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Issue 2 2007, Past issues / 3 April 2007 /
Copenhagen Airport (CPH) is located on the borderline between cold Scandinavia and the more temperate northern European continent. This means that there are frequent and rapid changes from mild winter days to fierce blizzards. These changing weather conditions make great demands on the winter preparedness at the largest airport in Scandinavia.
”Be prepared.” This proud motto of the Scouts could also be the motto of Airside Support, the department at Copenhagen Airport in charge of ensuring that the airport is operational round the clock and throughout the year, regardless of the weather and how high the winds are.
Copenhagen Airport is located in a coastal climate region where the winter weather normally varies between mild windy and rainy days and cold days of sleet, snow and freezing rain. Now and then, Copenhagen Airport is hit by a blizzard, or every few years by an “ice winter”, a long period of temperatures well below freezing that causes even the coastal waters to freeze over. On average, the airport is affected by snow only 19 days a year, but there are wide fluctuations in winter weather from year to year. In spite of a trend towards milder weather in recent years, a total of 120 centimetres of snow fell at Copenhagen Airport in the winter of 2005/2006, which is highly unusual. (more…)
Issue 2 2007, Past issues / 3 April 2007 /
This article presents an overview of the ambitious airport development projects in the region in recent years: the expansion of Cancún International Airport in the southeast of Mexico. (more…)
Issue 2 2007, Past issues / 3 April 2007 /
South East Queensland is in the midst of an unprecedented population boom. An additional one million people are expected to call the region home over the next two decades. At the same time more international visitors than ever before are choosing Brisbane as their preferred Australian destination.
In 2006, Brisbane Airport handled more than 16 million passengers and the privatised Airport’s owner and operator, Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC), expects this to increase to 22 million within seven years. The Airport is now the second largest gateway for international visitors into Australia behind Sydney Airport and is becoming an engine room for employment, investment and economic growth, with 120 businesses and almost 11,000 people employed on Airport.
To balance this unprecedented growth and deliver a world-class airport for one of the world’s fastest growing urban regions, BAC is rolling out a unique vision for Brisbane Airport City, designed to ensure that the Airport has the facilities, the access, the aviation services and the business processes to meet forecast passenger and cargo growth at Australia’s fastest growing aviation gateway. (more…)
Issue 2 2007, Past issues / 3 April 2007 /
More than a decade ago, Latin American governments opted for exploring various European privatisation and concession models as a mechanism to promote private investment in the development of public services. The main goal was to look for other financing sources, no longer from public resources, to ensure that the entire population had access to quality services.
One single word could be used to describe most Latin American public companies: inefficient. This directly affected the population and its right to have quality public services. Such inefficiency affected the capacity to invest in the expansion and improvement of the public service network.
Despite the remarkable improvement made in Peru, even today, there is an infrastructure investment deficit of almost US$ 23 billion. This is the amount this South American country would need to invest to have infrastructure levels that are comparable to its neighbor Chile. The investment amount needed solely in infrastructure for airports is approximately US$ 143.2 million. (more…)
Issue 1 2007, Past issues / 6 February 2007 /
Having recently been voted Best Global Airport 2006 by the Institute of Transport Management, Toronto Pearson International Airport is delivering on a decade-old promise.
Shortly after assuming operational responsibility for Toronto Pearson International Airport in 1996, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) set out to fulfil a strategic vision that would deliver Toronto Pearson as the North American airport of choice.
The vision was framed by the development of premier airport facilities and services to meet future air travel demands; a strategic location on the North American continent; and a growing role in global trade, finance and commerce. (more…)
Issue 1 2007, Past issues / 6 February 2007 /
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport will undergo a phenomenal expansion over the next two years, one driven by necessity and increasing passenger numbers, but shaped by a commitment to design. Marc Noyelle discusses how Aéroports de Paris is blending function and aesthetics to create an airport of the future.
Between March 2007 and March 2009, Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport will increase its capacity by 20 million passengers (see Figure 1) through a series of expansions: the S3 satellite, June 2007 (8.5 Mpax); the new concourse of terminal 2E in March 2008 (6 Mpax); the T2G regional terminal in September 2008 (3 Mpax); and the completion of terminal 1’s renovation (2.5 Mpax.)
Aéroports de Paris raised the funds to carry out this project by increasing its capital and floating its shares on the stock market in the summer of 2006, since the company is now listed on the Paris stock exchange. Its cash flow enables it to cover this large-scale programme costing €2.7 billion. (more…)
Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 September 2006 /
Aviation in Dubai was once limited to a single, modest port built on dusty wasteland. Now, it knows no limits. Dubai International Airport is expanding in a US$ 4.1 billion development programme, while 40 kilometres away, work has begun on constructing the world’s largest airport.
Aviation began in Dubai in 1937 when the first Imperial Airways flying boat, operating a weekly service between the UK and Pakistan, landed on the Dubai Creek. It was not until 1959 that the Dubai International Airport was established, following the construction of the first airfield on a vast expanse of wasteland some four kilometres from what used to be the edge of the city.
The modest facility consisted of an 1800-metre compacted runway, an apron area, a terminal building and a fire station. The airport was opened a year later in 1960 and was capable of handling aircraft up to the size of a DC-3. Almost a decade later, in 1969, Dubai International Airport accommodated some nine airlines serving a total of 20 destinations. Ten years later, in December 1980 to be more precise, the airport joined the International Civil Airports Association as an ordinary member. (more…)
Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 16 June 2006 /
With the population of south east Queensland on the rise and the region becoming increasingly popular as a tourist destination – over 16 million people are travelling through Brisbane Airport every year – now is the time to lock in the benefits of growth by investing in the future, explains Koen Roojimans.
Forty-three per cent of the visitors to Australia come to Queensland, which is why it is essential that the State’s gateway airport has the capacity to handle the rapidly increasing number of airport users.
Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Ltd (BAC) has committed more than $1.5 billion to upgrading Airport infrastructure over the next decade. Brisbane Airport has entered an extraordinary period of growth.We need to manage this growth through careful planning and investment, which will see Brisbane Airport evolve into a commercial hub while also sharpening the region’s focus on manufacturing, export industries, tourism, commerce, retail and education and training. (more…)
Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 17 March 2006 /
William R. DeCota outlines how JFK airport has set about meeting the needs of an ever-increasing customer base…
When people ask which of the Port Authority’s airports I like best, I always respond, “That’s an unfair question. It’s like asking which one of your children you love the most.”
Each of the Port Authority’s three major airports – John F. Kennedy International (JFK), Newark Liberty International (EWR) and LaGuardia (LGA) – play an important part in forming the most heavily used airport system in the United States, serving the largest origin-and-destination market in the world. Without each of these world-class aviation facilities playing their part, we could not have served nearly 100 million passengers in 2005 – a record figure that’s expected to grow by nearly 25 per cent in the next decade. LGA, which handled about 26 million passengers last year, is our short-range domestic facility, serving all those passengers in an intimate setting – to say the least; the airport covers barely 660 acres, making it one of the busiest airports per acre in the world. EWR, with approximately 33 million passengers in 2005, serves a dual role, handling a great deal of intracontinental North American air traffic while maintaining a strong international profile, and it will continue to play a major role in air travel in the New York metropolitan region for decades to come. (more…)
Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 25 November 2005 /
Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will soon deliver a massive expansion of airport capacity with far less difficulty and in a more cost-effective manner than other comparable airports in the region and around the world.
Through a combination of foresight and timely intervention, Abu Dhabi, one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East, will not face the daunting prospect of relocating and building a new airport to guarantee capacity for the 21st century.
Driven by the wealth of its oil and gas resources, this powerhouse of the United Arab Emirates has embarked on an ambitious strategy of diversifying its sources of income by increasing tourism and stimulating trade and investment. The expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport (ADIA) forms one of the cornerstones of this strategy. (more…)
Issue 2 2005, Past issues / 10 June 2005 /
Berlin’s Schönefeld Airport has been host of the ILA since 1992 and is currently Germany’s boom airport. As of 2006 it is being expanded to become the new capital city airport – Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI).
The stage has been set for the future – in the coming years Schönefeld Airport will be expanded to become the capital’s new Airport. The official construction permit and the financing concept are completed and detailed planning and preparations for construction are being made. The Bundesverwaltungsgericht (the German Administrative Court) has announced a final decision on the suit about the expansion of the airport for the first half of 2006. As of 2011, according to planning, the entire air traffic for the Berlin-Brandenburg region will be concentrated at the airport in the southeast of the city. The inner-city airports Tegel and Tempelhof will be closed as a result. (more…)
Issue 1 2005, Past issues / 16 March 2005 /
The wave of EU accession that has swept Riga International Airport into its position of enviable growth has not been secured complacently, but with constant development, careful planning and the continual innovation necessary to move on from its Soviet heritage, Riga Airport CEO Dzintars Pomers writes.
In 2004 the number of passengers at Riga International Airport (RIA) increased by 49%, exceeding one million for the first time, whilst the number of handled flights grew by 40%. Fifteen years ago Riga could not even be spotted on a map of European international flights, but today few airports in Europe can boast as dynamic a development as RIA. The accession of Latvia to the European Union in 2004 is the main reason for growing interest both in Latvia and the capital, Riga.
During the 20th Century Latvian aviation, like the country itself, experienced a number of fateful turning points. This former province of Russia, which won independence after the 1st World War, established a small air force and civil aviation, but lost everything due to the Soviet occupation in the summer of 1940. Independence was regained in August 1991. RIA was built in its present location in October 1974, remaining unknown to the outside world and operating as a local airport within the former USSR. (more…)
Issue 1 2005, Past issues / 16 March 2005 /
323 tonnes of freight handled in 1994 / 380,000 tonnes in 2004. These statistics illustrate the success of Liège Airport’s strategy and, according to Luc Partoune, Managing Director of Liège Airport, this is only the beginning; armed with a number of development plans management team SAB have set their sights on the top 5 European cargo airports.
This regional airport, situated in the east of Belgium, gained a new management company in 1991 and a strategy that was original at the time – staking its whole development on full cargo. The advantages of this platform seemed particularly suited to this strategy; situated at the heart of the European golden freight transport triangle, close to a motorway interchange (to Berlin, Munich, Paris, London and Italy, etc), and at that time with vast unused space bordering its 3,287 metre runway. (more…)
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