Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport

I was recently asked to compare how the airport operates to another organization. The best answer I had was “it’s kind of like a small city”. You have the airport director who oversees the general day to day operations, under the directors control are managers of departments such as administration, police, fire, and maintenance. The director of the airport also works closely with rental car managers, airline managers, and various service providers throughout the airport such as food facilities and TSA. The managers of these separate divisions express the concerns and needs for them to stay operational and profitable. In this comparison the director would be like the mayor of a small city. The departmental managers would be equivalent to assistant city managers. The workers would then fall in line with respect to their occupation. Some departments would break down even further, for example the Chief of Police would command the officers in that department as well as the security teams. The maintenance manager would be in charge of building and grounds maintenance along with runway and lighting maintenance. Of course an oversight committee watches closely and makes recommendations on changes or improvements. The oversight committee would be equivalent to a city counsel. The Transportation Security Administration has been tasked with passenger screening as well as checked luggage screening. This small city of an airport has internal customers and external customers, the people who actually fly on the aircraft are just part of this equation. There are ground transportation providers who follow a certain set of rules to operate at the airport as well as employees of the rental car stations and airline stations who must follow airport rules and regulations, federal regulations, and their own company’s rules and regulations to stay employed and increase security. Police officers are tasked with enforcing these rules and regulations on the entire working community of the airport as well as enforcing local and state laws on private citizens on airport property. Security screeners enforce federal laws which prohibit certain items or individuals from entering the sterile area of the airport for travel purposes. All these things come together to make a small city that provides central Virginia with its airport of choice, Charlottesville – Albemarle Airport.