I am writing this lines sitting in the afternoon Swiss flight from Zurich to Madrid…on the way attending PTE-Passenger Terminal Expo.
Planning airports is tough. It means playing in the super-complex project league. Success in planning and on this level doesn’t come from textbook knowledge. And although I love to work with AI, the main power tackling the complexity of airport projects is something very old fashioned: Experience.
Beside going through it all by yourself there is only one magic trick to accelerate the journey: Shared experienced, exchanging with other projects and learning from other passionate experts.
In the airport industry, we see a lot of photos of various projects, but detailed plans are rarely shared. As a result, there’s very little public knowledge about the typology and layouts of airport buildings.
The Passenger Terminal Expo Conference is one of the very few posibilities to see new projects and listening to the the people working on this project explaining their thoughts and their challenges.
After spending almost 20 years in airport planning and project management, I also believe that most good airport planner do have a special and strong personality: They have what musicians would call „soul“, it means that you have a deep connection to your work and not just technical skills.
Meeting all these amazing people and their project is the main reason attending PTE.
I am very much looking forward seeing you all!
