MENA ramps up airside safety

It is somewhat reassuring to find that a number of airports and regulators are implementing comprehensive programmes to tackle the risks involved with airside operations.

Incidents on the airport ramp, to which passengers may be oblivious, are quite common . Cases range from mundane to dangerous. A minor incident may include a wheel breaking off a baggage cart to those that can cause major damage, like a shuttle bus colliding with an aircraft that has more 140,000 pounds of fuel in its tanks – not to mention injuries sustained by airside workers.

The result of these incidents usually leads to cancelled flights and delays adding to costs. IATA figures indicate t he cost of physical damage to aircraft is estimated at more than US$4bn a year worldwide.

With the increase in air traffic throughout the region, Dubai-based ground-handling firm Dnata is facing the challenges of providing increasing airside services on a daily basis at its global sites, including Dubai International and Al Maktoum airports.

Dnata’s safety and compliance division was set up in March 2005 specifically to look into safety aspects of airport operations and cargo.

Jon Conway, divisional senior vice president for Dnata Airport Operations, said: “ Ramp safety induction (RSI) is a mandatory two days’ training for all new joiners who are required to carry out job functions at airside, including all outsourced or sub-contracted staff. The RSI provides staff with first -hand information on all hazards and risk associated with the airside operations.”

Dnata has a total of 24 inspections carried out every month that focus on ensuring compliance across the board. “Our safety team carries out daily inspections of identified job functions at the airside and cargo areas that have more potential to create safety occurrences,” explained Conway.

“The results of these daily inspections are shared with the shift management and corrective actions are put in place. To further enhance the effectiveness of the inspections a monthly summary is also prepared that is shared with our airport and cargo divisions.”

Generally, most minor damage caused by airside incidents to aircraft, in particular, is reported as ‘found’.

A problem that is common industry-wide is that in many cases airside staff are instantly dismissed. Some industry observers argue that instant dismissal – probable unless damage is unreported – deprives a company from a learning opportunity to understand the root cause of the incident and does little to drive a responsible safety culture.

Conway said Dnata encourages its staff to come forward freely and report all safety-related issues without the fear of being reprimanded by the supervisor and line managers. This comes in line with the introduction of a new non-punitive culture he calls “JUST culture”. The company set up confidential reporting tools from drop boxes to an email address from September 2010.

“Any incident or accident – personal injury, equipment or aircraft damage that falls under the severity of moderate or major would be thoroughly investigated and a comprehensive accident report completed by Dnata safety, highlighting the root cause with recommendations to the respective departments involved.

He added: “Recommendations are time framed with required action plans to implement and close all agreed. It is then audited again by our safety and quality assurance team for compliance.”

A safety management system (SMS) provides a systematic, proactive approach to reducing the risk and severity of accidents and incidents on the airfield. The ICAO has adopted a standard for SMS that has been applicable to international airports since November 2005.

In 2009, the ICAO introduced new tighter international rules requiring airport operators to carry out extensive safety audits approved by national regulators – a factor that was reportedly behind delays in the opening of Dubai’s new Al Maktoum airport.  These strengthened rules have supposedly added pressure at MENA airports, but IATA’s r egional vice president for Middle East and North Africa, Dr Majdi Sabri, insists that the new rules have been well received.

“Yes, there were strengthened ICAO provisions introduced in 2009, but for airports these were not very dramatic compared to already existing standards and recommended practices (SARPs),” he clarified. “Aerodrome certification has been an ICAO requirement for international airports since 2003 and safety management systems (SMS) have been required for certified airports since 2005. Implementation of these SARPs in the Middle East is underway in several countries and we hope that it will not be long before we see comprehensive implementation.”

Conway said Dnata has implemented a robust SMS with emphasis on safety as a paramount personal responsibility of each person working at the airport. To support this system a five-year safety strategy plan was identified, agreed and fully implemented by Dnata’s senior management providing guidelines on how and where Dnata wants safety and compliance to be, ensuring the company stays ahead of the game. 

Conway said: “For any safety management system to take effect, hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA) is the first step with every job function at the airport.

“Our safety and quality assurance team identified all possible hazards and its associated risk of all the job functions carried out at the airport. This was documented and signed by the department VPs. A review of the HIRA is conducted every six months to identify any new hazard associated with the function or if there is a change in the job function.”

Global research and consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that the market for airside services in the Middle East is expected to grow to $2.83bn by 2015 as a result of the order backlogs of the region. Anticipated growth in air travel, in addition to government policies to privatise infrastructural development and airport operations, has resulted in more than $80b being invested in the sector. This will cater for expansion activities until 2015 according to the research firm.

The extent of growth post global recession is evident. Dubai international airport (DXB), for example, notched up 38.8 million passengers during the first ten months of 2010, an increase of 15.7 per cent corresponding to the same period in 2009, reports the Dubai Airports Company.

The first half of 2010 alone saw the addition of more than 145 new weekly flights to over 21 destinations by various carriers. Traffic forecast for 2011 is estimated to jump 13.1 per cent to reach 52 million passengers, with freight output equally increasing.

The IATA has kept a keen eye on this growth curve in relation to airside safety as Dr Sabri explained: “ For the past decade, the MENA region has witnessed exceptional traffic growth rates that are more than double the industry average. The growth poses many challenges, including ground safety at the airports, which I believe is being seriously dealt with by most aviation authorities in the region. The level of ground safety in most countries in the region is comparable with international standards.”

In order to help raise the bar, IATA introduced the safety audit for ground operations (ISAGO) in May 2008. “This audit aims to improve operational safety in the airport ground operations environment, reduce damage to aircraft and equipment, and improve efficiency by reducing the number of redundant audits. The MENA region has been one of the world leaders in implementing this initiative. Since the introduction of the programme, 21 audits have been conducted in MENA,” said Dr Sabri.

In fact, Dnata was the first ground-handling company in the world to be certified for ISAGO. Certification is valid for two years after every audit.

Another early certification was to Kuwaiti-based ground-handling firm National Aviation Services (NAS).

Foreign object damage (FOD) has the potential to have catastrophic results particularly on the runway; as was the case ten years ago when a titanium strip supposedly burst the tyre of an Air France Concorde.

According to the Dubai’s civil aviation authority FOD costs the aerospace industry up to $2bn a year in direct costs.

The authority recently led a month-long campaign to increase safety awareness for the aviation industry at DXB to avoid incidents caused by FOD.

“There have been many incidents because of FOD. We are trying to spread the awareness to protect aircraft and passengers. We’ve had feedback from high-ranking officials who didn’t know of FOD – and now many are aware of the dangers,” confirmed a statement by the aviation authority.

Dubai has previously had near fatal runway-related incidents. In 2007, a Biman Bangladesh A310 lost its nose gear while accelerating down the runway. The incident closed the only active runway for eight hours while authorities carried out inspections.

Since then, DXB has been fitted with the state-of-the-art QinetiQ FOD detection system called Tarsier. The Tarsier system is based on high-resolution millimetre wave radar coupled with automatically cued day and night cameras. Continuous monitoring by the radar quickly identifies the location of an object and directs the cameras to provide visual confirmation of any hazards on the runway. While originally designed for FOD detection, Tarsier can also inform the airport’s wider safety management system by detecting and identifying wildlife, such as birds on the runway.

Airport systems integrator Bayanat is the distributor of QinetiQ’s Tarsier detection system in the UAE. Alan Bourjeily general manager at Bayanat said a lot of research and development by QinetiQ had gone into developing this technology.

At the time of the distribution signing he said: “Tarsier helps airports detect FOD in near real time and ensures airports can guarantee the safety of the runway in between the standard four inspections per day.”

The industry is constantly in search of new technologies that help to avoid accidents on the airport surface. Aerospace technology provider Sensis is currently installing its advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS) along with wide area multilateration (WAM) in Saudi Arabia. Ken Kaminski, vice president and general manager of air traffic systems at Sensis said the process of deploying this technology is on track.

“ At King Fahd and King Abdulaziz International Airports, Sensis is in the process of deploying A-SMGCS systems along with wide area multilateration,” confirmed Kaminski. He said the technology includes Sensis solid-state SMRi X-band surface movement radar and vehicle locators as sources of surveillance across the airport surface.

He added: “The system also features Sensis safety logic conflict detection and alerting technology that provides audible and visual alerts to controllers in advance of potential runway incursions. All information is displayed on Sensis controller working positions and is recorded for future playback. The result is improved situational awareness of airport surface activity in all weather conditions and advanced warning of potential runway incursions for enhanced safety.”

In 2010, the National Air Navigation Services Company (NANSC) in Egypt selected to deploy a new surface surveillance solution for Cairo International Airport (CAI). The new system is being integrated into an advanced surface movement guidance and control system supplied by HITT, the prime contractor for the project. NANSC required a surveillance solution capable of handling the complex surface layout of the airport.

CAI is Africa's second busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic and first in terms of freight volume. The airport has seen substantial infrastructure enhancements, including a recently constructed third terminal and a nearly completed third parallel runway. As a result, NANSC sought a comprehensive and easily adaptable surface surveillance solution that could accurately and precisely locate all aircraft on the airport’s surface to enhance safety and improve efficiency – according to the developers.

Further research into new technologies has been going on for some time. The  European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service  (EGNOS ) – a satellite-based augmentation system  under development by the European Space Agency , the European Commission and Eurocontrol, was tested to demonstrate its application in airport operations. Back in 2009, a live demonstration at Casablanca’s Mohammed V airport in Morocco using EGNOS was carried out to show how better location precision could be used to improve safety in the civil aviation sector.

A service van known as a “Follow Me” vehicle was outfitted with an EGNOS-enabled GPS navigator and sent its position via a wireless network to a ground supervision station in the control tower. As the van travelled along the test area, its route was tracked in real-time on a digital map of the airport displayed on the station’s screen using specially adapted software. The driver could also see his position on the GPS device.

When the van travelled into a designated restricted zone in the test area an alarm sounded alerting both the driver and the control tower operator of the intrusion. The operator then ordered the driver by radio to exit the restricted area. When the van left the area, the alarm stopped sounding.

The demonstrators said that EGNOS could be used to boost the safety and the efficiency of the management of vehicles in and around airport areas. The European Commission is currently investigating the cost implications of deploying the necessary ground stations in the MENA region.

Overall, IATA believes much is being done to improve airside safety in the region. Dr Sabri stated that successful runway and safety management workshops involving various stakeholders were held in 2009 and 2010 in Amman.

He concluded by explaining what plans are in the pipeline. “ Overall, we are creating a second edition of the runway excursion toolkit to be released in spring 2011. We are co-hosting a global runway safety symposium with ICAO in May 2011 and directly involved with creating a global series of runway safety workshops for the 2011-14 period. The 2011-13 runway safety symposium and workshops will cover all runway safety issues.”