Summertown, a small-sized airport in the north-east of England, is about to embark on an exciting program of re-development. The airport currently provides regular flights to some of the major cities in the UK. The owners of the airport have decided that the next major target is to expand by providing customer flights to the US and EMEA, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The program will impact every aspect of the airport, including parking, check-in, security, customer service, airport culture, retail areas, runways and gates, marketing, and sales.

The program will need to ensure that there is no disruption to the existing flights and services, maintaining as smooth a transition as possible. In response to pressure from governments and local residents, there is already a program in place aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the airport by 50% by 2025. The re-development program will need to work side by side with this initiative to help achieve its outcomes. The sponsoring group confirm the program mandate during the Identify A Program process. This details that the airport plans to increase sales by 50%, modernize the airport brand, increase revenue by 100%, and reduce passenger journey time through the airport by 20%.

The redevelopment program environment consists of several internal and external organizations. They are Summertown Airport, the permanent organization responsible for the funding and delivery of the program, Carspace Parking, who service the car parks around the airport, airlines, the airport's main customers, and retail outlets, comprising of existing and new vendors. The program team will engage with these key stakeholder groups to support and understand their needs, but what does success look like?

The executive management team come up with a set of critical success factors to justify and judge the program on, which are no disruption to current flights, number of retail sales increases, no complaints from passengers, no complaints from local residents. With such an ambitious program, executive management needs to recognize all the assumptions and constraints related to the re-development. Only time will tell how these will impact the delivery of the outcomes, but they note that the program must be compliant with Civil Aviation Authority regulations.

There is enough land within and around the airport to facilitate the expansion, there will be minimal resistance from local residents, and the market exists for international flights. Finally, using the information in the program mandate, the program board put some thought into what will aid the organization's ability to achieve its outcomes. They also think about how to engage their large community of stakeholders by outlining that the image of the airport must be considered throughout. Avoidance of negative publicity or unrest in the local community is vital.

There will need to be projects instigated for all areas that need an overhaul. It is vital that staff, customers, and residents are constantly engaged throughout. The overhaul is essential for the future of the airport, otherwise it will fall behind its regional competitors. You can see how Summertown Airport is making great use of the MSP framework already to define the program, understand the reasons for it, and engage with stakeholders. The program will consist of multiple projects and other ongoing work. We'll catch up with the Summertown Airport re-development program later in the course to see what these are and how they contribute to the success of the overall program.

Principles, processes, and themes overview | MSP P |

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