Airfield stakeholders can benefit from a cross – state database

Nov. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- At this moment, the major issues that airlines are facing revolve around designing, building and operating profitably and sustainably flexible infrastructures which are able to accommodate the dynamic nature of the airline business. Apart from this, providing a safe and secure travelling experience to passengers and cooperating with airlines and agents to develop non-aviation sources of revenue to reduce passenger and aircraft landing fees also need to be addressed.

Carlos Madeira, Vice President at ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, believes that to combat these issues GIS may play a major part in the airfield engineering and asset management.

“It is my conviction that the generalisation of geographical information systems (GIS) will be one major opportunity in airfield engineering and asset management in the coming years. The same holds true where integrated airfield pavement management systems are concerned. The condition assessment of existing pavements, because of its relevance in terms of either capital expenditure or operating costs, will also continue to be of major importance. In this context, the use of new both intrusive and non-destructive testing techniques will open further opportunities for development,” he said.

Finally the development of automatic runway foreign object debris (FOD) detection systems will certainly see major developments in the near future as runway utilisation go up and up.

Armann Norheim, Rapporteur of the Friction Task Force, for the ICAO, sees great potential in collaboration, while addressing the quality of the runways and the associated runways and associated safety areas (RESA).

“Given the international aspect of aviation a cross-state database containing the drainage surface characteristics of runways and associated safety areas would be beneficial to regulators, airport owners, aircraft operators and airfield engineers. Such a database would be an important tool for risk analysis studies on the need for improved drainage and safety areas to be part of the mitigating effort of bringing non compliant runways and safety areas more or in full compliance with international standards and recommendations,” he said.

“I believe that installation of Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS) will be a central tool for achieving this and will be found to be economically beneficial for many of today’s non-compliant airports,” added Norheim.

Both Carlos Madeira and Armann Norheim are speaking at the Airfield Engineering and Asset Maintenance 2011 conference next February in Singapore. For more details on the conference please visit www.airfieldengineering.com or drop an email to enquiry@iqpc.com.sg

About IQPC Worldwide:
For over thirty years, IQPC has helped the world's leading corporations solve their business challenges through the sharing of practical industry solutions and global best practice. In the process, the company has built a formidable reputation for quality and value. The world’s most progressive companies have benefited from IQPC’s unrivalled global reach, which has connected international expertise with regional and local leaders.

For more information, please contact:
Bryan Camoens
IQPC Worldwide
Tel: +65 6722 9406
Email: bryan.camoens@iqpc.com.sg

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About IQPC Worldwide:
For over thirty years, IQPC has helped the world's leading corporations solve their business challenges through the sharing of practical industry solutions and global best practice. In the process, the company has built a formidable reputation for quality and value. The world’s most progressive companies have benefited from IQPC’s unrivalled global reach, which has connected international expertise with regional and local leaders.