Issue 1 2010

A-CDM: Globally interoperable and mutually beneficial

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Tim Hardy, Airside Director, BAA

Picture the scene. A Boeing 747 has just arrived at the end of a long journey from Hong Kong or Los Angeles, taxis from the runway to an airport terminal and then is unable to park on its allocated stand. The captain sheepishly comes onto the PA system and announces to passengers that a stand isn’t available – but in fact, there’s still handling equipment on the desired stand left from the previous flight. Or, the stand entry guidance system hasn’t been switched on. Or, the ground crew have been sent to the wrong stand. Passengers are tired and want to get off, the aircraft’s engines are still running and precious minutes in turnaround time are wasted, leading to delays on the return flight, and mounting costs for airlines.

Passengers at Heathrow Airport though, will be enjoying smoother arrivals and departures from this autumn thanks to the introduction of a new initiative at the airport known as Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM). All airport partners at Heathrow now have access to the same information and a shared view of the airport, the first airport in the UK to implement this, meaning that delays due to lack of communication and coordination will become a thing of the past. (more…)

Tagged with: BAA, Tim Hardy

Serving Southern Nevada

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Rosemary A. Vassiliadis, Deputy Director, Clark County Department of Aviation, McCarran International Airport (LAS)

2009 was a challenging year for the aviation industry, as a widespread economic slowdown cast a pall over the development plans of numerous airports around the globe.

While Las Vegas has been anything but immune to today’s turbulent financial con­ditions, those in charge of the seventh busiest airport in North America are bullish on the future and remain committed to completing its nearly $3 billion capital improvement plan less than three years from now.

“We’re looking toward the future of Southern Nevada, making sure that McCarran International Airport is ready and able to serve this community for years into the future, long after today’s concerns have faded into history,” said Randall H. Walker, Director of the Clark County Department of Aviation, which owns and operates McCarran. (more…)

Tagged with: Airport profiles, Clark County Department of Aviation, McCarran International Airport (LAS), Rosemary A. Vassiliadis, USA

A world class facility with the flexibility to change

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Kim Day, Aviation Manager, Denver International Airport

February 27, 1995. It was called Push Night. A winter storm threatened and at Denver’s worn and venerable Stapleton Airport, the airlines had cut back flight schedules and were keeping skeleton crews. In the evening dusk, lines of tugs hauled equipment northward in the largest logistical movement, outside of a full-scale military mobilisation, of the time. The last flight out of Stapleton left at 9:00 p.m. that evening, a flight bound for London Gatwick. Then Stapleton’s runway lights were turned off, ending an era in Denver aviation that began in 1929.

The following morning at 6:00 a.m., on February 28, a flight from Colorado Springs was the first to land at Denver International Airport (DEN), the first major built-from-the-ground-up airport in the United States since the 1970s.

This February, DEN celebrates its 15th anni­versary as the fifth-busiest airport in the United States and the 10th busiest air hub in the world. Perched strategically near the foot of the Rocky Mountains and in the geographic centre of the United States, Denver International Airport is poised for the next phase of development this year. The airport’s massive 53-square-mile site provides ample space for the future expansion of facilities, to ensure that DEN remains one of the premier airports. (more…)

Tagged with: Airport profiles, Denver International Airport, Kim Day, USA

ASTM Friction Standards Efforts 2009

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Frank Holt, Chairman, ASTM Committee E17 Vehicle Pavement Systems

ASTM International is one of the largest voluntary standards development organisations in the world. It is a trusted source for technical standards for materials, products, systems and services. Known for their high technical quality and market relevancy, ASTM International standards have an important role in the information infrastructure that guides design, manufacturing and trade in the global economy.

ASTM Committee E17 on Vehicle-Pavement Systems, who will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary in 2010, was formed in 1960 to bring together many of the worlds experts in friction and develop standards for data collection, equipment design and data analysis. The Committee’s scope of work includes ‘The stimulation of research dissemination of knowledge and development of principles, techniques and standards for Pavement Management Technologies, Vehicle Pavement Interactions, and Intelli­gent Vehicle/Highway Systems.’

The Committee, with a current membership of 178, has 11 technical subcommittees that have jurisdiction of over 40 standards, published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Volume 4.03. (more…)

Tagged with: Frank Holt, Runway friction

Adjusting to change…

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Thomas J. Kinton Jr., CEO and Executive Director, Massachusetts Port Authority

The so-called “Great Recession” of the past two years has been one of the most challenging periods in the history of North American aviation. At Boston Logan International Airport, for example, traffic has fallen off by nearly two million passengers (from an all-time high of 28.1 million) since the economic downturn began in December 2007.

Yet, if there has been one constant during my nearly 40 years in the airport business, it’s that whenever the airlines have been confronted by a crisis they’ve always found a way to successfully respond. Whether it was during the oil embargo at the beginning of the 1970s or the deregulation realignments at decade’s end, the PATCO air traffic controller strike to start the 1980s followed by Gulf Wars I and II, the SARS and bird flu scares and finally the attacks of September 11 that produced a rev­olution in airport security. (more…)

Tagged with: Economic environment, Massachusetts Port Authority, Thomas J. Kinton Jr.

When winter hits, Prague Airport will be ready!

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Jan Kadlec, Head of Airfield Operations, Prague Airport, Czech Republic

Prague/Ruzyne Airport is the largest international airport in Central Europe and is the gateway to the continent. That means operations must be ensured even under adverse weather conditions. The winter time period officially starts on November 1 and ends March 31, but the dates are always adapted to climatic conditions, so the start may come two weeks earlier or the end two weeks later, depending.

When snow falls, maintenance workers at the airport have their hands full. They have a sixty-minute designated time period within which to clear the runways for takeoff and landing, main taxi roads and aicraft parking stands. Last winter, in January (2009), they got the job done in a record 20 minutes (a cleaning of the general runway). A force of 17 sweepers/snow­blowers cleared an area of almost 200,000 m² at Prague Airport in a single pass, for the first time in history.

Cutting-edge technology is used at the airport to get rid of snow and frost and get operations going again more quickly. Equipment on the job includes one of the largest snowploughs currently manufactured, capable of removing up to 12,000 tonnes of snow per hour, along with specialised wide-swath sweepers/snowblowers to clear runways (7.5m plough, 5.4m broom). In addition, there are two specialised gritters employing wet gritting, a technology which markedly in­creases the quality of chemical maintenance. The parking lot at Prague Airport has a total of 63 specialised machines for clearing snow and maintaining the surface. (more…)

Tagged with: Czech Republic, Jan Kadlec, Prague Airport, Winter operations

Training and readiness is crucial for the fire and rescue staff at your airport

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Jens-Peter Larsen, Fire Chief, Copenhagen Airport, Denmark

Daily routines, training, readiness (the effort of being constantly ready) – are not new words when we are setting demands for our fire and rescue personnel. This article will give some examples in “lessons learned” from aircraft disasters, in order to give value to the words ‘daily routines’, ‘training and readiness”, and how to use the knowledge in a proactive way.

But first – why this article? ‘Sharing knowledge’ are the key words, because it is very seldom that we in airport fire and rescue actually face a real aircraft accident. On the other hand, there are a lot of expectations with regard to our performance in fire and rescue. Your airport, the airlines, the crew, passengers and everybody from the outside world has this feeling and expects the fire and rescue to know what they are doing in order to save lives.

So both the basic training, coupled with all of the small details, can together make the fire department in your airport a unit that can be counted on when the big thing occurs. (more…)

Tagged with: Airport Fire Services, Copenhagen Airport, Denmark, Jens-Peter Larsen

Design and preparation for smooth baggage handling operations

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Koh Ming Sue, Director, Engineering & Master Planning Division, Changi Airport Group and Mr Lim Yi , Executive Engineer, Specialised Airport Systems, Changi Airport Group

Changi Airport’s latest passenger handling facility, Terminal 3, opened in January 2008. Designed with spectacular architecture, lush natural light-filled ambience and superb effici­ency, this ultra modern facility has an annual handling capacity of 22 million passengers, boosting the total handling capacity of Changi Airport to 70 million passengers per year. Currently, six airlines operate from Terminal 3, including the national carrier, Singapore Airlines which operates from both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. (more…)

Tagged with: Baggage handling, Changi Airport Group, Koh Ming Sue, Lim Yi, Singapore

Approach lighting system safety

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Dr. Ron Gibbons, Mr. Chris Edwards and Dr. Antonio Trani, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)

The current standards and criteria to implement approach lighting systems are based on the number of aircraft operations, the type of airport operations, and the design criteria of runway operations. These criteria do not address issues such as the safety of passengers and rescue personnel after an aircraft accident/incident.

Airports around the world face enormous challenges to protect people and property during regular aircraft operations. Significant encroachment of airports around populated areas has occurred in the past five decades. For the 31 years from 1976-2007, commercial aviation demand – measured in terms of commercial passenger enplanements in the system – has tripled from 238 to 767 million₁.

Approach lighting systems (ALS) provide a critical component of the runway safety systems to allow a pilot to transition from instrument to visual flight during landing. In the United States, there are 2100 runway ends which are equipped with ALS. These systems, while critical for safe landing, also provide a potential issue in the case of an undershoot or overrun on a landing. An aircraft landing in an ALS field is in an environment which has both electrical equipment and structures. There is great potential for damage to the aircraft, injury to passengers and problems for the first responders. (more…)

Tagged with: Airfield lighting, Chris Edwards, Dr. Antonio Trani, Dr. Ron Gibbons, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)

Research rapidly progresses as airlines eagerly await alternative fuels

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / James Hileman and William Litant, PARTNER

In a keynote address at the September 30, 2009 meeting of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuel Initiative (CAAFI) in Washington, DC, Air Transport Association Chairman and UAL Corp. CEO Glen Tilton emphasised, “… there clearly is a market (for aviation alternative fuels). There are buyers. There is certainly interest.”

Many feel that alternative jet fuels are a vital element in energy supply diversification in the face of rising oil prices and volatile world situations. Another important benefit of alternative fuels is that they have the potential to reduce aviation-related combustion emissions’ environmental impacts.

Progress towards alternative fuel use is moving faster as every month goes by. On November 18, 2009, Embraer, General Electric, and Amyris announced they would cooperate in a technical and environmental evaluation of Amyris’ alternative aviation fuel. This feedstock-to-fuel pathway would use an advanced fermentation technique to convert sugars to jet fuel. On December 4, U.S. Sec­retary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Agri­culture Tom Vilsack announced a $600 million investment in 19 advanced biorefinery pro­jects around the United States, some of which will produce jet fuel. And, that same month, 15 airlines signed memoranda of understanding to begin purchases of alternative fuels. (more…)

Tagged with: Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), Fuel, James Hileman, Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emission Reduction (PARTNER), William Litant