The grounding of network society - Lessons from air travel and airport management

This comparative ethnography of how large airports deal with breakdowns is a very interesting read by (now) professor Jörg Potthast. It's already 17 years old, but interesting enough for me to re-read.

Air travel, a driver of global market integration, operates beyond traditional territorial control. The hub-and-spoke model, used by major airports, presents operational challenges. Airports like Heathrow and Paris Roissy evolve from transit points into main hubs of global air travel, and have to manage massive passenger flows. At Roissy, the centralized layout facilitated efficient operations, while Heathrow's decentralized design initially caused complications, and required costly infrastructure improvements. Hub airports increasingly rely on non-aviation revenues, such as retail, to fund operations and drive expansion; this further embeds them into regional transport networks.
To manage risks in such complex systems, two strategies are applied: anticipation and resilience. Aaron Wildavsky’s distinction pinpoints the value of resilience—adaptive, decentralized responses—in managing the unpredictability of air travel, compared to centralized anticipatory strategies, which often fall short.

Charles Perrow’s Normal Accidents Theory suggests that centralized systems are prone to failures, while decentralized systems can better adapt. This applies to the baggage handling issues faced by both Heathrow and Roissy. Heathrow’s baggage transfer tunnel failed during peak periods. This caused delays and stakeholder conflicts. Similarly, Roissy experienced a major system shutdown during routine testing. Collaboration across departments is needed to prevent failures. Both airports now employ real-time monitoring and dedicated control rooms to detect and address issues quickly. Preventive maintenance is combined with reactive responses. Automated systems enhance efficiency, but human oversight remains important to handle unforeseen failures.

Potthast's ethnographic studies show that informal communication and problem-solving among staff maintain operational stability, though they often clash with top-down formal plans. Efforts to standardize maintenance and improve cooperation face resistance, as maintenance workers resist structured approaches. This leads to tensions over responsibility.

Heathrow and Roissy’s experiences show that air travel management blends old organizational structures with modern, network-based solutions. While technology has heavily influenced operations, traditional systems still play a vital role. Potthast writes that the future of airport management lies in balancing flexibility with structure and resilience with anticipation.

Source:
Potthast, J. (2007), Die Bodenhaftung der Netzwerkgesellschaft: Eine Ethnografie von Pannen an Großflughäfen, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
Picture by The Daily Mail.