Meet the Board: H.E. Ali Salim Al Midfa from Sharjah Airport In a new segment called ‘Meet the Board’, we will be featuring and introducing you to the members of the ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Board. We will get to know them better by learning about their leadership style, their thoughts on the next generation of leaders and, unavoidably, the impact of the pandemic. Up first, we have H. E. Ali Salim Al Midfa, Chairman of Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates. H.E. Ali Salim Al Midfa has nearly two decades of experience in Airport Management. H.E. Al Midfa joined Sharjah Airport in 1996 and has held many managerial posts in the airport and was appointed Chairman of Sharjah Airport in 2014. In addition to his role as the Second Vice President of the Regional Board, H.E. Al Midfa is also the Chair of the Panel of Judges of the Young Executive Award 2021. RO: What have you had to do differently in terms of leading your team during the pandemic? To lead the team through the pandemic, we had to think fast and on our feet. As scientific research learned more about COVID-19 and government guidelines changed constantly, we had to react quickly in order to protect the health and safety of our employees and passengers. This called for instant adaptation and a culture shift in terms of the mind set to ensure safety, efficiencies, business continuity and overall compliance. RO: What are you most proud of at your airport? First and foremost, I am extremely proud of the agility of the team working at Sharjah Airport who worked round the clock to ensure the safety of staff and passengers and complied fully with all new safety measures and directions. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, we have successfully achieved many accolades in 2020 including the Green Airports Recognition Silver award this year for our quality water management activities and we became the first carbon-neutral airport in Gulf Cooperation Council having achieved the Level 3+ Neutrality standards of the ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. Operationally, we have worked around the
various challenges that have come our way, be it regulatory, operational constraints and otherwise, to always keep safety our priority and at the same time providing the best of services to our clients. Where other industries and organisations have been halted by the pandemic, we have stood firm and resolute, prepared ourselves in every aspect and continued to grow stronger, and that is something we can all be proud of. RO: Has there been a silver lining arising from this pandemic crisis and if so, what? Our efficient response and handling of operations during the pandemic has proven we are ready and operationally capable to deal with many eventualities including COVID-19. We have broadened our technological capabilities and will continue to build contingency plans, investing in digital infrastructure to ensure we remain fully prepared for future eventualities. Now that we are coming through to the other side of the pandemic, it is important to consolidate our learnings to identify areas of future opportunity and risk, thus further The Voice of Asia-Pacific Airports | 3
