Airports are not short on workforce data: headcount reports, training completion rates, certification registers, turnover metrics, etc. Most organizations already track all of this.
The problem isn’t data, it’s what airports do with it.
Too often, workforce data is used to explain what already happened, rather than to guide what should happen next. Reports are reviewed, risks are acknowledged, and decisions are still made reactively, usually when operational pressure is already high.
In an environment defined by safety-critical operations, skills shortages, and constant disruption, that approach is no longer enough.
Traditional workforce reporting is backward-looking by design. It answers questions like:
Useful? Yes. Strategic? Not on their own.
What airport leaders increasingly need are answers to different questions:
According to ACI World, workforce shortages and skills gaps remain one of the most significant risks facing airports globally, particularly as traffic rebounds unevenly and operational complexity increases (ACI World Workforce Report). Yet many airports still rely on static reporting to manage highly dynamic workforce realities.
Yes, dashboards create visibility but visibility without context rarely changes outcomes.
A training completion rate, for example, doesn’t tell you:
Similarly, headcount numbers don’t reveal whether you have the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles at the right time.
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends consistently highlights this disconnect, noting that organizations struggle to translate workforce data into actionable insight that supports long-term planning and resilience (Deloitte, 2024).
In airports, the consequences of that gap are amplified: when workforce planning is reactive, leaders are forced into last-minute hiring, rushed training, or operational workarounds, all of which introduce risk.
Strategic workforce data does three things well:
This is where scenario-based thinking becomes critical.
Instead of asking “Are we compliant today?”, decision-ready data helps leaders explore:
Research from McKinsey & Company shows that organizations using advanced workforce analytics are significantly more likely to outperform peers in productivity and resilience, particularly in complex operational environments (McKinsey, People Analytics).
For airports, this means workforce data must be structured in a way that reflects how work actually happens: across roles, skills, training, and operational demand.
Reactive workforce decisions are expensive, even if they don’t always appear that way on paper.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has repeatedly emphasized that human factors and workforce capability are core contributors to safety outcomes, not secondary considerations (ICAO Human Factors).
Short-term fixes often lead to:
Yet without forward-looking workforce insight, airports are left managing symptoms rather than root causes.
Airports that are maturing their workforce strategy are shifting focus from reporting to readiness.
They are:
Crucially, they are starting to connect workforce planning and learning into a single strategic conversation, recognizing that skills, roles, and development pathways cannot be managed in isolation.
Moving beyond reporting doesn’t require perfect data or complex models, it starts with intent.
Airport leaders can begin by:
Because in today’s airport environment, the advantage doesn’t come from having more data. It comes from knowing what to do before the pressure hits.