Haneda Poised for International Flghts
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport will support international air services from October, with the opening of its fourth runway and new international passenger terminal, according to the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Haneda supported international services up until 1978, when they were all services were transferred to Tokyo’s Narita Airport. Haneda is now expecting to handle around 8.6 million international passengers per annum by 2012, while domestic passenger traffic is expected to grow from the current 61 million to 62.2 million in 2012.
A number of carriers have already welcomed the announcement, with plans to relaunch international services to and from Haneda, which is closer to central Tokyo than Narita.
“The launch of more international routes from Haneda Airport and its latest international passenger terminal is strategically important to Japan Airlines,” says Japan Airlines (JAL) Group President and Chief Operating Officer Masaru Onishi. JAL will launch flights between Haneda and Bangkok, Honolulu, Paris, San Francisco, Songshan and Taipei on 31 October.
The airline also plans to convert its existing charter flights that operate from Haneda to Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai into scheduled services. JAL says it will also expand its code-sharing arrangement with Oneworld partner American Airlines on the Haneda-New York route.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways says it will resume international scheduled operations at Haneda with twice-daily services to Hong Kong, in addition to maintaining its Narita services. Cathay currently operates six daily flights between Hong Kong and Narita – five direct and one via Taipei.
The airline currently operates 91 passenger services and 11 freighter flights each week between Hong Kong and the five Japanese gateways of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo. Cathay Pacific first operated to Haneda in 1959 and by 1978, when international services were transferred to Narita, it was operating four passenger flights a day and four freighter services a week.
Australia improves airport safety with new technology
Australian air traffic management (ATM) service provider Airservices Australia has boosted safety at Sydney Airport with the commissioning of a new A$35 million Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (ASMGCS).
The system provides automatic identification of suitably equipped vehicles and aircraft at the airport for the first time.
The Sensis ASMGCS combines surveillance data received from Sensis multilateration, surface-movement radar and VeeLo NextGen vehicle locators to provide the location and identification of all aircraft and vehicles. The system also features the Sensis Safety Logic conflict detection and alerting technology that alerts controllers in advance of any potential runway incursions.
The system also integrates data from Airservices’ flight-plan system and provides real-time surface traffic information to the en-route and terminal aerodrome automation system, with information displayed on Sensis Controller Working Positions.
“About 800 aircraft movements are monitored by air traffic controllers every day at Sydney Airport. This system offers better conflict detection for controllers – for example, vehicles crossing an active runway without clearance – and a lower risk of surface collisions,” says Jason Harfield, general manager air traffic control. The system also improves the reliability and efficiency of airport operations during bad weather and at night, he adds.
The commissioning of the system followed extensive testing and controller training, The system was commissioned at Melbourne Airport at the end of 2009 and is due for installation at Brisbane and Perth airports this year.
In addition, Airservices has commissioned a new terminal area radar at Melbourne Airport to provide improved surveillance of air traffic up to 256 nautical miles around the Victorian capital. The new Mode-S radar replaces a 15-year-old system and is part of Airservices’ A$80 million (US$66 million) Australian Mode-S Terminal Area Radar (AMSTAR) upgrade project.
Mode-S systems are set to be deployed at a further seven sites throughout the country. A new radar system is expected to be commissioned in Darwin by the end of this year, while Sydney and Adelaide terminal area radars will be upgraded in early 2011.
News in brief
SITA AND Sydney Airport have launched the second phase of wireless connectivity trials with an unnamed airline. The partners are conducting a series of operational trials at the airport using SITA’s new AIRCOM IP GateLink service for new-generation aircraft such as the Airbus A380, Boeing 787 and new 777 variants. The service provides global broadband wireless connectivity on the ground during aircraft turnarounds and layovers. The trials are aimed at evaluating the technical, operational and commercial aspects of offering the new service on a wider scale, says SITA. Trials using the 777 were launched at Sydney last year, while the A380 was recently added to the programme. “This initiative will help ready us, and our customers, for the arrival of electronic flight bags as well as other modern avionics systems and cockpit applications that generate and consume large amounts of data,” says Philip Clinch, SITA’s vice-president for aircraft services. SITA hopes to expand the trial to other airports and airlines around the world, ahead of a commercial launch of AIRCOM IP GateLink.
MALAYSIA AIRPORTS Holdings, which operates Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and 38 others, suffered a 26 percent drop in net profit to 71.2 million ringgit (US$21.44 million) in the first quarter of the year. Revenue climbed 12 percent to 436.4 million ringgit and passenger movements increased by 21 percent, but the group also suffered higher costs.
HONG KONG International Airport recorded a 2 percent drop in passenger traffic, to 4.2 million, for the month of April. The airport attributes the fall to the disruption to European flights caused by the volcanic ash cloud, as well as political unrest in Thailand. Aircraft movements increased 3 percent to 24,725, while cargo throughput climbed 38 per cent to 354,000 tonnes.
SITA HAS won a multi-million dollar deal to handle passenger processing for the 55 international airlines operating into Beijing Capital International Airport. Beijing is the world’s third-busiest airport, handling 65.4 million passengers last year. SITA manages 50 Common Use Self-Service kiosks and 600 CUTE check-in workstations using its AirportConnect platform at the airport. The airport has capacity to handle more than 80 million passengers a year. Meanwhile, SITA has been selected by China’s Hangzhou International Airport to provide check-in and passenger processing technology to support that airport’s growth from 15 million to 25.6 million passengers per year by 2015.
