SynX Blog

Last year saw telematics and fleet management software provider, Transpoco, work with Iberia to help the carrier achieve signicant operational savings by implementing its advanced fleet management solution on the carrier’s ground support equipment at numerous airports across the airline’s Spanish network. Ground Handling International is celebrating the success of Transpoco and fleet telematics with 3 full pages in the April 2020 issue.

Ángel Marcos, Iberia’s Chief Airport Services Officer, commented: “At Iberia we are constantly striving to find new ways of innovation, maximising efficiency and providing a punctual, safe and reliable service to our customers. By integrating the Transpoco fleet management software across multiple stations in Spain, we have helped to achieve this. The solution from Transpoco allows us to increase safety and performance on the ramp, and become more environmentally friendly while reducing operational costs,” he continues. “The Transpoco system and team have been very flexible and agile in reaching the business specifications of our requirements.”

The article is available on the Ground Handling International Website at http://magazine.groundhandling.com/magazine/

The runaway renewal of Stuttgart Airport has already started, earlier than originally planned, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first phase of the project, which entails the full renewal of a section of the concrete pavement, got started on April 6th, 2020 and is supposed to last until April 22nd. The regular construction work will begin afterwards, on April 22nd through June 17th, 2020. The section that is under renewal was built in the mid-1990s and is located in the eastern part of the airport. Weather conditions and material characteristics determine the durability of the runway concrete – and, of course, its exposure: most aircraft land on the eastern part of the runway when they touch down in Stuttgart.

Walter Schoefer, CEO of Stuttgart Airport, claimed: “The earlier start of construction gives us more certainty for completing the partial renewal on time, despite the effects of the corona pandemic. The pandemic can also have an impact on the staff of the companies contracted and on supply chains. In view of the decline in passenger numbers, we have therefore decided to adjust our plans and start construction work early,” said Schoefer. “The seventeen days ahead of schedule without any flight operations will allow our experts to carry out many of the complex works in larger steps“.

Managing Director of Stuttgart Airport, Dr. Arina Freitag, added: “The early start of construction allows us to build non-stop. This gives us a significant lead, especially in the first construction phase, where a lot of complex work is involved. For our customers, this means planning reliability. Despite the pandemic, we are thus ensuring that Stuttgart Airport will be up and running again by June 18, 2020”.

On 18th June 2020, the runway will be back to its original length of 3,345 metres.

Photo by Anika Shahjadi on Unsplash

 

According to Berg Insight, the global installed base of active airport asset tracking systems, which was over 0.2 million units in 2019, will grow and reach 0.5 million units by 2024. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4 percent, the active installed base is estimated to reach close to 0.5 million units worldwide in 2024. The current crisis in the aviation industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic will likely also slow down the airport asset tracking market in the short-term.

The data include all airport asset tracking systems deployed for various motorised ground support equipment (GSE), non-motorised equipment (NME) as well as other applicable airport assets such as on-road vehicles used in airport environments.

An increasing uptake of airport asset tracking during the forecast period is in any case expected as a number of trends related to technological advancements, collaboration and innovation among the solution providers and their prospective customers are emerging. Airport asset tracking systems will surely have a significant role in containing costs and helping airlines make the most of their vehicles and their resources.

Car manufacturers are answering calls coming from all over the world to help ramp up the production of ventilators and face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed last Monday that one of their production plants in China would soon have production capacity for 1M face masks per month. The masks will be donated to will be donated to police, emergency medical technicians, firefighters and workers in hospitals and healthcare clinics.

Ford Motor has teamed with 3M and GE Healthcare to produce powered-air purifying respirators, ventilators, and face shields. Ford and 3M will also work on a new respirator design with the idea of leveraging parts from both companies to meet the huge demand caused by the pandemic.

General Motors and Tesla have all pledged their support to offer resources to make more ventilators, along with Japanese carmaker Nissan and Formula 1 teams in the UK.

General Motors is working closely with Ventec Life Systems to rapidly scale up production of their critically important respiratory products.

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk stated via Twitter he expects 1,200 respirators coming from the adjusted manufacturing plant to be ready this week.

As per Formula1, seven UK-based F1 teams have joined to manufacture and deliver respiratory devices. The initiative is known as "Project Pitlane" and will use the resources and skills of the teams on different tasks such as reverse engineering existing medical devices, supporting the scaling in production of ventilators and design and prototype a new device that will be later certified and manufactured.

The joint project of development of a bespoke de-icing monitoring solution carried out by Transpoco for a major airport client – Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) – and in collaboration with GSE vehicle manufacturer, Schmidt, has been featured on Airside International Magazine:

Transpoco’s technology solves two problems for Dublin Airport’s operator: the lack of visibility of vehicles moving around the airport; and the lack of a digital record of where, or how much, potassium acetate is being used in the Schmidt de-icing equipment clearing its paved areas.

Transpoco had previously worked with Schmidt vehicles on behalf of its county council clients, which have used Schmidt equipment in their winter maintenance fleets.

However, this was the first time that Transpoco had worked with Schmidt on airport vehicles, and the collaboration “demonstrates how its technology can be adapted to any equipment”, says Andrew Fleury, CEO at Transpoco.

And he concludes: “Transpoco is not aware of the development of this exact telematics solution being used anywhere else.”

Transpoco has technology implemented in over 60 different countries and at airports in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris, Lisbon and Brussels, as well as Dublin.

At such uncertain times for the world and with everyone taking extraordinary measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, drivers still work delivering food, medicines and essentials to help us fight against the virus.

As a company working with those who rely on driving, we would like to share a list of best practices we use to ensure the safety of both drivers, customers and general public, aimed at avoiding the spread of the virus.

#1 - Basic protective measures against Covid-19
The typical symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, cough and shortness of breath. Seek for immediate medical advice if you are displaying any of these symptoms. You should not drive/work if you feel sick. In order to help containment and not spread the virus or get sick:

• wash your hands frequently with water and soap or make sure you have an alcohol-based gel with you
• maintain at least 1 meter/3 feet distance between yourself and anyone else
• avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth: hands touch many surfaces and can pick up the virus
• cough or sneeze in your bent elbow or in a disposable paper tissue you will throw away immediately afterwards
• follow the advise of your healthcare provider and your local authorities

#2 - Before driving
Before driving, add the following checks to your usual walkaround checks/pre-trip checklist:

• Check you have enough hygiene supplies to work: face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer
• clean the outside of the vehicle, concentrating on points that can be touched by either passengers, co-workers or other people such as door handles
• clean the main points of contact inside your vehicle, like the steering wheel, the seat and the dashboard, handles, radio device if any, and don't forget about your mobile phone

#3 - While driving

• If you sneeze or cough, cover nose and mouth with your bent elbow or help yourself with a paper tissue that has to be disposed afterwards
• open the windows to improve ventilation if possible
• ask coworkers, passengers and people to maintain the safety distance
• if you are going to have passengers, prepare your vehicle in advance for that purpose, assigning seats in an adequate way in order to keep the distance - ask your company to provide posters or reminders to be displayed in the vehicle

#4 - Contactless delivery

• if you are a delivery driver, ask your company to implement contactless/deliver at door tools to avoid contact as much as possible
• agree the point of delivery with your customer and communicate in advance

With the global pandemic we are facing at the moment, the health and safety of our employees are of utmost importance. To this extent, Transpoco has fully implemented a work from home policy for the whole staff.

As a global organization, we are equipped with the necessary tools and workflows to ensure that our business operations will continue as normal, and the quality of support will not be compromised. Our sales, Customer Service and Support teams are eager to offer assistance, ideally by email at:

support@transpoco.com

We trust you will appreciate our evolved ways of working and wish you and your loved ones good health in the weeks ahead.

Mallaghan, one of the world’s leading providers of airport ground support equipment with more than 30 years’ experience designing and manufacturing Ground Service Equipment (GSE) sold to airports and airlines in more than 100 countries across the world, has recently launched an employee rewards initiative.

The awards program involves Mallaghan employees who have worked for the company for 10, 15 or 20 years, with prizes ranging from money vouchers, corporate gifts or extra annual (paid) leave.

Ronan Mallaghan, Chief Executive at Mallaghan commented: “At Mallaghan our focus is on driving innovation for aviation and our employees are the people who make this happen. The dedication and commitment of our employees is hugely valued and we’re thrilled to officially recognise our longest serving employees with this new initiative.”

According to Sinead Gaynor, HR Manager at Mallaghan, “Mallaghan is committed to continually investing in and developing our people, in order to successfully expand and grow as a business."

As a leading provider of GSE fleet management systems, we know how training employees and rewarding them can positively impact on your organisation. Setting up driving competitions based on the best performer in terms of safety or fuel savings has proved to be a very efficient way of incentivising your team and rewarding them at the same time. If you want to learn more on driver challenges as a powerful method to raise driver awareness, talk to us.

Following the commitment of airlines and airports towards sustainable business, Finnair, the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, and Neste, the world’s leader in the production of sustainable aviation fuel, have formed a partnership which is seen as a particularly important one for Finnair's targets of carbon neutrality.

The agreement will not only result in an increase in the use of sustainable fuel made by Finnair, but also in the production of sustainable aviation fuel in Finland. According to experts, relying on sustainable aviation fuels could reduce emissions by up to 80% compared to fossil fuels.

According to Topi Manner, CEO at Finnair, "Sustainable aviation fuels are a key part of our long-term plan for carbon neutrality – by the end of 2025, we expect to spend some 10 million euros annually on sustainable aviation fuels. Developing a healthy SAF market requires commitment from forerunners, and we are happy to be leading the way with Neste."

Peter Vanacker, Neste's President and CEO, added, "Besides the fuel supply, this partnership offers us an opportunity for contributing to our own climate targets by decreasing CO2 emissions of our employees’ business travel with Finnair through the use of Neste MY Renewable Jet Fuel.”

In addition to this, Finnair is planning to offer integrated ticket solutions that will include sustainable aviation fuel as an option, so that customers might be able to contribute themselves to decreasing their carbon footprint through their own purchases. Ways to help corporate customers to reduce the emissions generated by their travels are also included in the global plan.