Nassau Airport

Company: Nassau Airport Development Company Limited

Location: Nassau, The Bahamas

Industry: Airport

Implementation: 2007

Background

Vancouver Airport Services (YVRAS) manages an expanding network of 18 airports on 3 continents and provides specialized consulting services to clients worldwide, and has a ten-year Operations and Management Agreement for the management and development of Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, The Bahamas. This airport is the fourth busiest airport in the Caribbean, handling approximately 3.2 million passengers annually. YVRAS is responsible for introducing best practices, managing the construction program, enhancing commercial venues at the airport, and improving the U.S. Pre-Clearance facilities and services. A local company has been incorporated in The Bahamas to manage the airport contract, called Nassau Airport Development Company Limited ("NAD").

Selection Process

Over the last 3 years, YVRAS has reviewed several accounting systems and selected SunSystems for certain airports for the following reasons:

Powerful multi-dimensional reporting capabilities, allowing reports to be generated by various dimensions (sector, market, department, project, etc.)
Integration with ALFA, a powerful airport billing software solution.
Multi-currency capabilities, allowing reporting in local currency and in Canadian dollars for YVRAS.
Its ability to record non-financial metrics and report airport key performance indicators (KPI's).
SunSystems has been selected by approximately 30 airports around the world and has a proven track record in the airport business.

Implementation Process

Minerva was selected to implement SunSystems. Paul Fernandez managed the project and led the design workshop that mapped out the business processes and designed the new chart of accounts and analysis dimensions. Andrew Lane installed the software and configured the system according to the design. Some of the build work was done remotely, to minimize travel costs. Only the initial design workshop and training were performed on-site.

Results

The system was implemented on-time and on-budget, and met the objectives laid out by YVRAS and NAD. The integration with ALFA was completed, allowing transactions to be imported into SunSystems from ALFA on a daily basis. New financial reports have been developed for NAD.

At the time of writing, Minerva is working on a second project to expand the system to capture and report on the expansion project. The re-development of the airport is a $400 million project, and the costs will be tracked in SunSystems using a new ledger dimension for the construction activity codes, based on the Uniform Construction Industry Master Format construction codes. This will allow NAD to track project expenses at the detailed construction activity level and assist with controlling the $400 million budget.