Airport Module - Terminal Gate Equipment

 

Many airports will have decommissioned certain assets in response to a lack of passenger traffic. Appropriate safety checks need to be conducted prior to the recovery of the airline traffic. Airports and airlines need to work together to ensure that accurate flight schedules are provided in order to meet this demand.

Considerations

• Electromechanical equipment such as boarding bridges, escalators and elevators must be inspected and periodically tested or started up. Inspections of such decommissioned equipment are essential before returning them to service for passenger use, based on manufacturers' recommendations and national building codes.
• Maintenance protocols need to be defined and deployed.
• Where conditioned air is needed, power should be maintained in all outdoor-based equipment such as jetways and pre-conditioned air units.
• Critical service providers and State authorities must be advised in advance on ramp-up schedules and plans by the airport operator to return temporarily closed facilities into service.
• Passenger bus capacity should be adapted to facilitate physical distancing during boarding and disembarking of passengers

Gate aircraft equipment and air filtering

• Where external pre-conditioned air (PCA) and fixed electrical ground power are available at the stand, an aircraft can switch off its auxiliary power unit (APU) after arrival. A PCA system takes in ambient air through an intake filter and provides conditioned air to the cabin.

•  External air sources are not processed through the aircraft's high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. The aircraft APU should be permitted to be used at the gate to enable the aircraft's air conditioning system to be operated if equivalent air quality from PCA is not available.

Means for uniform implementation

• Ensure that airport capacity recommissioning is in step with airline schedules and phased in an appropriate manner.