Over the past year, a series of problems at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport — such as expensive food, staff misconduct, bathroom and roof leaks, a collapsed jet bridge, defective runways and a breakdown of the baggage handling system — have seriously harmed the airport’s image.
Two power outages on Wednesday came as another huge blow, leaving people believing it is some kind of third-world airport.
The blackouts showed the public how ridiculous the lack of a backup power system at the airport is and it was little wonder Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he felt “terribly shamed” by the incident. Ironically, it came just two days after the airport started to corporatize itself into Taoyuan International Airport Corp, which the government touted as a “new era” for the 31-year-old airport.
However, the latest problem and the airport company’s crisis management on Wednesday also highlighted how tough the challenges to bring the Taoyuan airport up to standard will be, as they involve not only a facelift for airport facilities, but also a change of mindset among personnel.
A critical question to ask is how airport staffers view themselves — to serve or be served? And the answer will determine whether the new company can cultivate a service mindset among its employees by which they can improve the service quality of the airport by thinking from passengers’ perspective rather than the administrative mindset that they used to have as civil servants.
During the blackouts, airport staff were all busy finding out what caused the problem, and afterward they named Taiwan Power Co as the culprit and demanded compensation. Meanwhile, they neglected the tens of thousands of passengers — the victims of the incident — who were waiting in the dark without knowing what had happened because no airport staff bothered to say anything.
Taoyuan airport has lagged behind its regional peers in terms of service quality, management efficiency and international competitiveness, and when this became a matter of concern, people pointed fingers at the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), because as a state-run entity under the CAA, Taoyuan airport was subject to extensive regulations set by the government and therefore lacked necessary autonomy in finance, business development and recruitment.
Now that the airport is being corporatized, the airport company is able to increase its management and operational flexibility in response to changing market conditions, while adjusting employee salaries when it feels fit. The company can also develop business initiatives and make new investments to increase company profits.
However, people should be reminded that the corporatization of Taoyuan airport represents only a partial organizational overhaul, because the company is still 100 percent controlled by the government. While the airport can now enjoy stronger autonomy in decisionmaking and adopt business-style management, its overhaul is nothing compared with the privatization that many had hoped for.
It is good to know the management team has set the objective of transforming the airport into one of the world’s top-10 airports within three years, from the 27th place it ranked last year in the Airport Council International’s Airport Service Quality survey.
However, before spending huge amounts on new facilities, what the airport company should do first is get rid of the typical civil servant mindset and see service quality and passenger satisfaction as an important part of the overall tourism value chain for the country.
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