Back to Regional e-Newsletter LAC H1 2009

Welcome letter

Luis GallardoLuis Gallardo
Sales Director,
Mexico, Central America and Caribbean

 

SITA would like to share with you some strategic information regarding the WHO-declared Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak and SITA's positioning and preparedness status in facing a potential influenza crisis.

The declaration of Phase 5 in the WHO (World Health Organization) global influenza preparedness plan for Influenza A (H1N1) at the end of April was a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short. The SITA Pandemic Preparedness Program Management Team has conducted a Risk Analysis and created a Contingency Plan which covers all areas of activity within our company.

The direct impacts for SITA of a pandemic situation, such as Influenza A (H1N1), have been identified and evaluated and the SITA Contingency Plan's intent is to efficiently mitigate these impacts.

SITA's Contingency Plan aims at ensuring that we are able to:

  • Mitigate the risk of sickness within the company and safeguard the health and welfare of our employees;
  • Enable the organization to successfully manage a crisis and to maintain normal business operations or to rapidly re-establish normality. In order to survive a crisis (especially those which could have an impact over a long period of time), the organization will ensure that critical business processes and systems remain operational during the crisis or can resume to adequate levels of operation quickly.

Our global crisis management team is actively monitoring the status here in Latin America and around the world and has access to an independent expert for medical advice. This contingency plan makes provision for the possibility of simultaneous occurrence of events representing different threat levels in different countries.

Already, specific measures are being taken at key sites including:

  • Remote working for SITA office employees
  • Protective measures for our airport-based employees
  • Procedures for tracking any illness among employees
  • Education on increased hygiene
  • Support to our customers to improve the hygiene levels of multi-user equipment at airports e.g. kiosks, keyboards, etc.

Throughout the organisation, business continuity plans are being reviewed, these include strategies and procedures to maintain, resume and recover critical business functions in a crisis including the identification of essential personnel and the establishment of continuity teams and succession plans.

Here in Latin America, we have in the past faced natural disasters, such as hurricanes, that have directly affected our industry. During these situations not a single minute of service interruption has affected core services provided by SITA, clearly demonstrating our commitment to business continuity.

In sharing this information with you, we trust you will be reassured that it is SITA's priority to guarantee our continued services to our customers during such a crisis, and ongoing strategic decisions are underway to ensure this.

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