Schipol: could have done better says Vocal
Yesterday saw a number of reports surrounding the bomb threat at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest. The airport's two main international terminals were evacuated at about 11:30 (10:30 GMT), as the bomb squad and scores of police arrived at the scene.
Dutch police had arrested a man who locked himself in a toilet and claimed to have a bomb at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The terminals reopened about four hours later, after officers said the man posed no threat to the public. Live television streams had shown police with guns, dogs and balaclavas outside the building,
So what impact did all of the chaos have? By 16:00 local time, the airport's website was showing 16 cancellations to inbound flights and 11 to departures. Dozens of flights were delayed. Late yesterday afternoon, a Schiphol spokesman said: "Things are not back to normal yet. The evacuation is over and we are busy getting operations back on track but there will be some delays and cancellations for the rest of the day."
With so much happening at one of Europe's busiest hub airports, how was the public informed? How were travellers kept abreast of the information as it unfolded? KLM posted an update on their website about impacted flights at 3pm on Monday. The latest news update, on the home page of the airport website is from 23rd January.
According to business continuity specialist, Vocal, the following measures would have improved Schipol Airport's communications:
1. Use of an Emergency Notifications Platform to deliver timely updates
Communication groups setup within a notifications platform would have enabled the airport to deliver timely, targeted messaging to its stakeholders – airport staff, the media, airlines operating out of the airport, and travellers, abreast of the latest information. In a crisis, communication is everything and all information was pushed from the media.
2. Use of a public MessageBoard
Information from an emergency notifications system, such as iModus, can publish information to a public facing message board. This would have been a great way to keep the public, especially travellers informed about the events and what the impact would be on their flights.
3. Use of Crisis Lines
A published crisis line, such as the MessageCall service from iModus would enable people to ring in to hear the latest recording from the airport, providing the latest updates about the situation. Another solution such as CaptureCall from iModus would have enabled members of the public to call in and self register a mobile number to receive updates, an efficient way to calm the anxieties of people.
