Viewfinde View 7 – Desperation
On 03/02/2012, in Viewfinder view, by steve
On her knees looking after the fast receding figure of her mom… this tired little girl will probably remember Madrid airport with less than enthusiasm.
Integrated Robot Loading at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
On 25/01/2012, in CDM, by steve
With CDM starting to look increasingly towards the land-side of airports to optimize passenger flow processes in order to have a more predictable aircraft turnaround, it is not surprising that hitherto less visible processes, like baggage handling, are also coming under increasing scrutiny to find opportunities for improvements. Long labor intensive, baggage handling is taking important strides towards higher levels of automation, something that will fit nicely into the information managed environment of the future collaborative decision making environment.
The Integrated Robot Loading concept that was implemented at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s South baggage hall to create a smarter baggage system, was implemented by Vanderlande Industries and Grenzebach Automation The “Baggage on Demand concept” or pull-concept using batching and automatic baggage loading robots gives airports the ability to manage the growing amount of baggage in an ergonomic and cost efficient way.
Baggage make-up is the loading of ramp-carts and containers, which are driven to an airplane just before departure. In the Baggage on Demand concept, all baggage from check-in and transferring bags are first buffered in a storage facility, and then sent to a robot on demand. The robot loads the ramp-carts and containers automatically. The LTM (Logistics Transport Manager) manages the baggage flows in the system, and the robot replaces the muscle power of the workforce. This concept has first been deployed as part of the 70MB program at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, is future-proof, and is intended primarily to raise efficiency and reduce heavy manual labor. The Baggage on Demand operation handles the bulk of the daily baggage volume.
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EUROCONTROL cancels CDM group meeting
On 12/10/2011, in CDM, by steve
When the mail arrived announcing that EUROCONTROL was cancelling the upcoming CDM group meeting due to severe cuts in their budget, I was not really surprised. This was almost expected as part of what appears to be the killing off of EUROCONTROL. That the CDM group was one of the more successful activities was of course not enough to save the meeting.
Since the announcement, scores of posts appeared on various LinkedIn groups, most of them critical of the decision and regretting this short-sighted action. At least one commenter “reassured” us that this was the way the future will go, the stakeholders want to scale back EUROCONTROL and the ANSPs will take over the coordination of things.
In all the rightful indignation we should not forget a few additional interesting facts that all have a bearing on what is happening to EUROCONTROL to-day. Since I have been there from pretty early on, sharing the time as an ANSP rep and later as an IATA rep, I do have a peculiar perspective which I would like to share with you. Why are these facts important? Because by recognizing them we can hopefully design more effective remedies. So here goes:
1. EUROCONTROL was not perfect. BUT it had many excellent projects, truly forward looking initiatives most of which were consistently slowed down or killed by the stakeholders. I have been in many high level meetings where things got hammered for no other reason but that one or more big ANSPs were not ready to do “it”. Believe it or not, air/ground digital link work in the early phases would have been killed had we not organized a very strong protest… There are more examples.
2. There has been a wrestling match between EUROCONTROL and the EC for a long time. Things got a bit more balanced when the EC burned their fingers in the initial FAB and SES activity caused by the same reluctant stakeholders who were keeping EUROCONTROL from performing properly.
3. It is an open secret that there are certain ANSPs in Europe who have maintained for a long time that they could do a better job of ATM than EUROCONTROL does, being especially critical of the CFMU. The current financial squeeze is not the first initiative to kill EUROCONTROL (but is probably the most effective yet).
4. Giving EUROCONTROL the role of Network Manager is a smokescreen and an incredible affront to the industry. Since EUROCONTROL does not get any additional powers to make things happen (so it will be nothing like the Command Centre in the US), it will be a toothless tiger… Possibly in a few years time it will be established that EUROCONTROL is not being very effective as the Network Manager, so it can disappear completely. Clever… Click here to read the full article
New airport in Hungary will become reality after all?
On 24/06/2011, in Life around runways, by steve
According to information leaked to the Hungarian media, the visiting Chinese premier during his stay in Hungary will raise the issue of the Szombathely cargo airport to Hungarian prime minister Orban.
Building a cargo airport to serve as China’s main port of entry into Europe has been on the table for some time and the location had been selected several years ago. In the vicinity of the West-Hungarian town of Szombathely, the new, single runway airport would provide excellent rail and road connections to the rest of Europe.
If the decision is indeed made, this airport will be the only completely new facility of this size being built in Europe, bringing major benefits to Hungary as well as Austria which is just a few miles West of the field earmarked for the new airport.
Check out the SIA-Port web-site here.
Are Brussels Airlines and Brussels Airport loosing it?
On 20/04/2011, in CDM, by steve
I have written in the past about the curious happenings that seem to affect Brussels Airlines’ flights from Vienna. You can read about them here and here. Last Friday however I got proof that flights TO Vienna can also be jinxed… Sadly, the event I am about to relate to you also shows that collaborative decision making (CDM) as practiced to-day in Brussels needs to be improved substantially.
SN runs a very convenient service to Vienna, leaving Brussels at 0705 and arriving in the Austrian capital shortly after 0830. With the new train connection at the airport you can reach most meeting locations for a comfortable 1000 start.
I was at Brussels airport early last Friday, 15 April because exceptionally I was planning to entrust my little trolley bag to the care of the “system”. As you will see, this was an exceptionally bad idea. Having checked in at home, baggage drop-off was a breeze and in no time at all I was through security and on my way up to the gate area.
Brussels Airport is one of those places where they use the totally idiotic and counter- productive idea of posting the gate numbers at the last possible moment believing that leaving passengers clueless about the gate would generate more revenue at the shops… In fact they are only “punishing” those who check in at home and who do not have bags to drop off since they will indeed not learn the gate number until the airport decides to disclose this closely guarded secret; all others get the gate number scribbled on their boarding pass by the helpful airlines (who probably hate this selfish attitude of the airports as much as I do).
This morning I was among those happy souls “in the know” and I walked straight to the gate, casting a sad eye at the group of imptient passengers milling around in front of (and NOT inside) the bar waiting for their gate to be posted. At the gate itself a sad sight greeted me. There was no aircraft at the other end of the air-bridge.
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Headache
On 06/04/2011, in Perspectives, by steve
Every so often I wake with a splitting headache which is bad enough as it tends to persist the whole day… Even worse however is the rather somber view I have at times like that of our beloved aviation world.
When I think of airports, I see not the runways and the aircraft parked at the gates… I see expensive supermarkets where finding your gate is difficult not because there are so many of them but because you have to wade through shops selling stuff at “tax-free prices” that are still double of what you would pay on Main Street and because the airport will not post the bloody gate numbers until the last minute to keep you in the shopping area that much longer. Very naughty because passengers sometimes forget that they are there to travel and not to make the airport richer with the consequence that they will be late at the gate and possibly delay the flight (or have their baggage unloaded and be left behind). With more and more of their revenue coming from the concessions, who could blame the airports for often concentrating more on selling to the passengers while giving only the minimum they can get away with to their supposedly main customers, the airlines. It is remarkable that one of the main achievements of SESAR will be the full integration of airports into the air traffic management system. I could have sworn aircraft departed from and arrived on runways at airports for decades and that this integration had taken place many years ago. No Sir, that was not the case. Airport operating companies are profit oriented and very competitive and until recently they very successfully kept out of the ATM fold lest their peculiar ideas about operating aircraft be corrupted by “outside” influences. The ideal airline for an airport would be one with no aircraft… The passengers would come to the airport, shop and dine and shop some more and then go home… Aircraft are such a pain in the six o’clock. They are noisy, need a lot of space and their operators are in constant financial stress so the prices the airport can charge is limited. Walking through some airports these days I get the feeling these guys are transforming the facility into a shopping mall and the flying bit is becoming almost incidental.
A few years ago I was crossing the plaza in front of Amsterdam Airport and a guy with a big suitcase approached me with desperation in his eyes: Sir, he asked, where is the airport here? Where indeed!
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Flightpath – A great tool for better communications in aviation
On 23/02/2011, in Bookshelf, by steve
For most of us, Cambridge University Press needs no introduction. Their name is synonymous with innovation and quality. When they decide to publish a book to improve aviation communications you can be sure it will be something special.
Roger-Wilco was granted an exclusive opportunity to review a pre-production version of Flightpath, Cambridge University Press’ brand new take on a communications study course that will be published around May 2011. Flightpath is comprised of a Student’s Book with audio CDs and DVD and a Teacher’s Book. Our review now covers the Student’s Book without the electronic material. We will bring you a supplementary review of the complete package once it is on the marker, so stay tuned. In the meantime, this is what we think about this pre-production gem.
First of all let me say that as a former air traffic controller who has also done quite some work on analyzing the causes of runway incursions, I am especially sensitive to the importance of using proper phraseology in all circumstances. Many incidents and serious accidents could have been avoided had the pilots and controllers concerned adhered to the prescribed way of expressing things. It is therefore always welcome when I come across a publication that tries to improve the communications scene on both sides of the cockpit/control unit divide.
The task is not easy! People can learn to express themselves in the formal way ICAO has prescribed but in order to continue using the proper phraseology and avoid falling back on colloquial speech, they need two things: first and foremost, they must understand the deadly danger inherent in not using correct phraseology. Second, proper communictions must be the subject of constant supervision via official means as well as via peer pressure.
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Brussels – CDM airport daylight hours only??
On 13/12/2010, in CDM, by steve
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is a vital element of the new air traffic management paradigm (you can read more about CDM in Roger-Wilco’s CDM category). Some airports in Europe are leading CDM implementation, among them Brussels. One would expect that operations at a CDM airport do not have to contend any more with such basic problems as waiting at a gate with no operator for the airbridge… Arrive late in the evening at Brussels and CDM airport or not, you will be treated to this kind of legacy problem.
Last Friday though they have given us a taste of the good old times, before CDM…
SN 2908 from Vienna was not only on time for its 23.10 arrival but it was actually some 15 minutes early. Landing on 25L the plane taxied to a remote position beyond the satellite terminal (see sketch below) where Brussels Airlines parks their aircraft for their week-end rest. Passengers were happy. 15 minutes may not be such a big gain in time but getting home 15 minutes earlier on a Friday night is a nice thing for everyone.
The plane came to a halt, engines fell silent and the doors… remained closed. Five minutes later the captain announced that we were a bit early and the stairs and bus were not yet available. It was then that some passengers started to ask the age old question, the one that started CDM as a concept more than two decades ago: do they not know it when a plane arrives early?????
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Classifying Homo Sapiens Traveleris
On 15/11/2010, in The lighter side, by steve
I don’t know about you but whenever possible, I like to be at the airport early. Once you are through security, airports can be such fun places! I am not talking about the shops and restaurants, they are there to take your money while in fact there is much better fun close at hand… and it is free. It is watching the constant ebb and flow of people, the endless variety of humanity that, watched closely, will give you a profound experience of togetherness and fun. When waiting for a flight, we all are the same (well, business lounges apart…), will go through the same doors, have the same experience… but before getting there, people constitute a live movie, a live podcast and watching them beats any shop or restaurant and most Hollywood movies too.
Writing about people, about passengers in an air traffic management blog is appropriate. After all, we all have dedicated our lives to serving them according to our own means and capacities. They all belong to Homo Sapiens but they can still be categorized into distinct sub-genres and, perhaps not unexpectedly, they come in standard shapes and sizes that bear easy cataloguing no matter which airport you are at.
Let’s now see what my watching session came up with one early evening waiting at Vienna airport recently.
The first thing that strikes one is that we no longer dress for flying. True, there are places in the world where you can go to the opera in blue jeans but there used to be a time when taking a flight was an occasion to put on our best Sunday clothes as if we were going to the opera (where blue jeans were still a definite no-no). But no longer. Passengers milling around wear everything from formal to casual and below… I wonder how many of them know (or cares for that matter) that ages ago, there was an airline in the US, called Eastern, which actually published in their timetables the color of the upholstery in the plane so that passengers could dress accordingly. I am not joking… And if there was a change of equipment and a lady found herself wearing the wrong color skirt? “Mrs. Jones, please hurry changing the color of your skirt, you are delaying the flight!”.
It is also noteworthy to observe that practically everybody, men, women even kids, seem to be hauling a computer of some kind. Yes this is the digital age but still…
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Staying at the Airport Hotel – Budapest
On 30/08/2010, in On the go..., by admin
For long drives, nothing beats the Grand Voyager
Our latest business opportunities call for an increasing amount of travel, among them to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is special in more ways than one, including the fact that it is my birth city and coming back even if for a short time is always a pleasure. Last week’s trip was a combined business/holiday affair and we drove “home” in the company Chrysler Grand Voyager. You may look on that car with a disapproving eye from an environmental point of view but in terms of comfort and the ease when you need to haul people and gear, it has no equal in its category.It was of course only natural that we should be staying at the Airport Hotel near Ferihegy. BluSky Services, my company, has a corporate arrangement with the hotel and so we get a great rate but even if you have to pay the normal price, you get excellent value for your money.
It was very late evening when I pulled into their spacious parking lot which has slots also for cars hauling a caravan or which are themselves longer than your usual passenger vehicle. Plenty of parking space there so you will never end up having to find a slot on the street even in the busiest months.
A welcome sight after the long drive...
Our room was also spacious and well appointed and there was no problem at all with finding space for our gear. The beds were very inviting but I know from experience that after having driven 13 hours it is best to take some time to relax before trying to sleep. We were also hungry so we went down to the restaurant that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No matter how late or how early you walk in there, a friendly crew and a full menu card awaits you. The kitchen is a nice combination of international and Hungarian and the food is excellent. Not at all the kind of characterless stuff so many hotels offer you at exorbitant prices. The Airport Hotel in Budapest serves you great food at moderate prices any hour of the day or night.
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When airline, airport and passenger interests collide and cause delays
On 04/06/2010, in CDM, by steve
No matter how much I travel and no matter how bad the airport travel experience is getting as a result of increased security, I still like airports and the walk from the taxi rank to the gate. Negotiating the various artificial obstacles erected to keep the bad guys out, I always bless the inventors of internet check-in as the little A4 sheet in my pocket allows me to bypass the check-in counters and even the self-check-in kiosks. Not to mention the airline ladies with steely eyes who always insisted in the past that my flight case be weighed. As it was always above the misery 6 kilos allowed by our favorite local airline, I had to resort to all kinds of tricks to make the bag loose weight (until I walked away from the check-in counter that is). This problem is now gone with internet check in but I keep wondering: if I went to the counter, would she again be difficult about the extra 2 kilos of gear, knowing full well that if I used their internet check-in facility, nobody would care about the bag (very few airlines actually weigh stuff at the gate unless it really looks huge or heavy or both). But I diverge…
Having gone through security, the airport with its concourses and shops and gates is suddenly open for me and I feel like a bird let out of its cage. Of course the feeling is false, just like the freedom of the bird that passes from the cage into the living room. So, I am free to do anything I like except that the airport, by design, arrangement and enforced routing tries to influence me to pass by the shops, the cafés and other places happy to exchange my euros for things I have absolutely no need for and the price of which is way above what the same stuff usually costs even on the high street, let alone an internet store.
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TITAN stakeholder workshop – 17 March 2010
On 31/05/2010, in TITAN, by steve
TITAN is an EC 7th Framework project and the acronym stands for “Turnaround Integration in Trajectory and Network”. As its name suggests, TITAN is looking at ways of optimizing the turnaround process while integrating it in trajectory based, net-centric operations.
The Workshop held in Brussels on 17 March 2010 had two objectives: on the one hand it presented the project to the community and on the other it collected stakeholders’ needs and requirements in the context of the turnaround process. All the actors (airspace users, airports, ANSPs and handling companies) who would be affected by the new TITAN concept had been invited to attend the workshop and the turn-out was very good. It was therefore possible to capture their daily concerns, needs and proposals in a representative manner.
The format chosen for the workshop was that of focused brainstorming with selected facilitators making sure that the time and scope objectives were observed. As it turned out, the format was very successful and participants contributed actively in the general sessions as well as in the group sessions.
The introductory session
Work started with an introduction of the project followed by the SESAR Joint Undertaking giving an overview of their main activities in the context of turnaround and the input they expected from TITAN to fill the gaps identified in the relevant parts of the SESAR work packages.
Next, an analysis of the current situation was presented, highlighting the potential bottlenecks. An initial turnaround model was also sketched to seed and start the discussions.
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The tower with a soul… 13
On 06/05/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Ten years on the job
The old approach unit...
Ten years on the job! I can say that the first ten years passed quickly but on occasion time seemed to be crawling. Under the previous protocols, someone with a 10 year old license would have already made it to approach control. I read somewhere not so long ago that hires in the “beat generation” in the 60s and 70s became tower controllers almost off the street and approach controllers after a mere five years. This was considered normal back then. Work in the old tower coupled to low traffic did not demand a lot of professional skill. In that system it was logical to have the beginners start in the tower and then get promoted to approach control.
Things changed with the new tower, after all, the area of the airport increased threefold with all that this entailed. Traffic had to be organized across many more taxiways and operating two runways also required more concentration and experience. This was also the reason why it looked like a good idea for the approach controllers to come out to the tower one by one for a stint of a few months. As I mentioned before, this idyllic state of affairs did not last long and the old practice of promoting tower controllers with the most experience to become approach controllers with no reverse flow of any kind continued. Unfortunately the tower complement did not get new hires either so our numbers shrunk while those of the approach unit swelled. This meant of course that after a time we could no longer be “promoted” as the approach control unit had more than enough controllers and with no reverse flow, the average age of the tower controllers started to climb inexorably. We were getting old… This had the consequence that soon controllers in the tower were no longer just bright young titans, we too matured into ripe stingrays with muddy eyes. The relationship between the two units also changed. We, tower people no longer took the abuse lying down that was regularly meted out by the approach controllers and through many confrontations we forced them to accept our unit as their equal.
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The tower with a soul… 8
On 09/03/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Airport – the book and the real thing
In order for you to understand this part, we need to go back to the early days, when the tower was commissioned… We have to look back to those days because that is where the never ending problems have started. What follows here is conjecture on my part, but as they say, where there is smoke, there is fire…
In 1983, the year the tower started in live operations, we only had two television channels, both broadcasting in Hungarian. Under the regime then in power, movies from the West arrived on the “good” side of the iron curtain with a delay of several years. This was the reason why the film Airport made in 1970 from Arthur Hailey’s hit novel, was shown on Hungarian television 13 years after its premier, in 1983. This had far reaching consequences for us in the tower…
With there not being much of a choice, half the country was glued to the tube watching how the good folk of Lincoln went to protest aircraft noise, in spite of the heavy snow. Many of those who saw the film felt immediate sympathy with the Lincoln protesters. Before that movie I had never seen anyone protesting aircraft noise in Hungary, not even at places like Tokol where Mig-21 jet fighters blasted over their heads almost every minute. Call it a coincidence, but after hand-over of the new runway, people living around Ferihegy airport started protesting in much the same way they saw it in the movie. Why couldn’t Arthur Hailey write about ants or the underground instead of airports? The consequence was that take-offs from 31R and landings on 13L were immediately restricted. In other words, we lost an approach direction even before we started using it.
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New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM)
On 07/10/2009, in CDM, by steve
What exactly is CDM?
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is not a new concept. It is being practiced to a certain degree both in the US and in Europe, focus being on en-route in the former and airports in the latter. Mature as the concept may be, surprisingly we still see experts who seem to believe that CDM is little more than a few wise men sitting together and deciding things for the benefit of the community… Little wonder that they see a role for CDM that is strictly limited to the strategic planning phases. They seem to hang on to this view even in the face of actual CDM implementations at some airports (e.g. Munich) which are anything but limited to the strategic phase. So, what is CDM?
The concept of CDM is very simple. Decisions on all levels must be made not in isolation but based on a shared, common view of the state of the ATM network with full awareness of the consequences of the decisions on every aspect of the operation. Collaborative in this context does not necessarily imply people sitting together or working together remotely. A single person can also make a collaborative decision if the decision is based on the shared information provided by the partners and if it takes into account the impact of the decision on those partners and the ATM network as a whole.
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Dream factories…
On 07/09/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
If someone said to you: Airports are dream factories. Would you believe it? If your reply is “yes”, you are like me, deeply in love with aviation and you do not need to read on. But if you respond with an unimaginative NO, read further and let me prove you wrong.
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