Ground control

Leif Lindh of Combibox Systems explains why the Vikings buried their Ground Support Equipment (GSE) a long time ago.

Airports are caught in the middle of opposite dynamics: growing global demand for capacity, profitability and reducing the carbon footprint of operations.

At Combibox Systems of Sweden, we believe our in-ground support systems are a way to progress.

The in-ground approach
The in-ground servicing of aircraft is actually not a new concept. In Sweden, Denmark and Norway this has been a common approach for well over 20 years.

The concept promotes the idea of service pits in the apron close to the aircraft service connection points. The services include the essential media that a parked aircraft needs on turnaround. This is 400Hz ground power, pre-conditioned air for cooling and heating, potable water, jet fuel and discharge of wastewater.

The concept allows for a clean apron relieved from cable clutter and mobile equipment and immediate point-of-use availability. We argue that this is the most efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly way of providing ground support.

The infrastructure investment creates a firm base of revenue with a low total cost of ownership for the airport enabling service charging. The maintenance costs are a fraction of maintaining a fleet of mobile equipment and the airlines also benefit from lowering their turnaround cost. The point-of-use availability also enhances the service provided. The typical payback for the investment is around 24 months.

Although the concept has been installed, not only in Scandinavia, but also worldwide since the early 1980s, a relatively small percentage of airports worldwide have opted for this solution.

Congestion
During turnaround an airport planning manual typically shows 14 different vehicles circling the aircraft for various tasks and in reality there are even more support vehicles present.

The in-ground concept has not yet been internalised sakes for one of the support media namely Jet Fuel. Today hardly anyone would contend the fact that fuel hydrants are the way to provide jet fuel to an aircraft at a busy airport. The thought of dispatching a large tanker truck bringing the fuel on the apron alongside the aircraft is immediately recognized as not so efficient and risky.

Now apparently this is not yet so natural to see the same for ground power, pre-conditioned air, potable water and wastewater. But the same argument can easily apply here.
Lowering emissions

The in-ground system can replace diesel powered Ground Power Units (GPUs) or use of the aircrafts own APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) for production of power and cooling.
 
If an aircraft uses only the APU running on jet fuel for the complete turnaround this results in yearly emissions of 520 tons of CO2 for just one gate. Using diesel powered GSE is better, but still generates some 90 tons of CO2 yearly for just one gate and for the supply of ground power alone.

To reduce these emissions Airports could reduce fuel burn by supplying direct electricity connected to service pits. This still involves some indirect impact on the environment but it is substantially lower. According to the European Parliament Technology Assessment the carbon footprint of using electricity is 300g per kWh. Using direct electricity with an in-ground system reduces the equivalent environmental impact to 32 tons per year and gate.

The same results can be shown for potable water and wastewater which is most commonly supplied with the use of trucks out on the apron, often running idle on diesel while servicing the aircraft. This implies tons of CO2 emissions while also introducing more trucks into the gate area on every turnaround.

We argue that the fixed installation of an in-ground system using service pits is the natural prolongation of the “green flight” starting with minimizing jet fuel consumption in the air, flight planning and holding pattern minimizing. Then taxiing on one engine to the gate. At the gate the turnaround is then provided by an in-ground system minimizing the carbon footprint while parked for turnaround.

There is certainly a lot left to do in realising the eco-friendly airport of tomorrow and for those airports that have already begun this journey our helmet is off to you.

Leif Lindh is the Director of Business Development at Combibox Systems Scandinavia. He has a background in Systems Development and IT and joined Combibox in 2005. Main focus has been to transform the company into a knowledge based system supplier applying airport knowledge to ground support solutions.