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Issue 1 2012
7 February 2012
World aviation growth for 2012 will exceed present forecasts! Aviation is on a roll in the US. We have lift off! At last, the US Federal Government, the aviation industry and aviation interest groups are pulling together to build a more efficient national and international airspace system.
Of course, where the rubber hits the road, the airport runways, are paramount to success of any global air transport system. The new Next Generation (Nex Gen) Air Traffic Control system will help immeasurably in improving efficiency and capacity. And dramatic new improved weather reporting should be available in the future at all international airports. It is my opinion that the US Federal Aviation Administration Airports Office has done a great job and I am sure that the ‘stellar cadre’ of FAA Airport Experts will ensure success in these future endeavours.
7 February 2012
As the SESAR initiative continues to garner debate from all corners of the aviation industry, Mark Glover from International Airport Review spoke to one of the key players involved with the initiative, Guenter Martis, Director of European Affairs at CANSO, to see what needs to be done by all involved to push the project forward.
Mark Glover: What do stakeholders need to do in 2012 to build momentum for SESAR?
Guenter Martis: They have to work together and need to come out of their corners where they have been sitting very comfortably, now it is time to commit fully to this project. We all need to work together with the European Commission to get this very important project done. We need to work on the communication of the Commission and we need to achieve a single industry voice, otherwise it will fail.
7 February 2012
SESAR is the research and development arm of the Single European Sky. A founding member of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, EUROCONTROL is a major contributor to this huge programme, covering everything from 4D trajectories to system wide information management and, of course, airports.
Pushing forward
The SESAR airport activities have now all started, all partners are fully occupied with the activities, and, at least in EUROCONTROL, personnel are extremely busy, trying to keep up with the plan.
Most of the current activities are related to Step 1 of the SESAR concept, “Time Based Operations”. Three main topics are being addressed in this phase:
7 February 2012
Newcastle International Airport is fully committed to achieving group improvements to its energy and environmental performance. There is a dedicated team within the airport who work to ensure that all environmental impacts are managed, such as energy, noise, water and waste. Within each of these areas, significant resources have been spent to ensure minimal impact on the environment.
In 2010, Newcastle International Airport made a commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 15 per cent by 2015. At the moment, our current reduction is approximately 8 per cent, over half way to our target in less than two years. During this time, we have invested significant resources into improving and upgrading various aspects on site to help us reach this target. Our projects range from lighting upgrades, sensor installations, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Condition) profiling, and energy management initiatives.
7 February 2012
Towards the end of 2011, the sun rose to shine for the first time on the newly inaugurated Photovoltaic (PV) park at Athens International Airport (AIA), the largest unified PV installation at an airport worldwide.
AIA’s PV park is expected to contribute significantly to the airport’s target of reducing its carbon footprint. The production of approxi - mately 11 million ‘green’ KW annually, corresponds to almost nine per cent of the airport’s electricity needs and will reduce CO2 emissions by 11,000 tonnes per year, for a period of at least 25 years.
The inauguration of the PV park marked the end of AIA’s efforts to introduce renewable energy sources at the airport. However, before AIA considered adding energy producing facilities within its strategy, it had to tackle the issue of energy efficiency. An important energy manage - ment process was initiated in 2002 which targeted the reduction of energy consumption at the airport. The airport had to run on the absolute minimum energy required, without comp ro - mising the high level of services offered to our passengers and partners.
7 February 2012
Southampton Airport’s vision to become ‘Europe’s leading regional airport’ has provided the motivation for a number of innovate investments in recent years. With a couple of UK firsts amongst the developments, including being the first UK airport to have solar powered LED runway guard lighting, the regional airport with the big ideas is set to continue trend setting in 2012.
For International Airport Review, Steve Thurston, Head of Planning and Development at Southampton Airport talks about solar powered LED runway guard lights, and the catalytic effect their success has had on the airport’s further development.
As the number of aircraft and vehicle movements increased within the aerodrome over the years, regular reviews of signals, signs and markings were undertaken. In Autumn 2009, Steve and his team began researching options for runway guard lights and were keen to explore the latest technology relating to sustainable products.
7 February 2012
The development of Aeronautical Ground Lighting (AGL) has generally been one of steady evolution. Since a significant period of rapid development during the early 1940s, driven by the require - ments of wartime aviation advancement, progress has been somewhat conservative with manufacturers applying established technology to the production of smaller and more efficient light units but without pushing the boundaries too much. Many refinements have been made to the light units but the basic system and circuitry have remained the same.
However, the development of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) into a reliable light source has provided an opportunity to look at the whole system from a fresh perspective. Over the past decade much trial and some error has been undertaken with LED AGL light units at airports in different parts of the world.
The USA has been particularly prominent in the development and deployment of LEDs and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been pro-active in the evaluation and acceptance of the new technology.
7 February 2012
The Met Office works across all areas of the aviation industry to help ensure safe and efficient operations. We provide a wide range of services such as specialist web sites, forecaster telephone advice, SMS text alerts and high resolution data services to name a few. These services are tailored to meet the needs of various users so that they have the most accurate information to support their weather dependant decision making, and we also add further value by simplifying the interpretation of meteorological conditions and their impact on airport, aircraft and air traffic management operations.
Delivering weather forecasts and advice that is easy to access, easy to understand and directly relevant for specific purposes is very important. However, without timely and highly accurate content, forecasts will be severely degraded. To achieve the necessary standards presents a significant technological challenge as creating forecasts is a complex process.
7 February 2012
Spanning 7,600 acres, Edmonton International Airport (EIA) is Canada’s largest airport by land area. It is also one of the country’s busiest airports, with more than six million passengers passing through its facility every year. The airport offers non-stop travel service to more than 50 national and international destinations, and is also a critical part of air cargo operations in the country.
The province of Alberta has experienced rapid economic growth, even through the global financial recession, due primarily to a thriving oil and gas industry. Edmonton, the province’s capital city, has more than 40,000 businesses and is home to more than one million people. The city’s population has grown at a record rate, increasing by more than 30,000 in 2009 alone. With the demand for aviation services reflecting the region’s economic health, the airport has seen passenger traffic double during the past decade. In fact, EIA was the fastest-growing airport in Canada from 2006 to 2008.
7 February 2012
For more than 35 years, the French industrialists have developed systems and equipment to match the worldwide evolution of airports and air traffic controller’s operational needs. In the 1970s and 1980s the main focus of the aviation sector was to increase air navigation safety. In the last 20 years French engineers have been heavily involved in designing emblematic airports around the world.
For 10 years now, the concern has been to cope with the worldwide increase of air traffic, the rise of risks and the demand of travellers who expect services and facilities within an airport to be similar to those that they might find in their own town, has meant that an airport now needs to be secure, safe and able to offer a better passenger experience. French companies are fully dedicated to innovating solutions which improve the management of passenger flow.
7 February 2012
Warsaw Chopin Airport has spent a large amount of investment on winter main - tenance during the 2010/11 season. Never before in the airport’s history had the struggle with snow and ice required so much effort and resources. So what can we expect in 2012?
According to data from the Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, the previous winter was exceptionally cold. The average temperature during the three winter months was -3°C, which was more than two degrees colder than usual. As we all know the 2011/2012 was particularly harsh, causing travel chaos across Europe.
In Warsaw, the number of snowfall periods (12 hour work shifts during which snow removal was required) totalled 85 and was similar to that of the two previous seasons. The number of melt-freeze periods was also above average at approximately 96. However, due to heavy snowfall, as well as rapid weather changes, Chopin Airport’s snow-removal service had their hands full.
7 February 2012
Prague Airport is the biggest airport in the Czech Republic and one of the major hubs in Central and Eastern Europe. Prague’s excellent location in the heart of Europe together with its recognition as an attractive business and holiday destination represents a unique opportunity for air service development.
Like London and Frankfurt, Prague Airport suffered in the 2010/2011 winter season. However, the airport was only closed from 1-2 December 2010 for six hours. Over 100cm of snow had fallen between 26 November and 31 December. During those 36 days, 34 of them were spent maintaining runways and airport premises from the bad weather conditions. The biggest snow falls during last season were on the 28 November (12cm), 1 December (20cm) and 15 December (10cm). In all we had to use approximately 570,000 litres of de-icing fluid.
The main problem was the snow on the apron, a place where the airplanes are parked and handled.
7 February 2012
Situated in the East of England and close to London, Cambridge Airport has always been close to a wide range of advancing technology. Marshall Aerospace, the United Kingdom’s leading independent Aerospace Company has been based at the Airport since the 1940s.
The Airport is owned by the Marshall of Cambridge Group of Companies, which com - prises the Marshall Motor Group, Marshall Land Systems and Marshall Aerospace. The Group of Companies has been involved in aviation since 1929 and owns the airport which until recently had been regarded as the essential gateway to the Marshall Aerospace hangars. It had been relatively underutilised by various sectors of the aviation community. This was partly due to reluctance to expand the Airport, but also because for the last 10 years the local Cambridge Councils have eyed the 475 acres of airport land as a potential housing estate for 12,000 homes. Those aspirations were dashed in 2010, when following exhaustive studies into a possible relocation, Marshall of Cambridge declared it was staying put and would develop the Airport facilities as a Regional Airport. Not that much investment was needed. A new state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control Tower was opened in 2000; an enhanced ILS system and Area Radar were installed in 2001 and in 2009 a £4.5 million investment created a stylish FBO featuring a boardroom, meeting rooms and crew rest area.
7 February 2012
The first conference of its kind for International Airport Review and given the astonishing recent growth of Information Technology within air - ports, Airport Information Technology 2011 was a conference that was able to cover all aspects of the vast subject.
The event took place on the 6 and 7 of December 2011 at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel, Heathrow attracting over 100 delegates.
Philip Langsdale, Chief Information Officer at BAA began proceedings by highlighting the key objectives at Heathrow Airport that can be im - proved by Information Technology. Mr. Langsdale highlighted baggage, security and passenger engagement as some of the areas that are being targeted by BAA.
Referred to in the previous presentation, Hugh Carr-Archer, Chief Executive Officer at Aurora Computer Services Ltd and Dr Nick Whitehead then gave a fascinating joint pres - entation on the role of biometrics applications for airports.
7 February 2012
The issue of aviation safety has always produced comment, debate and input on a political global scale. Legislation is drawn up and adhered to although further harmonisation is required across the world for standards to become effective. This topic, as well as numerous other subjects were talked about and recently dissected at the Marriot Hotel in Brussels on the 22 and 23 of November 2011.
Zarrko Sivcev, Advisor to COO at EUROCONTROL began proceedings by present - ing the organisation’s involvement in previous crisis situations such as the Balkans in 1999 and more recently the volcanic ash cloud that originated in Iceland and grounded planes across most of Europe. Sivcev was keen to stress the importance of efficient communication as well as garnering political support. Ultimately, it seems that being prepared for the worse case scenario is paramount, which can be achieved through the close relationship with the key airport operational departments.
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