This morning was much more exciting ... I look forward to the Discovery series capturing ramp activities.
Airport rush begins at 5.30am
11th August 2009, 6:00 WST
It may be a biting 3C at 5am but the heat is on at Perth Airport to prepare more than 70 aircraft for their missions to deliver thousands of passengers across the State and around the world.
Hundreds of staff working in one of the world’s busiest workplaces load bags and catering, tow, marshal and fuel aircraft.
Engineers meticulously perform last-minute checks and pilots complete a final walk-around of their aircraft, which sparkle under the floodlights.
Tuesday morning is the ultimate rush hour at Perth Airport.
In the 2½ hours from 5.30am, those 70 aircraft will depart on a day where there will be 457 arrivals and departures.
A few of Tuesday morning’s destinations are household names, most are not. Resource sites Barimunya, Brockman 2, West Angelas, Fortescue Dave Forrest, Jundee, Nifty, Granny Smith, Lawlers, Darlot, Plutonic, Golden Grove, Coondewanna and Murrin Murrin are just some of the names on the departure boards. The overnight chill means that no aircraft is going anywhere without a thorough ice check. Skywest’s duty engineering manager Gary Windsor uses a scissor lift to examine each of the airline’s eight Fokker 100 tail assemblies and that task is replicated by a host of airlines around the airport.
In fact, engineers have been working through the night performing a range of tasks on the fleet of more than 100 aircraft that call Perth Airport home.
And that home is not for the faint-hearted. Catering trucks, tugs pulling baggage carts and containers, aircraft tugs, sanitary carts, engineering equipment, fuelling trucks and, of course, taxiing aircraft, all travelling at varying speeds, make it one of the world’s most dangerous workplaces right up there with the deck of a US aircraft carrier or catching Alaskan king crabs.
Aviation has the highest loss of work days in the industrialised world and aviation’s inability to improve tarmac safety stands in stark contrast to its successes in most other areas of operations.
A recent worldwide study places the annual cost in repairs, medical bills, lost time for people and aircraft at some $7 billion. A major cause of ramp injuries and damage is the pressure to get flights out on time and not miss critical take-off slots.
However, at Perth Airport, while the pace is as crisp as the air, it is not reckless.
“Training and dedication are the keys,” says Skywest Airlines managing director Hugh Davin. “At Perth Airport the staff are passionate and proud of what they do — and it shows.”
And they process 9.73 million passengers a year, which makes West Australians possibly the world’s most air minded. It is double the number of trips on average per person than in the US — the world’s largest and most mature aviation market.
The resource industry is the major driver for the need to travel. However, the friends and relatives market is significant because, according to Perth Airport, only 24 per cent of West Australians were born in the State, with 34 per cent born overseas.
It’s now 5.32am.
“Foxtrot November Charlie push back approved.”
With that air traffic control instruction, a tug eases a Skywest Fokker 100, registered VH-FNC, back to be towed for an engine start position well away from the other aircraft.
Destination: West Angelas, a minesite nestled between Newman and Paraburdoo.
Two minutes later, a Cobham BAe 146-300, November Juliet November, engines running eases forward to taxi for Runway 21 for Coondewanna, which is close to West Angelas.
Most of these aircraft operate long hours.
Victor Yankee Golf, a Boeing 737-800 in Qantas colours, kicks off the day with a Kalgoorlie return followed by a Karratha return before heading to Brisbane for a well-earned rest.
Aircraft are on the move across the airport, from seven terminals, and as soon as one departs another is towed in to accept its precious cargo.
Relief is on its way in the form of Terminal WA, a purpose-built low cost and regional airline facility next to the international terminal that will consolidate many of the airport’s operations.
GEOFFREY THOMAS