Operational Readiness, Airport Process Improvement/Optimisation, Airbridge Calibration
| Company | OXCAL |
|---|---|
| Date | 14.10.2014 |
Historically, the Airport Passenger Boarding Bridge (APBB) proving activity took place immediately prior to ‘Go Live’. This limited window often resulted in significant ‘Go live’ issues that had a significant impact on Heathrow’s ‘day to day’ operations.
The Airside proving trials were heavily reliant on obtaining aircraft to test the critical APBB operational envelopes. Constant adjustments to the air bridges were made based on the limited aircrafts available at the time and as a result this would often result in sub-optimising the air bridge and calibration settings for the other aircrafts on the stand. Despite the good intentions of the operational readiness teams this ad-hoc approach increased the operational risk unintentionally.
The key challenges were to make the adjustments to the APBB’S and stand markings based on as many different aircrafts that could physically fit on each stand. Furthermore, it was critical that the issues regarding the overall stand and APBB design were identified and resolved in a timely and structured manner across the 18 aircraft stands. Typically aircraft stands are often handed over 6 months prior to ‘Go Live’ for operational proving purposes. This narrow timeframe limits the scope of proving activities.
Furthermore, the aircraft stands were often in a semi-complete transitional phase e.g. incomplete line markings, equipment parking areas etc. During this phase it was not feasible to obtain an aircraft to complete the required proving activity. Therefore, the need of a mock up fuselage was devised in order to conduct a comprehensive proving trial across each aircraftstand 12 months prior to the ‘Go Live’ date.
