Airport Experience® News - Leadership 2022

KEVIN BURKE Q & A

WARD: Can you talk about the key goals that ACI-NA has on the legislative front, for both the United States and Canada? BURKE: Let me start with Canada. Canadian airports have a whole host of issues that they’re working on. One primary one is NEXUS (a program designed to speed up border crossings for low-risk, pre-approved travelers into Canada and the United States). We’re working to restart the NEXUS processing issue to better facilitate cross border traffic. We have the pre-clearance airports in Canada that are a big benefit. We are working with Canada and with Customs and Border Protection to make certain that the processing [becomes] better than it is right now. Also, we’re working with our team in Ottawa to come up with a timely transition of [the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority] to a new model that is similar to a private sector model that is more efficient, Back across the border in the U.S. we’re preparing for the FAA Reauthorization bill. We’re working with our friends at [the American Association of Airport Executives ] and our joint boards to make certain that what we put before Congress as an ask for airports is identical. Having worked as a lobbyist and as a staff member, I know full well how important it is that when an industry goes to Congress and asks for something, [each entity] better be asking the same thing or else we’re not going to get the attention we deserve. We’re also working to ensure that the FAA implements the bipartisan infrastructure law as quickly as possible to get money flowing in these long overdue infrastructure projects. The challenge is inflation. It’s been driving the construction costs up. The longer that airports have to wait to get this money, the more expensive the projects become. As you know airports are required to submit plans and bids for this money and they’re rewarded based upon availability. We’ve projected there is $115 billion of need over the next five years. The infrastructure fund is an injection of money to get airports going, but it’s by no means everything we need. We’re concentrating on ensuring that the airports have a fair shot of money, and frankly, that they spend the money they got on projects. where passengers can get through much quicker than they are right now, but not sacrificing the security that’s required.

We hope to speed it up a bit because, as we’ve seen with inflation, the price of labor has gone up. The price of goods and services have gone up. We had an exemption put in on material that had already been purchased, because [the law requires American-made products]. The challenge we have is, can you get all that material in the United States based upon where we were buying it in the past? For example, if you bought steel from Korea and it’s sitting, waiting to be used in a project because you haven’t been able to get it going, can you use that steel? [Under the law], you can use that now, but that window is closing. Then there are supply chain issues on a host of different products that are used to go into building terminals and extensions. The challenge is being able to have some flexibility to be able to use products to get the project going. In addition, we have the diversity, equity and inclusion issues where we’re dealing with labor shortages. We’re

talking about sustainability, which is a big issue for airports. On the regulatory side we’re working with TSA on a host of issues to make the process of going through airports that much smoother. WARD: Succes sion planning and talent development are key challenges for many U.S. airports. What role is ACI-NA taking on that front? BURKE: We released a report earlier this year. We wanted to assess what the future of the airport workforce is going to look like. The report itself identifies key skills that are required of employees and most industry occupations in the future.

The challenge is inflation. It’s been driving the construction costs up. The longer that airports have to wait to get this money, the more expensive the projects become. – Kevin Burke, president and CEO, ACI-NA

Hopefully, that will provide high-level strategies to address and collectively plan for future workforce challenges. We are, as an association, focusing on bringing more young professionals into ACI-NA. We have our [U.S. Airport Professional] program. It’s not just for young professionals, but it’s a means by which they can get certified at mid-level at airports that will help them in their quest to become airport directors or the head of finance, or the head of security or the head of operations. As we go into this next year, we’re focused on adapting and making our agendas more in line with what the incoming talent is looking for. We can’t be putting on the same old meetings with the same old agendas and expect the younger people to want to come in and participate. We’re asking them what exactly they want from us, then we adapt our efforts to that.

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