When an urgent emergency comes up, instead of having to make dozens of phone calls, The Airport operations team can now react in seconds with one click of a button. The alerting and the critical communications at the Cascais Airport are done from now on with the help of Secapp.
Cascais Airport is located 20km from Lisbon and 15km from the Cascais town. The airport is a busy one, prepared for international traffic. There is a lot of business jet traffic, so the total number of flights per day is over 200. At Cascais Airport over 3000 professionals are working in operations to ensure that everything goes smoothly and safely, 365 days a year.
The International flight academy (IFA) operates at two different airports in Portugal, and Cascais is one of them. The flight academy offers studies, exam preparation and flying hours for future pilots and cabin crews. One of the reasons why the Cascais airport is so busy, is that it handles a lot of instruction flights related to the flight academy.
So how do you make sure that both the smoothness of daily activities and preparedness for unexpected or critical situations are taken into account?
– Every airport around the world relies on external emergency support, since it is impractical to have those means inside the airport on standby. For that reason, every airport needs an efficient alerting system to dispatch those external groups to the airport, says António Bettencourt, Safety Manager at Cascais Airport.
Secapp replaces dozens of phone calls with only one click of a button
Previously, in an emergency or in a critical situation, about 10 phone calls were needed when Airport Operations had to call every external authority separately to dispatch them to help with the ongoing incident or emergency situation. Even if individual calls would take only a few seconds, it still takes at least several minutes to alert different individuals – Secapp does the same in a few seconds. Because every second matters.
In these situations Secapp helps save the airport significant time by enhancing their alerting and their critical communications. They do no longer have to inform or mobilize individuals or teams separately, since the message reaches all the necessary parties quickly and efficiently.
António Bettencourt mentions that with Secapp the Cascais Airport Operations can reduce the workload of the operations team. In addition, the solution increases the efficiency of their communications to the external Authorities.
“Secapp is the connection with the outside, and in the case of an emergency, we can inform every authority by just clicking a button”, says António happily.
Preparation and efficient use saves time when every second matters
Cascais Airport Operations is satisfied with Secapp’s solution helping not only in emergency situations but also with daily tasks. António Bettencourt says the key reasons why they ended up choosing Secapp, was because they find it very user friendly, it does not require much training and it was an efficient solution that met their needs.
One of the key benefits of Secapp is the smooth communication it provides between different parties. Now that numerous phone calls or text messages are no longer needed during an emergency, it is easy to show how Secapp now saves time and resources.
Airport operations communicate with many different stakeholders. Secapp is used to notify internal and external Authorities about an emergency in progress at the airport. The main users are EMS, Police, External Firefighting Brigades, National Emergency Authority, Civil Protection Service, Airport Director, Airport Safety Manager and Airport Mobile Command Post Manager.
Well-planned and tested use makes it easier to utilize the system when the situation is on-going and when every second matters. Cascais airport has tested the platform for real emergency situations with a large-scale practice exercise. Luckily there hasn’t been any real emergency yet, but if that ever happens, the Operations team is well prepared, explains Bettencourt.
– We had a large-scale emergency exercise, where we tested Secapp. We made pre-custom messages for different types and degrees of emergencies defining what was happening and who needed to be dispatched to the airport. The exercise included all the Authorities and Secapp was used to notify them about the emergency. In less than 10 seconds every Authority member was informed and dispatched to the Airport.
Secapp was quick to set up and support is always available when needed
Secapp is really quick to take into use and it usually requires only a couple of hours to set up the system. Online-training is included in the onboarding process. Cascais Airport operations team is satisfied with the very easy to use solution and Secapp’s smooth and fast onboarding. Secapp’s technical support team is available for the customers answering any questions related to the use of Secapp.
– I had about one hour of training, and since Secapp is very user friendly we were able to set it up right away based on our needs and test the system. I am very pleased with the service and support provided. Secapp technical support team has been very fast in replying to our questions, Bettencourt says.
He also adds that since Secapp can be customized for a wide range of needs, from emergency dispatch to day to day tasks, it is a perfect solution for the airports, and many other organizations as well.
When an urgent emergency comes up, instead of having to make dozens of phone calls, The Airport operations team can now react in seconds with one click of a button. The alerting and the critical communications at the Cascais Airport are done from now on with the help of Secapp.
Cascais Airport is located 20km from Lisbon and 15km from the Cascais town. The airport is a busy one, prepared for international traffic. There is a lot of business jet traffic, so the total number of flights per day is over 200. At Cascais Airport over 3000 professionals are working in operations to ensure that everything goes smoothly and safely, 365 days a year.
The International flight academy (IFA) operates at two different airports in Portugal, and Cascais is one of them. The flight academy offers studies, exam preparation and flying hours for future pilots and cabin crews. One of the reasons why the Cascais airport is so busy, is that it handles a lot of instruction flights related to the flight academy.
So how do you make sure that both the smoothness of daily activities and preparedness for unexpected or critical situations are taken into account?
– Every airport around the world relies on external emergency support, since it is impractical to have those means inside the airport on standby. For that reason, every airport needs an efficient alerting system to dispatch those external groups to the airport, says António Bettencourt, Safety Manager at Cascais Airport.
Secapp replaces dozens of phone calls with only one click of a button
Previously, in an emergency or in a critical situation, about 10 phone calls were needed when Airport Operations had to call every external authority separately to dispatch them to help with the ongoing incident or emergency situation. Even if individual calls would take only a few seconds, it still takes at least several minutes to alert different individuals – Secapp does the same in a few seconds. Because every second matters.
In these situations Secapp helps save the airport significant time by enhancing their alerting and their critical communications. They do no longer have to inform or mobilize individuals or teams separately, since the message reaches all the necessary parties quickly and efficiently.
António Bettencourt mentions that with Secapp the Cascais Airport Operations can reduce the workload of the operations team. In addition, the solution increases the efficiency of their communications to the external Authorities.
“Secapp is the connection with the outside, and in the case of an emergency, we can inform every authority by just clicking a button”, says António happily.
Preparation and efficient use saves time when every second matters
Cascais Airport Operations is satisfied with Secapp’s solution helping not only in emergency situations but also with daily tasks. António Bettencourt says the key reasons why they ended up choosing Secapp, was because they find it very user friendly, it does not require much training and it was an efficient solution that met their needs.
One of the key benefits of Secapp is the smooth communication it provides between different parties. Now that numerous phone calls or text messages are no longer needed during an emergency, it is easy to show how Secapp now saves time and resources.
Airport operations communicate with many different stakeholders. Secapp is used to notify internal and external Authorities about an emergency in progress at the airport. The main users are EMS, Police, External Firefighting Brigades, National Emergency Authority, Civil Protection Service, Airport Director, Airport Safety Manager and Airport Mobile Command Post Manager.
Well-planned and tested use makes it easier to utilize the system when the situation is on-going and when every second matters. Cascais airport has tested the platform for real emergency situations with a large-scale practice exercise. Luckily there hasn’t been any real emergency yet, but if that ever happens, the Operations team is well prepared, explains Bettencourt.
– We had a large-scale emergency exercise, where we tested Secapp. We made pre-custom messages for different types and degrees of emergencies defining what was happening and who needed to be dispatched to the airport. The exercise included all the Authorities and Secapp was used to notify them about the emergency. In less than 10 seconds every Authority member was informed and dispatched to the Airport.
Secapp was quick to set up and support is always available when needed
Secapp is really quick to take into use and it usually requires only a couple of hours to set up the system. Online-training is included in the onboarding process. Cascais Airport operations team is satisfied with the very easy to use solution and Secapp’s smooth and fast onboarding. Secapp’s technical support team is available for the customers answering any questions related to the use of Secapp.
– I had about one hour of training, and since Secapp is very user friendly we were able to set it up right away based on our needs and test the system. I am very pleased with the service and support provided. Secapp technical support team has been very fast in replying to our questions, Bettencourt says.
He also adds that since Secapp can be customized for a wide range of needs, from emergency dispatch to day to day tasks, it is a perfect solution for the airports, and many other organizations as well.
