referring to the certain area.
To retain customers, customers satisfaction is the key determinant which ensures the loyalty
of the customers. Today airlines industry faces a stiff competition thus it is important for
managers and the entire management to ensure customers satisfaction to achieve the level of
loyalty of their customers.