Running head: BAA REVAMPS TERMINAL 1

British Airport Authority Performs a Facelift at Heathrow Airport James Taubitz Grantham University

BAA REVAMPS TERMINAL 1 Abstract In 2005, the British Airport Authority, or BAA, formed an agreement with the Star Alliance Network that culminated in a global reach airline alliance. This new worldwide airline network was moved into the area known as Terminal 1 at London's Heathrow Airport. In order to

accommodate the new international travel requirements for this terminal, a complete facelift was conducted. David Buisson, PMP, was hired to lead this massive and complex project. According to the Project Management Institute, "As well as a commitment to completing the project within a very strict deadline, health and safety issues were also a big concern given that the project had to be delivered within a live operating passenger terminal". This paper discusses the project management associated with this huge project as well as some of the challenges and setbacks that were encountered in this successful undertaking. keywords: communication, project risk, PMBOK, stakeholder, management

BAA REVAMPS TERMINAL 1 British Airport Authority Performs a Facelift at Heathrow Airport In an effort to establish one of the first worldwide global airline alliances, the British Airport Authority agreed to join forces with the Star Alliance Network in 2004. This new partnership, altering the needs of the 40-year-old Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 from a local/European carrier terminal to an international terminal, is far reaching. Along with the resulting change in the required usage, a massive redesign was needed to keep up with BAA's strategic plan and to make this terminal competitive with other major airports in Europe. To manage this massive project, BAA hired David Buisson, PMP. David Buisson is a certified project manager with more than 13 years experience, at the time, who had experience with challenging projects such as the Heathrow Terminal 1. The project scope demanded building a "new Eastern Extension, doubling the departure lounge in size and creating additional seating and retail space" (Wikipedia, March 2013). This project budgeted at 57.6 Mil GBP ($87.3Mil) was designed to be executed in 42 different phases. Probably one of the most significant challenges of this project, according to Buisson, was that "Managing multiple stakeholders, suppliers, and contractors within a strict deadline and budget would ordinarily be difficult, but

doing this alongside keeping the terminal continuously open for passengers was a huge issue that required strict planning and coordination" (Project Management Institute, N.D. p.3). Challenges to Project Management Buisson, as project manager, continuously dealt with challenges and utilized tools in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) to deal with them. Scope Management, a particularly difficult, area cited numerous challenges. The floor of the old terminal, being more that 40 years old, was different from the rest of the airport and uneven. This required aggressive planning revision to prevent this part of the project from adding an additional 21 weeks to the

BAA REVAMPS TERMINAL 1 already planned three-year program. Risk management was another area, if not handled correctly, could meet with disastrous results. Asbestos was found in the ceiling, which was an

area that was continuously in use by passengers during the overhaul. However, this risk, as well as several others that were identified in the planning process, was planned for as well as mitigation techniques. "The agreed plan was to construct an air-tight floor to ceiling area in the roof void around where the damaged ceiling tiles were and extract the asbestos accordingly by a suitably qualified asbestos removal contractor" (Project Management Institute, N.D. p.5). Due to the significant number of third party contractors involved, human resource management was a challenge. A single contractor being late would have a domino effect on the project as a whole. This required strict accountability and a significant amount of communications. Lessons Learned to Project Success Risk had to be tightly managed and identified early on to ensure that a solution could be found before it turned into a major issue that would take the project off-time and off-budget (Project Management Institute, N.D. p.4). Additionally, continuous communications, progress meetings, review of risk schedules, requiring the contractor to conduct risk assessment, keeping top leadership involved, and many other things, all contributed to mitigating the risk when it was encountered. In fact, according to Kendrick, (2009), "Mitigation strategies serve to reduce the probability and/or impact of potential problems" (p.185). Buisson very successfully used several of these strategies such that the impact was minimized and the project could be completed on time, in budget and with a quality that pleased the stakeholders. Was the project a success? Absolutely it was. This project met the time and budget goals set out in the planning and approval process. Some areas of scope were changed/added that would have increased the overall project cost but the project team was able to make some

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revisions to other scope areas, and engineer new solutions that kept the project in the budget and still keep the stakeholders, and the 20 million annual travelers passing through, happy.

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References Kendrick, T. (2009). Identifying and managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for FailureProofing Your Project. (second edition). New York, NY, AMACOM No name, (n.d). Changing the Face at the Busiest Airport in the World through Project Management. Retrieved from http://www.pmi.org/BusinessSolutions/~/media/PDF/Case%20Study/Heathrow_Airport_Case_Study_New.ashx Wikipedia, London Heathrow Terminal 1, (March 2013). Retrieved 31 March 2013, from wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Heathrow_Terminal_1