YLW Connection - Summer 2008 - (Page 4)

Carrying through on | B Y T R AC E Y FR E D R I C K S O N Sam Samaddar, M eeting the needs and expectations of 1.4 million passengers who travel through Kelowna International Airport every year is hardly a job for one person, and no one knows that better than Sam Samaddar, YLW’s Interim Airport General Manager since February, 2008. “Virtually everyone who goes through this airport will be touched directly or indirectly by the more than 400 employees, from administration staff, to janitorial, security personnel, Ambassadors, airline staff, operational personnel and many others in the field. My job is to coordinate the team. We work together to determine what we learned from an experience and how we can do it better,” Samaddar says. Samaddar joined the YLW team in 1992 after four years in various positions at Vancouver International Airport, and has been part of YLW’s evolution into one of the fastest growing airports in Canada. From his earlier years spent working in international logistics with Canada’s Department of External Affairs, he understood the technology, security and long-term planning issues that a rapidly growing facility such as YLW faces constantly. “In this industry, you still never know exactly what each day is going to hold,” Samaddar says. Kelowna International Airport is respected around the world for implementing a number of “best practices.” As one of five airports in Canada serving US markets, after the events of 9/11, for example, YLW introduced security technology well before major US airports; it was put in place to protect direct access by our airlines to those transborder markets. Recently, it was airport staff members who came up with the idea of a 24-hour work shift as a means of improving efficiency, making Kelowna International one of only two BC airports where staff work around the clock. The facility has also worked with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority on a number of pilot projects including the use of biometrics and the development of a national restricted area identification card system used to identify employees and control access to the restricted areas at an airport. “This airport is popular because it is relatively small and convenient and we have to remain nimble to maintain this environment,” Samaddar says. Indeed, customer satisfaction 4 YLW CONNECTION Credit: Desmond Murray “My job is to coordinate the team. We work together to determine what we learned from an experience and how we can do it better”

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of YLW Connection - Summer 2008

YLW Connection - Summer 2008
Contents
Carrying Through on the Interim: Sam Samaddar, Interim Airport General Manager
Live Fire
Reserve RCMP program
Calgary – Heart of the New West
Penticton – A True Okanagan Experience
Penticton’s Meeting Place
Flying High Jet Fuel: Implications for the Aviation Industry
Airport Services
Backcountry Adventure
The UPS Store Welcomes Brown to Town
Freight Handling at YLW
Pack Smart, Travel Light plus Keeping Fit while Traveling
Kelowna Art Gallery Launches Satellite Gallery
Heli-Wine Tours
Let’s Get Technical: The Air Up There
YLW News
Trivia & Games

YLW Connection - Summer 2008

https://www.nxtbook.com/dawson/dawson/ylwconnection_2009spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/dawson/dawson/ylwconnection_2009winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/dawson/ylwconnection_2008summer
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com