BPA forum Prepare for take-off At the inaugural meeting of the new BPA Airport Parking Forum, the discussions flowed and common ground was apparent. Louise Parfitt reports t is often from a small number of people that change begins. Indeed, it was a few dedicated individuals who convened on the last Tuesday of February and laid the foundations for a forum that belongs to them, will support them, and, ultimately, will ensure a more joined-up and user-friendly parking experience across UK airports. The seeds were sown by Heathrows Martin Draper. For the past 12 months, he has worked alongside the BPA membership team to bring the Airport Parking Forum from idea to reality. Attending European parking events in previous years, I found positive benefit in discussing operational and market challenges with similar airport managers, he explains. I believe that the shared-value experience was important to bring to the UK, focusing on safety, passenger experience I This new forum will allow us to share experiences and hear from subject-matter experts so we can work towards an alignment of principles that our passengers benefit from and the level of consistency that consumers can expect throughout parking at UK airports. High fliers Members included representatives from two of the UKs biggest airports Gatwick and Heathrow and those from smaller airports including Belfast, Southampton, Southend and Regional & City Airports. Helped by the vice-chair of the BPA Retail and Leisure Group, Andrew Bailey, the group also included representatives from Disabled Motoring UK, the BPA board, and BPA management team. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together executives from large and smaller airports and allow them the opportunity to share openly a wide range of subjects that face airports operations on a day-to-day basis, says Bailey. The debates were passionate, informed and productive ranging from discussions on compliance management, especially about Blue Badge misuse, to considering how to make the best use of limited space be that offering last-mile journeys by autonomous vehicles or robot valet parking. There was a lively discussion on third-party meet-andgreet operators. The forum acknowledged that there is often a need for these operators to meet the demand for parking, but discussed how the airports can ensure that they are only dealing with legitimate companies and not allowing unscrupulous businesses to operate on their forecourts. The skys the limit Provision for electric vehicles is another huge challenge, with 58 britishparking.co.uk PNApril19 pp58-59 Airport Forum.indd 58 21/03/2019 13:16