SINGAPORE:
Willis Towers Watson,a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, has launched a disruption action plan specifically to deal with drone technology.
“Drone disruption at airports: A risk mitigation and insurance response” outlines the threat to airports by drones which are increasingly being used with malicious intent to cause disruption at airports with an increase from 35 reported incidents between 2013 to 2015 to nearly 290 from 2016-2018 in the UK alone¹. This year, drone sightings have also disrupted flights at the international airport in Singapore.
Providing strategic risk mitigation strategies, the guidance highlights the importance of developing a single internal reporting point for drone sightings and early engagement with airline operators during initial drone sightings with emergency multi-agency drills being undertaken on a regular basis. The action-plan also outlines the current insurance solutions available and the multi-stakeholder collaborative approach needed to develop new innovative solutions for the aviation community.
Jago Harvard-Walls, Client Relationship Director and Transportation Lead in Asia, Willis Towers Watson, said “Drone-related incidents at airports may be a recent phenomenon, but they are expected to increase in frequency, complexity and severity as drones become larger and more powerful. Airports need to prepare for potential attacks through effective risk management and there are a number of steps that airports can take to prepare for these scenarios. This includes assessing, locating and understanding the type of drone that has infringed airspace, as well as reputation management.”
The damage to reputation can also be difficult to manage and mitigate. However, there are analytical tools which Willis Towers Watson can use to help quantify the risk to reputation and better prepare organisations to protect their balance sheet. There also remains a significant scope for airports to experience financial losses due to property damage, business interruption and legal liability from drone-related incidents.
“Managing the airport risk landscape effective requires the engagement and collective expertise of the sector to help build a more resilient airport industry, whilst supporting the potential for growth. Through the Airport Risk Community (ARC) founded by Willis Towers Watson, we aim to enable our airport clients to share best practices, risk mitigation strategies and identify emerging people and asset risks alongside innovative solutions so that the airport sector can build operational resilience, support sustainability and innovation to tackle industry risks,” said Scott Burnett, CEO, Corporate Risk & Broking Asia and Head of Asia, Willis Towers Watson.
“Members from our ARC are very concerned about the growing use of drone technology to disrupt and interfere with airport safety. As we have seen with the recent events in Gatwick and Singapore, and the subsequent re-routing of flights, drone technology is increasingly sophisticated and causes extensive disturbance. It is therefore essential that we help our clients to understand what risk mitigation strategies need to put in place to help airports handle the disruption caused by drones,” added Scott.