Month: August 2012

Main News August 17 2012

 

Getting smart with used cooking oil

AIRMALL USA, concessions developer and operator of the AIRMALL at Cleveland Hopkins airport, has formed a partnership with Bradford Airport Logistics. The venture will see the developer implement an environmentally-friendly solution that is aimed at recycling waste cooking oil from tenants in the airport’s concessions program.

To this end, Bradford has worked with AIRMALL to install a system of customized retrieval carts that collect the spent cooking oil from the fryers of food outlets at the airport. The collected grease is subsequently recycled to make environmentally friendly products, amongst which is the production of B-100 biofuel for vehicular usage.

 

Outsourcing or insourcing?

The wind of change, it seems, continues to blow down the economic corridors of the airline sector.

The latest carrier to look at changes to the status quo is United Airlines, which has announced that it is to outsource some of its cargo operations. Part of the reason for the change in operations stems from the ongoing merger with Continental: and a spokesperson has admitted that the initiative was in line with cutting cost and forging a more efficient operation.

Houston has been cited as one of the stations that will see the changes although others are also on the cards. The carrier has gone on to say that ramp cargo handling will still be performed in-house, however.

Whilst the number of affected workers has not been disclosed, it is known that United is still working with the union that represents cargo workers in order to relocate those involved or offer end of contract inducements. If all goes according to plan, the strategy should be effected by November this year. This isn’t the first time United has looked at its staff balance sheet, though: in all, since the merger got underway, some 15 stations have been involved in in-sourcing labor. Clearly, then, there is no one single solution here, for United is weighing up the situation on a station-by-station basis.

 

Big order for Florida manufacturer

JBT AeroTech has been awarded orders in excess of US$10m by a freighter airline, which the GSE specialist declined to name. This contract will see the manufacturer furnish cargo loaders, de-icing vehicles and pushback tractors. In addition to this it has undertaken to refurbish and upgrade the carrier’s existing cargo loaders. This new and refurbished GSE will in turn be used to support the airline in its global operations.

“We are pleased to continue supporting the cargo handling and ground support needs of the air freight industry,” commented John Lee, Vice President for JBT AeroTech Division. “This order represents the ongoing commitment of cargo air carriers to invest both in new products and in the upgrade of their GSE fleets to improve operating efficiency.”

According to JBT, delivery of the equipment is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

 

Emissions policy hits a brick wall

A Senate panel has voted to prevent US airlines from paying fees to Europe for their fleet emissions. The vote effectively means that the Transportation Secretary now has authority to stop carriers participating in the much-debated EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Predictably, the outcome was a disappointment to environmental groups who are keen to see the EU scheme adopted on a global basis. Calling the bill short-sighted, the international counsel at Environmental Defense Fund admitted that the result would set back any worldwide consensus, something that is badly needed to give the scheme full credibility. However, the US is not alone in its bullish stance: Russia, China and India have also long opposed the credits trading scheme, calling it unfair.

Readers will know that the European scheme issues permits to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide; it then charges any airline which generates more than its share. EU officials have assured the airline sector that the cost overall will lead to a slight increase in ticket prices. Nonetheless, US carriers estimate that the initiative will cost them some US$3.1bn by 2020.

The International Civil Aviation Organization has yet to be approached directly on the matter although EU officials have been contacted with the aim of securing some sort of compromise.

The Golden Crown

From-the-Workshop

Tim Rane, JBT AeroTech’s Region Manager, North Europe, ME, Russia & Africa, brings a fable to the table – and talks safety.

He may not have been the first person in history to have a sudden flash of inspiration, but Archimedes is the man who made the word Eureka famous. It all started when King Hiero II grew skeptical about his new laurel leaf-shaped crown. The king wanted to know whether the crown was solid gold, or if some other metal had been added. It was up to Archimedes to figure this out, only there was one catch: he couldn’t destroy the crown.

It seems to me that the same conundrum exists in preventing aircraft damage. Most probably, no operator wakes up in the morning with a plan to hit an aircraft with their GSE; and most certainly, no GSE manufacturer plans to design their product with the intent of hitting an aircraft; and of course no airline buys its aircraft with “Kiss me quick, I’m looking for ramp rash” stickers emblazoned all over its livery.

Looking for solutions

Early last year I was called by David Roberts, Corporate Safety Manager, Aircraft Ground Damage, at British Airways. He asked us to participate, along with other GSE manufacturers and stakeholders, in a five-day working group which had one aim: to stop 3.5 tonne container loaders from hitting its A319-320 fleet at all BA’s stations. The team was assembled at 7am every morning for a full week airside, along with BA operators, maintenance providers, trainers, aircraft damage repairers and GSE manufacturers. We set to work to establish the root cause of failure. We looked at the GSE, its operating procedures, the units in operation, the new technology presently available for aircraft collision avoidance, the interface with the aircraft, the containers, the dollies and the way they repaired the aircraft damage. No stone was left unturned. But still we couldn’t replicate why operators hit the aircraft consistently in the same zone. But then, out of nowhere on day three, we observed an accident about to happen: it was our Eureka moment!

An AKH container was stuck, half in, half out of the rear hold of an A319. It was full of suitcases, and therefore too heavy to manhandle. The way the operator was trying to un-stick it was platform up and down, loader wheels turning left and right, and driving forwards and backwards. He was under time pressure so he was trying to do this simultaneously. The loader lurched forwards, almost putting the bed inside the hold.

Root cause of failure? It was clear that the interface alignment is critical for loading containers without them sticking on the A319, but nobody released how critical. We all profess to be excellent drivers, but if you were asked to park your car 40 times per day, five days per week in the same spot with a parallel positioning accuracy of plus or minus one inch, could you do it? I guess not. So why should we expect GSE operators to do so? Also, on inspection of every A319, the in-hold entry pallet drive motor was completely worn down to the bare metal. No wonder containers were getting locked between the load guides: they were unable to pull containers in, relying only on the loader pushing them in.

Corrective action:

Short term quick fix: Focused driver training on the importance of perfect alignment and paint a red stripe on the loader to help line up accurately with a red mark on their aircraft.

Medium term fix: Fit a load bed extension to the loader with a powered roller to move the loader drive station further away from the aircraft body and fit soft rubber buffers to the cab. Also, get aircraft maintenance to replace the in-hold pallet drive rubber wheel more regularly, before it gets worn down to bare metal.

Long term fix: Get Airbus to consider changing its in-plane container guide design on all new aircraft to a better container lead-in design, preventing container lock up and allowing less accuracy of the loader operator.

In summary, that Eureka moment has allowed BA to engineer out the chances of repeating this particular incident, but only by working together with Airbus, with their operators and with the GSE manufacturers to solve seemingly impossible problems. If this partnership is well managed by the airline, as it was by British Airways, we can start to make a (metaphorical) dent in reducing the aircraft damage bills.

Main News August 3 2012

 

New lounge at Tom Bradley

Star Alliance member carrier Air New Zealand has been selected to design and manage the Alliance’s new lounge at Los Angeles International. The facility is the result of a US$1.7bn investment that has seen the redevelopment of the Tom Bradley International Terminal, which was commissioned by Los Angeles Worldwide Airports.
The Los Angeles Lounge becomes the first Star Alliance branded lounge to feature a new design concept aimed at satisfying the needs of today’s traveler. Designed by the Gensler company of architects, this facility owes much to a contemporary interpretation of modernist Los Angeles architecture dating from the 1950s and the 1960s. To that end, it incorporates predefined spaces to suit a wide range of passenger requirements. Read more