On receiving the certification, HIA’s Chief Operation Officer, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer said: “The ISO 22301:2012 certification has arrived at a time when the world’s gravest pandemic is upon us. We are honoured to be recognised for our commitment to provide exceptional and consistently high-quality services to passengers and stakeholders. The certification reflects our capability in responding efficiently in the event of business interruption, while maintaining HIA’s position as a leading airport in the world.”

Pietro Foschi, Group Director Assurance Services, BSI, added: “We congratulate HIA for achieving the ISO 22301:2012 certification for Business Continuity Management. During our audit, we found HIA well prepared with a robust business continuity plan, developed to maintain critical operations at an acceptable level of service to its customers, in the event of any major disruption to its usual working practices.”

“HIA demonstrated the ability to keep critical operations up and running during times of crises. The adoption and certification to this good practice standard embraced by its management team is another element contributing to the resilience of this critical infrastructure,” he said.

Ioannis Metsovitis, Senior Vice-President Operations, added, “HIA has always been at the forefront of development and crisis preparedness. Before the onset of the global crisis, HIA had planned and executed pandemic scenarios as a part of its business continuity program. This was done to ensure operations continue as effectively and efficiently in case of an unexpected business disruption.

“We are especially pleased to receive the ISO certification during this time, as it recogniSes the efforts of HIA’s  team and motivates us to achieve greater feats in the future.”

HIA has also been prioritising its services to the world, such as repatriation flights to ensure passengers reach home safely and essential medical supplies are continuously supplied, both locally and internationally,” Metsovitis said.

HIA is amongst the first airports in the world from the pool of top 5 best airport category as per SKYTRAX, to achieve ISO 22301:2012 certification from BSI. It is also the first airport to have received the ISO 55001-2014 Asset Management System and ISO/IEC 20000-1 Information Technology Service Continuity Management System from BSI.

The airport’s primary objective is to reduce the risk of potential business disruptions that could adversely impact the airport’s vision to be the leading airport in the world. Qatar’s airport will continue to ensure that its processes and systems are adapted to an ever changing customer landscape, and improved to deliver exceptional customer experience. HIA has recently been ranked the “Third Best Airport in the World”, among 550 airports worldwide, by the SKYTRAX World Airport Awards 2020.