Meet Los Angeles International Airport's N.I.C.E.™ Problem Solvers

268

AirportCenter

Henry K

Viji Prasad

In the early morning hours of Dec 10, Airport Superintendent of Operations Henry K. was conducting a routine facility inspection of Terminal 7 when he came across an inbound international passenger from Russia who was confused and lost in the arrivals area.

Henry used his resiliency skills to engage the traveler and found she had been waiting an hour for her hotel shuttle at the curbside. The shuttle runs continuously every thirty (30) minutes, but the airport was confusing to the traveler and the shuttle and passenger did not connect. In addition, the passenger did not know how to contact the hotel on the Courtesy Phone network.

Henry proceeded to use his Ops Duty Phone to find the number for the hotel and proceeded to contact the hotel directly for the pick-up. Henry stayed with passenger until the hotel shuttle picked her up.

Henry is one of the newest members of the LAWA family. He used his keen observations skills and his understanding of the passenger’s body language. He could tell she was distraught, unsure of what to do and scared of being at the airport so late at night. Then he was engaging and calmed her, and he was proactive and solved the problem.

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254

AirportCenter

Joseph S

Kathleen Emerson

I'm an ASO I. While conducting my airfield inspections, I came upon a disabled passenger bus on the shoulder of the service road. The location of the bus was impactful to both aircraft and vehicular traffic; therefore my first action was to relocate the bus to another area as quickly as possible.

After escorting the bus across the active taxiway, the vehicle was secured on an outer portion of a tenant’s leasehold. The driver advised me that maintenance personnel had been dispatched.

Onboard the shuttle bus was a couple that was in transit to return home to Australia. They were visibly agitated with the prospect of missing their connecting flight due to the mechanical breakdown of the shuttle bus. Another bus had been ordered; but the timing of its arrival was unclear.

I reassured them that all was fine and proceeded to transport the couple to the terminal in my Ops vehicle. This proactive action greatly alleviated the couples’ stress and concerns about connecting with their outbound flight. In route, we shared pleasant conversation; once at the terminal I was then able to escort them from the tarmac directly to their boarding gate.

Assurances were established with the airline’s personnel that the couple would indeed depart as scheduled. We collectively smiled and sighed in relief.

NOTE: As a follow up, the couple wrote this note which arrived a few days later:

Hi Joseph

We are the people you 'rescued' from the broken down bus at LA airport last Wednesday. Heather and I would like to thank you for your help and assistance in getting us to Terminal 3 (and escorting us to the gate) in time for us to catch our flight.

Without your help I fear we might still be sitting on that bus! Thank you so much for helping us.

Kind regards

Heather and Martin

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253

AirportCenter

Rodney R and Ben N

Kathleen Emerson

On the current LAWA Intranet homepage, there is a very fine picture of the new Volunteer Information Professionals (V.I.P.) standing on the Imperial Terminal Ramp by the Union 76 DC-3. The angle of the camera captured the 100+ V.I.P.s and the aircraft. Behind every picture there is a story and this one features ARCC staff persons, Rodney T and Ben N.

With the LAWA photographer unable to be present on the day of the V.I.P. kick-off, so the back-up photographer from DWP was scheduled to assist with the group photo. When the photographer and equipment, which was a truck with an aerial lift, arrived; the LAWA V.I.P. coordinator realized that access and escort to the airfield had not been prearranged or approved.

Rodney received the information and immediately handled everything, organized the details and had the photographer in place for the day time photograph. Ben followed-up with the details for the evening. The photographer was once again in place for the second group photo.

The professional assistance by the Airport Operations staff of Rodney and Ben showed how working together brings a picture perfect result.

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237

AirportCenter

Jane K

Rodney T

Jane works in the ARCC doing gate assignments. One day a station manager called the ARCC very upset because a TBIT gate the airline was scheduled to use for a flight had been roped off as “closed” due to construction. It’s not unusual for gates to be closed from time to time, but the manager told Jane, who answered the phone, that the gate had been closed without notice. To make matters worse, the airline’s passengers were in the process of being directed to the gate and the manager was concerned about the negative impression that would create.

While the manager held the line, Jane checked out the cause and found that the short notice was caused by a sudden malfunction at the gate. Though it was no one’s fault, Jane apologized and took full responsibility. Then in a calm tone - her hallmark – Jane told the manager she would fix the problem. She shifted into a proactive mode and found an open gate near the closed gate. She assigned that gate to the airline, so passengers who had begun trekking down in the direction of the original gate would not be inconvenienced.

To provide additional support, Jane alerted LAWA OPS staff and asked them to hurry to the old gate to help direct the airline’s passengers to the new one. The manager was impressed with Jane’s highly attuned sense of service and how instinctively she took a problem and produced a workable solution – creating a satisfied internal customer for LAWA.

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178

AirportCenter

Neil T

Rodney T

I got a call from a carrier representative who needed a gate to park an aircraft for three hours. The plane had just arrived and deplaned its passengers, but was scheduled to go out the next morning. The rep who called me needed a gate for three hours until he could move his plane to an overnight slot designated for it.

I put myself in his place and found him a gate, but I told him I had a flight from another carrier set to arrive in four hours and I needed the gate back. He promised to be off in three hours, but as we got close to the three-hour mark he told me he needed more time. Now I had a problem since I had two customers with needs, the one on the gate and the one coming, and I acted proactively. I checked far and wide until I could locate an alternate gate for the incoming aircraft, and found one.

That way I was able to meet a carrier client’s need to remain on the gate beyond his allotted time, and at the same time save the incoming flight and all its passengers any inconvenience. Sometimes it takes a lot of work behind the scenes to keep everyone happy, but that’s what I enjoy about this job!

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153

AirportCenter

Won D. and Lacy S

Jeff Mort

Won received a request from an airline for parking of their A320 on the West Imperial Terminal ramp to accommodate a University of California, Berkley football team charter flight scheduled for that weekend. Won realized that the dates that were requested conflicted with another charter that was previously scheduled at the West Imperial Terminal for a Boeing satellite movement; therefore, he began to look for other options. Won suggest to the airline rep that they use a South Pad spot, directly east of the Imperial Terminal ramp, to park their aircraft. However, due to the sensitive nature of the Boeing Satellite operation, it would not be advisable to walk the airline’s passengers across the Imperial Terminal ramp to the charter busses that would be staged along the Imperial Terminal curb. After consulting with Lacy, a senior Superintendent II, Won and Lacy decided to coordinate a LAWA bussing operation to transport the passenger directly to and from the aircraft. Won and Lacy’s proaction and coordination and detailed understanding of both operations allowed for both customers to accomplish their respective goals with minimal impact to either operation.

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152

AirportCenter

Rodney R

Vince Murray

Rodney anticipated that one of his airline station manager customers would be upset once he learned that his airline’s scheduled on time flight was placed at the West Gate parking. Rodney was proactive and used his experience and expertise to reconfigure his gate plan to allow that airline and another flight that had also been displaced to get assigned. This allowed both airlines to have their flights arrive at TBIT without the additional expense and time of bussing their passengers. Being a pro, Rodney made this reconfiguration occur seamlessly before the problem happened and thus neither customer was aware of what was being done on their behalf and the two flights arrived and passengers disembarked smoothly.

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151

AirportCenter

Rodney T

Dave Cardenas

Early one morning, the Airport Response Coordination Center, Duty Manager Rodney T, received a call from the Director of Postal Services for the United States inquiring about Post 1, at LAX, being out of service, stopping the delivery of mail to the airline for distribution. It appears that the post had been out of service for three (3) days. This delay has created a situation where the Postal Service was about to impose fines on the airlines for missing there obligation to move mail in a timely fashion. To solve their problem, Rodney was able to broker a deal with an officials Construction and Maintenance and Airport Police to have the barricades disabled to allow access, airport police would run alternative security measures to check badge status and access levels of employees to allow mail movement. The postal official was very happy and he said LAWA Ops engagement and proaction defused a potential fine issue on the airlines by the Postal Service, satisfied the Postal Service and enabled the movement of mail through this post.

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150

AirportCenter

Jane K

Rodney Thompson

A rep for an airline called upset about being assigned a west gate for his flight and the subsequent bus gate 111 assignment. He indicated that his airline had the bus gate the day before and the PA and SITA computer did not work properly. As such he requested a TBIT gate assignment, but nothing was available. Being proactive, Jane took another look at the gate plan for the day and noticed LH456 was about 45 minutes behind schedule. The upset rep’s airline arrival at 0700 was on gate 101 and was already assigned a west gate for departure. Because of the 6 hour ground time and 767 aircraft it is very difficult to justify this aircraft staying on a TBIT contact gate. Again being proactive Jane noticed that she could move several other flights to accommodate the rep on gate 101 for departure at 1300, and was assisted by Jose B. and Mike L. in helping make contact with the airline rep. The rep was very happy since this quick innovative action allowed the rep to keep his operation at gate 101 and not have to worry about ordering buses and extra resources.

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149

AirportCenter

Dee McK

Rodney Thompson

A station manager at TBIT was unhappy with remote gate 218 assignment (thought aircraft would not fit at this gate) and wanted to know why he was assigned a west gate. He also felt that his 777-300 would not fit at gate 218. Dee advised the manager that because of the TBIT construction the airport was short gates and airlines needed to be rotated to the remotes. Dee advised that we could not assign a TBIT gate, but could change the west gate assignment from gate 218 to 207 allowing the airline the ability to have a “drive through” gate. This will allow JAL to operate without having to push-back aircraft. Dee also explained that gate 218 will accommodate a 777-300 aircraft but there is limited room for the push-back tractor and tow bar, especially if tow bar is long. This made the manager happy and he said he was satisfied with gate 207 since Dee’s proaction on his behalf would allow him not have to worry about the tow bar situation at gate 218.

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127

AirportCenter

Daphne C

Kathleen Emerson

LAWA Accounting has been frustrated with the Airfield Bus billing system since the change to the SITA RMS program one year ago. The trip charge disputes by the airlines have increased in the past months. Accounting will send the disputed charges to Airport Operations or Bus Operations for clarification for correction. To solve their problem, Daphne met with staff from LAWA Accounting, Airport Operations ARCC and Bus Operations. By viewing the billing sheets it became apparent that the RMS system is charging airlines for bus trips for parked aircraft and for crew trips. Parked aircraft appeared as live flights. The crew shuttles bus is operated without cost by for the TBIT carriers and the orders appeared as billable. Airport Operations and Bus Operations will review the bus activity and billing paperwork weekly. Charges that are erroneous will be identified and marked as “non-billable.” Accounting will receive the corrected paperwork and can bill the airlines timely and accurately. Daphne stepped in as a representative for the Gate Managers to attend the meeting on June 30th. She was highly proactive in her research and was able to identify most of the errors for the month of June. She took all the paperwork and went back to examine the past gate charts to determine the live flights versus the parked aircraft. Daphne took the extra initiative to be part of the solution.

Through Daphne’s efforts, LAWA Accounting knows that they will continue to have the participation of Airport Operations on the bus activity billing charges. In the end the airline tenants of LAX will receive a bill for bus trips that is more accurate.

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104

AirportCenter

Lester V

Rodney T

One day we were swamped. Planes were coming in late, all arriving at the same time, and they all needed gates. Just then a call came in from a woman who said her mother, an 80 year old lady, had left her purse at Cinnabun in Terminal 6. She explained that she had googled the airport and somehow the phone rang with me. She pleaded with me to help her and even though our pace was hectic, I didn’t want to disappoint her. So I did some research and looked up the number for Cinnabun and gave it to her. She thanked me, but I wanted to double check so I called the number after I hung up with her. It rang through to Coffee Bean, which recently had been assigned that number from Cinnabun. I got the correct number for Cinnabun from Coffee Bean and just as I had finished writing it down my phone rang again. It was the lady with the 80 year old mother, frantic again. I told her I had the current number for Cinnabun now and she was grateful. She called back a short time later to tell me that she had made the connection with Cinnabun and they had her mom’s purse safe and sound and she was so relieved and she was grateful for all my efforts to help her.

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103

AirportCenter

Lacy S

Rodney T

At the ticket counters the digital display signs go dark after a certain amount of time. The software program is written that way to allow for different carriers to post different flights. But one carrier had a need to remain at the counter for a series of flights and they needed an adjustment made to put in an “override” to allow the digital display to remain on and not go dark. To meet their need I took it on myself to work on my own time and see what I could do. I called our software vendor and I brainstormed with him on how we could do this. It took a while, but eventually we found a way. I was happy to do this, to accommodate our airline customer’s need.

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102

AirportCenter

Mike V

Coordinator

All TSA passenger checkpoint screening at Terminal 7 was closed for more than 90 minutes due to a screening breach. This stopped screening at Terminals 5, 6, 7, & 8 as all are connected via corridors on the sterile side of screening. To solve passengers’ problems, I met with Airport Police and TSA at the Command Post at Terminal 7 screening and after the situation was resolved I partnered with Mike Corlett and Steve Sipos of Airfield Operations to facilitate the restart. I briefed the Terminal 6 Airlines managers of what the problem was, how it was resolved, what time screening was restarted, and our action plan to expedite the return to normal operations for their airlines. I further advised the airlines that I would be remaining at Terminal 6 until normal operations were restored and offered to help in any way they requested. I then floated between the screening checkpoint and the Customs hall to ensure that all passengers, both arriving and departing were handled in the fastest manner possible. Mark Weller worked with Mike Corlett at Terminal 5 and they worked quickly to balance the screening lines between Terminals 5 and 6. I heard words of thanks and gratitude from many travelers that I spoke with along with various airline, service companies and concessions employees. All appreciated hearing about LAWA's sincere efforts to mitigate the unfortunate and unpleasant situation as quickly as possible.

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100

AirportCenter

Rodney R

Rodney T

We have six baggage carousels in the Tom Bradley International Terminal baggage claim area. The airlines like to have a carousel all to themselves for their arriving passengers. As best we can we all try to accommodate them. But sometimes flights will be delayed and other times ten flights will all arrive simultaneously and it doubling up on the carousels becomes necessary. In these cases, I am proactive. For example one night recently I had ten flights all arrive at the same time, and I worked to match up flights with similar carriers so that I could assign two flights belonging to the same carrier to a carousel to share it. They liked this solution and it allowed them to keep their passengers together. I do this as much as I can.

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99

AirportCenter

Daphne C

Rodney Thompson

I know it might seem like a little thing, but when I do the gate scheduling I look for ways I can help our airline partners in ways they may have never considered. For example I know there’s one carrier that flies to Japan that likes to have its gate assignments on the north end of Bradley. There’s another airline that likes the south end since all their admin offices are close by those gates. Whenever I can I create gate assignments that gives each of them the gates that work best for them. A little thing maybe, but I know it creates conveniences for them and their passengers.

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98

AirportCenter

Daphne C

Rodney Thompson

When an international flight arrives, Customs blocks off domestic access to that arriving gate so the passengers departing off the international flight can go directly to the Customs hall. One day a flight from Japan was four hours late. It was supposed to get in at 9:00 am, which would have been fine for the domestic carrier which operates at that gate area in the afternoon. But since the Japan flight didn’t get in until the afternoon I could see that was going to affect one of our domestic carriers which would not be able to use the boarding gate that had been assigned to it. I was proactive and I anticipated the problem and I engaged other carriers to find a way I could meet their needs, but also free up a new gate for the domestic airline affected by the late flight from Japan. I was able to do that and therefore the passengers on the afternoon domestic flight never had any negative impacts.

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97

AirportCenter

Jonel G

Rodney Thompson

I knew the volcanic ash issue had caused a lot of frustration for our airline partners and their passengers, so I created a spread sheet that could provide a daily log of the numbers of flights that were delayed and the number of PAX affected. Each day during the crisis I would call each airline and get their numbers. That way I had the report ready when the PR department called. I was proactive by thinking of our Public Relations Division and media outlets because I knew they had to get the numbers to the outside media without delay and I wanted to meet their need as much as I could.

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96

AirportCenter

Lacy S

Rodney Thompson

I try to be as proactive as possible when I do the scheduling for airline gates and I pay particular attention to how I type in the model number for an aircraft when I make an assignment. This is critical because some aircraft, such as an A 380, which carries 500 people, can only use certain gates. If a number gets transposed into the computer during typing that could create a situation whereby the plane arrives and gets sent to a gate that cannot accommodate it. That would inconvenience 500 people, and so I am very careful!

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95

AirportCenter

Carlyle K

Rodney Thompson

Carlyle K
Rodney Thompson

Recently we had two military transports scheduled to come into LAX. When that happens we give priority to the military to find them gates. The problem was that after we had done our scheduling to accommodate the transports, the military called to tell us that the arrival of the two planes was going to be delayed 24 hours. That means that all the scheduling we had done needed to be redone. I called the airlines whose gate assignments would be affected the next day and I engaged them in a calm way. I explained the situation and asked for their cooperation to work with us as we redid gate assignments. I was proactive and did my homework to find some gate switches I could achieve without inconveniencing the airlines too much, and this helped because a few of the airlines thanked me. The airlines knew the urgency in accommodating the military and were happy I had worked out as much of the switching as possible in advance so we could save passengers from being disrupted

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79

AirportCenter

Paul N

Rodney Thompson

One afternoon the gate control software failed. This created havoc and confusion for all our airline carrier partners in the Bradley Terminal whose flight information boards suddenly went dark. I, along with all my colleagues on duty in the Airport Center, used our adaptability strength and we went into a manual mode. We were proactive as well and we immediately began calling the all carriers to notify them about the problem. We told them about our action plan and how we were implementing manual procedures to get information about arriving and departing flights up onto their boards for their customers. This calmed them that we were so proactive, and we stayed with it, working manually and letting our partners know that everything that could be done was being done. We worked this way for several hours until the system came back up, and even then we continued to engage the reps from the carriers to keep them informed and up to date each step of the way until things returned to normal.

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78

AirportCenter

Rodney R

Rodney Thompson

I sent an arriving flight to the remote gate so I could accommodate a Lan Chile flight which had just arrived from that earthquake-stricken country. I could sense that the representative from the carrier I sent to the remote area was upset because his passengers would have to be bused back to Bradley from the remote area. I continued to engage him and I explained the reasons for my decision in a calm tone. I told him about curfew issues out of Santiago, Chile and the special needs the Lan Chile flight had. That calmed him down that I would take time to explain the situation in a calm, measured tone and in full detail. He accepted my decision and said he understood.

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77

AirportCenter

Neil T

Rodney Thompson

A traveler was frustrated because he was supposed to meet someone on World Way West, but he ended up at the Bradley terminal and was very lost. His call came into the Airport Center as I was on the other line with an airline carrier handling gate management issues, but I could hear the frustration in the man’s tone. I asked him to hold a moment while I finished up with my carrier contact, and that calmed him, that someone would care and not abandon him. A moment later I got back on the line with him and used my knowledge of the airport to paint a visual picture. I gave him “markers” that he could follow out of the terminals area and find his way to World Way West. He thanked me profusely and told me I was very professional.

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76

AirportCenter

Jonell G.

Rodney Thompson

A carrier station manager called very upset because he was about to board a flight which was leaving from the remote area, but the gate for the bus to that remote area was blocked off for repairs. I calmed him by telling him I would investigate, which I did on the spot and I discovered that someone had made a keystroke error in the computer. I continued to engage the airline manager telling him I was sorry that the error had occurred and I took full responsibility, but most of all while talking to him in a calm tone I worked quickly and I found him a bus gate very close to the original one where he had been sending his passengers. This made him happy that I was pro active and took control and fixed the problem so quickly. Then I was proactive again and I called over to our OPS department in the terminals and I asked if one of our supervisors could hurry over to the gate area I had given him and help direct his passengers onto their buses. Then I called the airline manager back and told him we had someone hurrying over there to help. This reassured him too, then one last thing I was proactive, and the next day I called him to apologize again for the computer error. He thanked me for being so thorough and helpful.

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75

AirportCenter

Norris

Rodney Thompson

An airline rep called me upset because there was a computer glitch and he couldn’t make an update to the message board at his boarding gate. The message said “Delayed,” and he wanted to update it to say, “Boarding.” After a mechanical their plane and was ready for boarding, but passengers were milling at the gate confused, and he needed to give them the latest information. Since I’m new at my job and had not yet had a situation like this, I turned to Lacy sitting beside me while I kept the airline agent calm, Lacy called our IT department. But IT couldn’t make the adjustment from their end, and so Lacy and IT called our vendor, who made the fix to the glitch on his end. All the while, I continued to keep the airline rep engaged and informed of the steps we were taking, and this calmed him down. As soon as we had the problem fixed, he said “Thank you, you guys are great!”

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74

AirportCenter

Lacy S

Rodney Thompson

An LAPD officer called the center very anxious. He was trying to make contact with one of his fellow officers who was on a flight. He wanted me to confirm if his colleague was in the air yet and what time he would arrive. He didn’t know his colleague’s airline. I engaged him, which calmed him, then I explained that we did not have access to airline passenger manifests from our end. But I could sense his anxiety and I assured him I would help him. I asked him what city his colleague was going to, and he said Chicago. Then I checked and saw that we had four airlines flying to Chicago at that time. I asked him to wait a moment, and I found the phone numbers for each of the four. I told him to call each one and give his colleague’s name and they could confirm which flight the other police officer was on. He was very happy and he said thank you for my attention to him and working through each step patiently.

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73

AirportCenter

Welcome - AC Team

Airport Center Success Stories

We're proud to welcome members of LAWA's Airpot Center into LAWA and Project LIFToff's "Resiliency Edge" customer service program.

Superintendents who operate the Airport Center play a critical role shaping positive impression for both internal and external LAX customers.

We are grateful to the team from the AC for joining the program and participating in "Resiliency Edge" training - we look forward to seeing customer service "success stories" from the AC in this space on the LAX Story Page.

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