and local staff instinctively mitigate hazards”
by picking up the FOD—Foreign Object Dam-
age, essentially debris airside that could dam-
age aircraft – ensuring that everyone is wear-
ing their safety equipment, replacing damaged
airfield lights and clearing the ramp of snow
and ice. However, SMS requires that each step
of the process is both documented when the
corrective action was implemented and a fol-
low up to determine if it was effective. Finally,
when hazards are reported by outside agen-
cies, such as air carriers, they need direct feed-
back so that they can update and close out the
hazard within their SMS program. Needless to
say, clear and consistent communication is ab-
solutely critical to an effective SMS program.
It is in these steps that improvements to the
Nunavut SMS program is most obvious to air
carrier partners. According to Mr. Aaron Speer,
Vice-President, Flight Operations with First Air,
“Within our own airline, our program is close
to 15 years old, so it is quite mature and devel-
oped and is very effective.” But historically it
has been difficult for air carriers such as First
Air to collaborate with Nunavut Airports Di-
vision as communications and updates to re-
ported hazards were rarely provided.
JULY 2018 | BUSINESS ELITE CANADA 9
