Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Head of communications for NT Airports Jane de Gault talks this morning's major blackout, and what to expect for Easter if you're heading away

Transcript

Head of communications for NT Airports Jane de Gault talks this morning's major blackout, and what to expect for Easter if you're heading away · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are due to catch up right now with the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: head of corporate Communications and brand Management at the Airport
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Development Group. We're going to have a chat about what's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: going on and how you can be prepared at the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: airport over the holidays.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: But we want to find out a little bit more.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: As well about the airport apparently plunged into darkness in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the early hours of this morning.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Now joining me on the line is the head.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Of Corporate Communications and Brand Management at the Airport Development Group,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Jane Degold.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Jane, Good morning Katie.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: How are you very well? Thank you for your time
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: this morning. Jane.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: What happened in the earlier hours of this morning with
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the airport going into darkness?
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Yes, it was a planned electrical work that took place
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: from seven twenty to about nine thirty. We'd worked with
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: all of our airline partners and people at the airport
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: to advise them of this and to ensure that the
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: impact on passengers was kept to an absolute minimum. But
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: we had planned this for some time. As you can appreciate,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: work does need to happen at the airport, we do
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: try to keep that impact to an absolute minimum. We
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: were able to finish the works actually half an hour
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: head of schedule, so it was out for nearly two hours,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: but we had scheduled four three so it certainly was
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: done a lot faster than we expected.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: And so Jane, it was just it was scheduled maintenance work,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was it correct?
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: That's right to our electrical system, those works, as I say,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: were well planned, had been planned for quite some time.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: So we do pick a time that we'll have at
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: least impact as possible on all of our stakeholders and passengers.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: So you know, obviously we apologize for any inconvenience, but
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: we do need to undertake these works.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And Jane, was it chaos as some were suggesting or
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was it fairly calm?
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think it was chaos. Obviously, any impact
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: to customers is not that negative, isn't great, But we
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: had planned this for some time and people our airline
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: partners were aware of the works and they had advised
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: their customers and passengers at that time. So we do
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: look to keep this to an absolute minimum. Of timing
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: that we chose was at a time that would have
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: least impact, and we believe that that was achieved.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And so no further outages planned over the coming days
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: or anything like that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: No, not that are scheduled at this point.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Well, Jane, let's talk about these school holidays, because I'd
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: tell you what if anything's chaos at school holidays at
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: my place and everybody's place, I reckon as we tried
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to get organized for the school holidays that get underway
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: as of this afternoon, I know that twenty of people
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: are going to be traveling. Is there anything that we
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: need to be aware of in terms of, you know,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: making sure we've got enough time when we're going through
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the airport in school holiday?
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I suppose the important takeout is that travel
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: is a little bit different now post COVID. We are
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: asking that people take more time, leave ample time to
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: get to the airport, to check in, to go through
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: security because some of the processes are going to take
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: a bit a little bit longer than they did pre COVID,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: So leaving ample time for these things is critical. We
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: don't want aircraft having to leave later than their scheduled time.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: It could impact people with connecting flights, So we are
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: asking people to be planning ahead of time and making
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: sure they get to the airport with plenty of time.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: And Jana, we sort of back to you know, full
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: capacity with the number of flights that are coming and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: going now almost there.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Well, I think with the excitement at the airport, you
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: would think that we're at capacity. There's certainly a lot
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: of confidence back in the market and a lot of enthusiasm,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: and the airport is a lot busier. You know, we
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: had some pretty sad times around the airport over the
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: last couple of years with numbers so low. At some
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: period we worked down ninety five percent on numbers in
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, So from an airport perspective, we're really excited
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to see numbers back. Airlines are obviously having a lot
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: of confidence in the market. They're putting on extra flights,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: they've added new routes, and they've restarted a number of
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: routes as well. So it's all leading to it being
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: quite a busy period over the school holidays and easter period.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: We are getting back to you by July. We are
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: expecting it to be really quite busy and at those
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen level.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: That's good to hear.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I know that, you know, particularly for a lot of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: those business people out there listening or you know, businesses,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: I should say out there listening this morning, and those
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: that are reliant on people traveling to the Northern Territory,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I know that it is a good thing to hear
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: that things are getting back, you know, back to the
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: capacity that they were pre COVID. I think we've all
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: been waiting for quite a while and hoping it would happen.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Yep, and that confidence is back and that's the terrific
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: thing to see here that people are keen to travel again.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: The airlines are responding accordingly, so you know, it's really
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: important that people just be a little bit patient when
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: they're at the airport and just plan and be prepared.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, Jane, can I ask you before I let
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: you go?
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: It is you've got to have your masks on in
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the airport and on the plane at the moment, don't you.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: That's correct. That is still mandated by the federal government
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: that people wear a mask. So that is something that
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: people we are you just had to happen.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And also, you know, there'll be some people listening this
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: morning who are maybe going away over the weekend, maybe
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: on Monday. There is still the long term car parking
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: as well at the airport.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: That's correct, there's plenty of space still available. We're always
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: the best way to do it is online, so people
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: can go online and check in their car well thereafter well.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Jane de Gold, the head of corporate Communications and Brand
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Management at the Airport Development Group, appreciate your time this morning.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having a chat with me.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: No problem, Thanks so much, Cazie, thank you.