Electrical Engineering Solutions

The technology being implemented in South Africa’s airports is on a par with the best in the world. And Electrical Engineering Solutions’ managing director Bradley Hemphill should know.  He’s just returned from London where he checked out Passenger Terminal EXPO 2009.

This annual event is one of the most influential forums for the selection of suppliers to airport development schemes around the world.

EES is project managing the implementation of the integrated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure at Cape Town International Airport as it is upgraded to meet the surge of visitors for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

“I spent much time at the expo visiting exhibitors’ stands and networking with delegates who are involved in managing passenger terminals and was gratified to realise that we are all on the same page.

“We may have different challenges from an operational point of view, but the technology that we use to address these is of global standard.

”For example, South African airports install more CCTV cameras in the terminals than is the norm in Europe and the US and this puts a tremendous load on the IP network installed throughout the buildings. This additional load needs careful planning and skilled implementation.”

The one area where the northern hemisphere airports have a march on South Africa is in automated baggage handling.

“There is plenty of innovation in this field to address the speed of baggage handling and the tracing of items that go astray,” says Hemphill.

On show at the expo was the PassengerBagdrop solution that allows a single bag drop counter to be used to service passengers from several airlines in the same queue. It was successfully tested at Zurich Airport by 11 airlines – all members of the Star Alliance. It eliminated a potential bottleneck in the passenger management process.

“Airports are a really exciting sector and it is fascinating to see how technology is being applied to accelerate passenger and baggage processing while enhancing their safety and comfort while in transit.”