Broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson has highlighted the top 20 risks faced by airports with climate risk becoming a major concern.
As part of a recent conference held by the Willis Towers Watson Airport Risk Community (ARC), 86% of the audience felt that airports are either very exposed or somewhat exposed to climate risk with 48% highlighting flooding as the main weather risk.
John Rooley, CEO, Willis Towers Watson Global Aerospace, said: “We established the Airport Risk Community to identify top risks affecting the airport community.
"Our recent annual conference clearly demonstrated that airport clients were quite specific in their concerns about climate risk and its impact on airport functionality. Our commitment to tackling climate risk enables us to provide guidance on identifying and mitigating this issue.”
One of the key conference speakers Javier Echave, CFO Heathrow Airport Holdings, shared Heathrow’s carbon neutral strategy.
He added: “Aviation is not the enemy, carbon is together with ICAO and UK authorities we must develop a roadmap for the uptake of sustainable fuels across our industry.”
Other risks identified as of key concern in 2019 as in 2016, were the failure of critical IT systems, which were viewed as the top risk, as well as an increased security threat from cyber and data privacy breaches. The risk from drones and the corresponding threat to an airport’s reputation were also new entrants. Security issues were the largest mover in the top 20, in 2016, ranked 19 out of 20, and now featuring at number 4.