PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News from around the world of project Management
Monday, August 10, 2009
Cranefield College Graduate Jaco Claassens helps Delta Airlines accelerate Schedule on Airport Reconfiguration Project
According to news received from Cranefield College in South Africa, one of their graduates, Mr. Jaco Claassens, is finding great success at Delta Airlines in the USA, where he is the Senior Project Manager responsible for north-west USA, Hawaii and Alaska. Mr. Claassens completed his Postgraduate Diploma at Cranefield College, a South African university that specializes in project and programme management.
The news comes following the publication of a news story on www.airportimprovement.
com , a website devoted to news about airports projects. According to the story, completion of a design-build contract with The AERO Group to convert the 90,000-square-foot Concourse C from a facility originally designed for 13 narrow-body aircraft to one that will accommodate 26 regional jets is now five months ahead of schedule. Completion is now expected in April 2010, good news for Delta Airlines travelers. The Concourse C reconfiguration is part of a $26 million concourse reconstruction program at the Atlanta Hartsfield airport, the world's busiest.
According to Claassens, "Concourse C previously included gate positions that were all serviced from ramp-level stairwells. This setup required passengers to go down stairs and walk out on the ramp to board the aircraft - far from ideal. Passengers now have a better experience going through Concourse C."
Before the reconfiguration, aircraft parked at the gates were sometimes blocked from getting out. "The new design," notes Claassens, "prevents that from happening. It's just a better operation, a better experience, a better product."
See the article about this interesting project at http://www.airportimprovement.com/content/story.php?article=00075 .
According to Professor Pieter Steyn, principal of Cranefield College in South Africa, "We're all proud of Jaco's success. He was an outstanding student, and we expect him back for more post-graduate study in programme management at some point."
"Now, however, Jaco is providing the best possible publicity for our university," adds Professor Steyn. "That is by being a successful project manager at one of the world's largest airline companies. I just received an email from him in which he expressed his appreciation for what he learned at Cranefield College and the role that this is playing in his practical success; such feedback makes our entire staff feel good about adding value for both students and society."
Based in South Africa but with students and graduates worldwide, Cranefield College of Project and Programme Management is a Department of Education (RSA) accredited and registered Private Higher Education Institution. It provides strategy-centred leadership and management education that enables organisations to progress towards a learning culture and performance excellence. The college offers a web-based project management short course (see multimedia distance learning), as well as a classroom-based Advanced Diploma, Post-graduate Diploma and Master's Degree in project and programme-based value chain management. More information at http://www.cranefield.ac.za/.
photo courtesy of airportimprovements.com
The news comes following the publication of a news story on www.airportimprovement.
com , a website devoted to news about airports projects. According to the story, completion of a design-build contract with The AERO Group to convert the 90,000-square-foot Concourse C from a facility originally designed for 13 narrow-body aircraft to one that will accommodate 26 regional jets is now five months ahead of schedule. Completion is now expected in April 2010, good news for Delta Airlines travelers. The Concourse C reconfiguration is part of a $26 million concourse reconstruction program at the Atlanta Hartsfield airport, the world's busiest.
According to Claassens, "Concourse C previously included gate positions that were all serviced from ramp-level stairwells. This setup required passengers to go down stairs and walk out on the ramp to board the aircraft - far from ideal. Passengers now have a better experience going through Concourse C."
Before the reconfiguration, aircraft parked at the gates were sometimes blocked from getting out. "The new design," notes Claassens, "prevents that from happening. It's just a better operation, a better experience, a better product."
See the article about this interesting project at http://www.airportimprovement.com/content/story.php?article=00075 .
According to Professor Pieter Steyn, principal of Cranefield College in South Africa, "We're all proud of Jaco's success. He was an outstanding student, and we expect him back for more post-graduate study in programme management at some point."
"Now, however, Jaco is providing the best possible publicity for our university," adds Professor Steyn. "That is by being a successful project manager at one of the world's largest airline companies. I just received an email from him in which he expressed his appreciation for what he learned at Cranefield College and the role that this is playing in his practical success; such feedback makes our entire staff feel good about adding value for both students and society."