Baggage Handling Systems at Airports

Vanderlande Industries UK Ltd (Vanderlande) has been awarded a long-term contract to provide strategic IT development and support at Stansted Airport by the Manchester Airport Group (M.A.G). The wholly owned subsidiary of the global market leader in baggage handling systems will design, build and implement a new high-level control system, and then manage the accompanying life-cycle support package until at least 2020.

The new system will be operational at Stansted Airport during the fourth quarter of 2015 and incorporate Vanderlande’s baggage sortation allocation computer (SAC) and intelligent supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software. It will control the operation at the core of a baggage handling system – to manage the way in which luggage is directed to the appropriate flight – as well as monitoring and reporting on the overall performance.

The integrated SAC and SCADA package was selected by MAG as the strongest technical solution for the specific requirements at Stansted Airport. It will include three modules from Vanderlande’s baggage execution software system VIBES – VIBES.SAC, VIBES.SCADA and VIBES.BPI (business process intelligence) – developed by the company’s 300-strong in-house software team. These have already been implemented at more than 50 airports worldwide, and provide a tried-and-tested solution to eliminate the need for any modifications after installation.

In addition to the supply of this intelligent software, Vanderlande will provide a minimum five-year life- cycle support programme for the baggage handling system. Stansted Airport will benefit from the company’s world-class 24/7 baggage IT-support service – provided by its global customer service centre – and flexible on-site support supplied by its mobile service team.

Stansted’s IT Project Manager Anthea Kubiczyn says: “We are delighted to announce this partnership with Vanderlande, which has a strong technical and commercial proposition to meet our current and future needs. Stansted is the third largest airport in London and currently the fastest growing major airport in the UK, serving more than 20 million passengers and over 200,000 tonnes of cargo a year, and we look forward to working with Vanderlande to support our future operational needs.”

Filipe Ferreira, Head of IT and Systems at Vanderlande in the UK adds: “We are very excited to be forging this long-term partnership with the Manchester Airport Group. It is an opportunity for us to prove once more that Vanderlande provides an exceptionally high level of service and a solution to manage Stansted’s baggage handling system at an elevated level of efficiency and transparency.”