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Increasing control of operations and improving financial performance at regional airports: A case study of Viggo Eindhoven Airport
Journal of Airport Management,
14
(2),
141-152
(2020)
Abstract
This case study describes the growth and development of Viggo in both its volume and its level of professionalism. Viggo is a privately owned airport service provider at Eindhoven Airport and Lelystad Airport in The Netherlands. A strong growth rate in the beginning of this century required Viggo to shift from the traditional ground handling of legacy carriers and charters to being a broad airport service provider handling mainly low-cost carriers. The explosion in volume and complexity led to many organisational and operational changes. This case study focuses on the implementation of the continuous improvement methodology and how evidence-based management is achieved through the creation of data-driven decision-making in both the operational execution and the improvement cycles. The implementation of these concepts substantially improved the operational efficiency and effectiveness while creating a stable and profitable financial situation at a regional airport fully reliant on low-cost carriers. The case tends to set an example for regional airports, its service providers and other stakeholders sizing between two and ten million passengers annually in how continuous improvement and data-based evidence can increase the control of operations and boost financial results.
Keywords: co-creation; continuous improvement; data analytics; evidence-based management
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Jelmer Melissen is the Business Development Manager at Viggo and started working as a baggage loader at Eindhoven Airport while studying Industrial Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology. After writing his thesis on minimising transfer times for cargo at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, he became a devotee of aviation. This practical background combined with theoretical knowledge has given him an edge on continuously improving airport operations. Even though aviation seems high tech, there is potential for more automation and smarter, conscious, human decision-making. Jelmer always strives to make things more efficient, more effective, more sustainable and easier to work with for staff and at the same time mitigate Viggo’s environmental impact. He is now part of Viggo’s management team and the team lead of the innovations team that has developed and implemented a number of the smart tools that are currently used to facilitate the various goals on improvement.
Philippe Jochems is a Business Analyst at Viggo. His mother worked as a flight attendant at KLM, and his father works as the senior manager in ground services at KLM. His brother is a first officer. After studying Business Administration and Supply Chain Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, a freelance consultancy project for Acciona Airport Services in Bogota, Colombia, led Philippe into the ground-handling industry. During his time in Colombia, Philippe was given the opportunity of entering the Latin American groundhandling market, which has shown tremendous growth the last five years. A market analysis mapped the competitive, legislative and macro environment. A request by Viggo for a similar market analysis on the airport information technology (IT) market resulted in the position as Business Analyst at Viggo. In Viggo, he is currently working on how to make the internally developed tools commercially available to other airports/handlers/aviation service providers. In addition, he contributes to sustainability initiatives by developing business cases around carbon emission reduction.
