OR Tambo acquires super jumbo loading bridges

Mission-critical technology solutions provider FMC Technologies South Africa (FMCTSA) was awarded a contract on December 9, 2006, by OR Tambo International Airport for the supply of 18 passenger loading bridges.

Four of the 18 glass-wall passenger boarding bridges are capable of servicing the upper deck of the world’s largest commercial aircraft, the A380 Airbus, business unit manager for FMCTSA JP Jonker tells Engineering News.

Under the contract, FMCTSA will design, manufacture, supply, deliver, install, test, commission and maintain the bridges.

Mechanical installations began on September 1, 2006, and were completed on October 16. Final commissioning will be done as soon as the civil contract is complete.

“Because of the timeframe”, the bridges supplied to OR Tambo were imported from the company’s Jetway factory in the US, which is capable of manufacturing up to six bridges a week.

Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) specified certain non-standard options, however, which Jonker explains were designed and manufactured in South Africa.

The nonstandard options were special service stairs designed to meet the particular challenges posed by the A380, says Acsa senior communications officer Tasniem Patel.

“Costs related to this project are still in the process of being reconciled,” she comments, but admits that the contract forms part of the airport’s international pier development budget.

Acsa has allocated R100-million to modify OR Tambo’s existing infrastructure.

With its own facilities running at full capacity, FMCTSA approached Petrel Engineering, of Cape Town, to construct a mock-up fuselage structure on which it could test and align its boarding bridges. This was before the A380 had touched down in South Africa on November 26, 2006. “The existing test rigs were not high enough to test the A380 upper deck bridge,” explains Jonker.

The replica designed and built by Petrel can be raised to a height of 10,26 m off the ground to simulate the twin deck configuration of the 24-m-high A380.

Acsa reveals that direct investment to develop the physical infra- structure for accommodating the A380 at OR Tambo is about R100-million.

Acsa is satisfied that OR Tambo now meets the criteria of a category 10 airport – an airport capable of accommodating an aircraft of the A380’s size and the increased human traffic that its operations imply.

“As a number of airlines currently flying regular schedules to OR Tambo had ordered the A380 aircraft, Acsa was most probably one of the first in the world to plan for the A380 in its new development,” Jonker notes.

“FMCTSA has been a key supplier of equipment and maintenance of ground support equipment in southern Africa for many years but this contract for the delivery of these bridges with a five-year maintenance contract is the first step for FMCTSA to establish technology and grow with the existing opportunities on the subcontinent,” says Jonker.

FMCTSA predicts continued growth at all international airports owing to promising growth levels and South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 soccer World Cup. Jonker adds that the company is committed to the aggressive pursuit of all opportunities as they arise.