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Issue 4 2009
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / Jerome M. Pender, Deputy Assistant Director, Operations Branch for the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division
The aviation term “desired path” refers to setting a course and then following clear guidance to reach a specific objective. This simple term seemed fitting for an article about how the FBI’s work in biometrics could also bolster aviation security. Semantics aside, whether you carry a badge, pin a pair of wings to your uniform, or work in the multi-faceted world of aviation, we all share a desired path to protect the flying public when they are in our charge. However, reaching this goal requires each of us to follow a different course.
For the FBI, this course includes applying a variety of biometric technologies from our investigative tool kit. Our journey began with fingerprint identification, then DNA was added, and now other modalities are being explored within the context of privacy laws, policies, and procedures. To ensure a coordinated and strategic approach to the opportunities and challenges that biometrics represent, the FBI established the Biometric Center of Excellence (BCOE) in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The BCOE serves as the focal point for the FBI’s biometric efforts. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority; Chairman, Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group
Dubai’s strategic plan for 2015 lays specific emphasis on travel and tourism, trade and transportation and logistics, among others, as highly conducive sectors for future economic growth.
The value of investments in Dubai’s tourism, hospitality, leisure, entertainment and real estate projects over the next five to seven years is estimated to be approximately US$ 365 billion.
As a result of these developments, the number of visitors to Dubai, as well as the city’s resident population, will rise over the next few years and Dubai Airports is proud to have been the catalyst that has helped lift this amazing Emirate to greater heights and elevated this wonderful city into a major force in world aviation. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / Urs Haldimann, Deputy Head Airport Operations & Head De-icing Coordination, Unique (Flughafen Zurich AG)
Time 06:32:15 – place: De-icing Coordination, Zurich Airport
“Good morning De-icing Coordination, Swiss 1248, we need De-icing, wings and stabiliser please” sounds the voice of the pilot of the early morning Zurich-Stockholm service over the VHF set in the De-icing Coordination Centre, on the roof of Terminal A at Zurich Airport.
“Good morning 1248, we take you in sequence for Remote De-icing”, answers Petra Doris Lonien, while noting down the flight details on the De-icing communication log before updating the airport information system with the respective code “RIC”, which stands for treatment on the “Remote De-icing Pad.”
From this moment onward, everybody involved, across the various organisations, stakeholders and systems dealing with this flight until take-off, will be aware of the fact that this Airbus A320 is going to be de-iced on one of the two Remote De-icing Pads available at Zurich Airport, before starting its journey to Scandinavia.
While Petra is more than busy handling the incessant requests for De-icing, let’s have a look at how winter operations are organised and managed at ZRH, where almost 7000 flights were de-iced during the Winter period 2008/2009. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / Colin Wood, Director of Airside and Baggage Operations (BAA Heathrow)
Heathrow is the world’s busiest international airport, handling approximately 471,000 air traffic movements annually and employing over 72,000 people, of which a large number are airside workers. The scale and importance of ensuring efficiency among such a vast number of organisations is clear.
As the airport operator, Heathrow is taking an innovative approach in leading and uniting the airport community in best practice. Traditionally in airport management the operator takes a landlord type role, focusing more on compliance and placing little emphasis on managing ‘tenants’, while airlines often work in isolation from each other. However, Heathrow’s airside operations team is now leading a collaborative approach, engaging more than 400 companies operating airside at Heathrow. This means that rather than working separately, they are working together as a community to ensure safety and improved operational performance to make every journey better. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / Richard L. Altmanm, Executive Director, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI)
In the Nov 07’ issue, International Airport Review readers were introduced to the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI). CAAFI’s genesis, its structure and its accomplishments were listed. Readers were left with the question “Will aviation be the last to wean itself from petroleum fuel or will it be a “first mover” to a very different future?”
That question was answered for the most part on June 24, 2009. During meetings held in Norfolk, Virginia, the Aviation Fuel Subcommittee of the ASTM (American Society of Testing and Materials International), the fuel specification governing body, passed a new specification framework for alternative fuels that can be used in applications calling for certified D1655 Jet A petroleum-derived fuel. Certification action is limited to fuel types that will “drop-in” or be indistinguishable from Jet A fuel when used in existing aircraft engines.
This action, for the first time, opens jet fuel production to multiple sources, including a broad array of feedstock’s, production facilities, and locations. By contrast, approvals granted prior to this action were limited to experimental use (flight test programmes) and production from one specific coal-to-liquid production facility located in South Africa. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / John Bates, Chief Executive, British Security Industry Association (BSIA)
Advances in technology and increasing risks are driving an unprecedented level of change in security and nowhere more so than in the application of closed-circuit television surveillance systems in the airport environment. John Bates, Chief Executive of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), looks at the evolution of the security camera and what it means for the safety of air travel.
Although the security camera now seems so commonplace that it is sometimes hard to remember life without it, the familiar sight of CCTV watching over airports and other public places only began on a significant scale in the late 1980s. Although a handful of successful pilot schemes received widespread publicity, its early growth was restrained by a combination of cost and technical limitations, which the security industry worked hard to overcome with a steady stream of improvements.
The original tube-based monochrome security cameras fell to the more reliable, compact, and relatively maintenance free solid-state colour systems. Then users who had been deterred by the prospect of digging up busy airports and freight terminals to install cable, found they could transmit video images through the air using microwave links between cameras and monitoring centres. Image transmission too, underwent a significant advance for the time with the arrival of fibre optic cable. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 /
Work on a second terminal at Bahrain International Airport is due to start early next year. It will almost double the current capacity of the airport – allowing it to handle 12 million passengers every year, up from seven million at present.
Bahrain Airport Company Chief Executive Officer Dr Osama Al Ali said the terminal was expected to be ready by 2013.
He said it was included in the first phase of the airport’s expansion, which will also see construction of an Airport Centre, boasting a multi-storey car park capable of holding 3,000 vehicles, cinemas and shops.
Further expansions are planned in the future that would allow the airport to handle 28 million passengers by 2038, added Dr Al Ali. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / Zeyad Al Majed, Senior Project Advisor for the Al Ain Cluster Development Programme, ADAC
A quick search on the internet will undoubtedly reveal that much of the business news emanating from the United Arab Emirates over the past few years has, unsurprisingly been attributed to either the federal or commercial capitals of the UAE’s seven-emirate federation – Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Without doubt, a series of aggressive marketing campaigns have seen these cities, and indeed “The Emirates” as a whole, become a household name worldwide – and all of this in less than a decade.
Through a varying conduits that include international airlines, sports sponsorship and tourism marketing, the result has been that both Abu Dhabi and Dubai are now very much top-of-mind when thinking of visiting or doing business in the Middle East region. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority; Chairman, Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group
As we reflect on an amazing 2008, it is clear that the next few years will mark a historic and exciting period for Dubai, Dubai Airports and the aviation industry.
The Emirate’s economy remains on a fast track, despite the global economic turbulence that has battered advanced economies and emerging markets.
Dubai remains one of the world’s strongest growth engines thanks to the vision and inspired leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. Dubai’s strategic location, world-class infrastructure and economic strength have elevated it into a centre of excellence in the areas of investment, trade and transportation, which makes the emirate so attractive that blue-chip companies and the most promising of start-ups would not want to invest anywhere else.
Dubai Airports is proud to have been the catalyst that has helped transform this wonderful city into a major force in world aviation. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 16 July 2009 / Ray Elgy, Head of Aerodrome Standards, UK CAA
From the beginning of aviation history, aircraft have faced the hazard posed by birdstrikes. The first known birdstrike occurred in 19051, from the Wright Brothers diaries, “Orville … flew 4,751 metres in 4 minutes 45 seconds, four complete circles. Twice passed over fence into Beard’s cornfield. Chased flock of birds for two rounds and killed one which fell on top of the upper surface and after a time fell off when swinging a sharp curve.” This was the first reported bird-aircraft strike.
The first known fatality as a direct result of an aircraft-bird collision is said to be in 1912, when Calbraith Rodgers’ piloting a ‘Wright Pusher’ struck a gull, causing the aircraft to crash into the surf at Long Beach, California. The pilot was pinned under the wreckage and subsequently drowned.
The birdstrike hazard has become more severe as aircraft speed has increased, and this is because, although birds are relatively small in comparison to modern aircraft, the impact energy in collisions increases with the square of the relative impact speed. (more…)
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