Passenger Information Charter

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, along with other major French airports, has voluntarily adopted a quality policy introduced by the Union of Airport-Managing Chambers of Commerce (UCCEGA).

One outcome of this commitment has been the creation of a Local Airport Quality Committee to unite the players at the airport behind the objective of working together to suggest, validate and implement operational improvements pertaining to the quality of customer service.

It was during the first meeting of Nice Côte d'Azur Airport's Local Airport Quality Committee - on 9 February 2000 - that the project of drawing up a Passenger Information Charter was sparked off.

The charter is the fruit of joint reflection, notably that of a working group comprising:
· airlines and ground handling agents
· the Directorate General of Civil Aviation,
· administrations and other services,
· the French Riviera Chamber of Commerce.

It illustrates their commitment to ensuring that passengers and the public at large have access to all potentially useful information, particularly in the event of disruptions.

1- INFORMATION: A MOST PRESSING NEED

Passengers have the right to expect a maximum amount of information about flight conditions and the state of air traffic - all the more so in the event of disruption.

All the relevant players at the airport must therefore keep in mind that informing passengers is one of their essential responsibilities, on a par with the efforts they have to make in other areas to resolve problems arising when air traffic is disrupted.

To satisfy this priority requirement, airport teams strive to take all the necessary measures in their specialist field, such as: allowing for adequate operating margins, adapting human, technical and operational resources, etc.

2- INFORMATION: TEAMWORK

The quality, reliability and proper broadcasting of information depends on a process involving the entire workforce at the airport. Each individual has a vital role to play.

Each individual holds and/or seeks information and is therefore an indispensable link in the information chain.

Key players include:
· the airlines and ground handling agents,
· the Directorate General of Civil Aviation,
· administrations and other services,
· the French Riviera Chamber of Commerce.

They all play a role in implementing the present Charter.

3 - THE CHARTER'S OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the present charter are:

1- To determine and systematically supply reliable information:
· thanks to the constant and specific monitoring of all arriving and departing flights,
· thanks to general information about air traffic conditions.

2- To identify the key information players and their respective roles.

3- To define the methods of transmitting information between the various partners and the French Riviera Chamber of Commerce's Operational Control Post.

4- To ensure that such information is broadcast correctly on internal and external display systems in particular, and on any other information vector in general.

4- PARTNER UNDERTAKINGS

Partners in the present Charter have made the following commitments:

· Airlines and ground handling agents

They undertake systematically to advise the airport administration of any information or irregularity concerning the handling of flights, and to put in place, if possible, the technical, human and IT means of broadcasting information automatically in the formats stipulated in the present Charter's operational procedures manual.

If, at first, it is not possible to broadcast information automatically, they undertake to provide information updates using complementary means (telephone, fax, etc) in real time and according to how the situation is evolving.

If the airline has a desk in the terminal buildings, its representatives are also responsible for passing on information to passengers and must be in a position to receive data from other players.

· Directorate General of Civil Aviation
The various departments undertake systematically to inform the airport management of any event likely to disrupt air travel (saturation of air space, introduction of a regulation, deterioration of weather conditions, runway closure, etc) and to relay this information in real time to the Operational Control Post in function of how the situation evolves.

· Airport Management Team
It undertakes to centralise information and broadcast it using all appropriate means (computerised information, display boards in terminals, viewdata networks, etc)..

The Airport Management Team also undertakes to pass all useful information on in real time to staff at the Information Desks and at the Call-Centre.

It also defines the contents of general messages likely to be communicated to the public, according to the forms stipulated in the operational procedures manual.

.To ensure that the measures in the present Charter are implemented efficiently, the partners concerned undertake to describe the different phases of their interventions in an operational procedures manual.