On the 23 June, Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh unveiled the latest addition to Heathrow Airport’s infrastructure. The careful, phased opening of the £2.5 billion Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal made far fewer headlines than the somewhat troubled Terminal 5 launch, but perhaps even more understated are the terminal’s impressive sustainability credentials.
Heathrow T2 was the first airport building to be awarded the BREEAM certification for sustainable design, with its striking curved roof central to the effort to provide natural light and minimise heat loss. An energy centre with the UK’s largest woodchip boiler provides 20% of the terminal’s energy needs, and it is claimed that the building improves on regulation energy efficiency by some 40%.
Yet the key driver behind the development was of course expansion, reflecting the fact that UK’s major airports are close to bursting at the seams, and that Europe’s demand for air travel continues to rise. In the face of swift moving developments in the Middle and Far East, Heathrow is competing hard to stay atop the list of the world’s busiest airports for international traffic. Its pressures seem something of a microcosm of the European aviation industry – how do you expand to compete and meet demand, but do so sustainably?
Lessons taken from the development of large-scale airport projects with sustainability at the heart – such as London Heathrow’s new, environmentally sound Terminal 2 – make for brilliant learning for other international airports and the industry as a whole.
As the 8th ACI Airport Development & Environment Conference meets in Paris at ACI Airport Exchange 2014 next month, such projects make for brilliant learning. Phil Wilbraham, Heathrow’s Development Director, has been invited to discuss the project, alongside key personnel involved in airport development around the world.
European sustainability and capacity
Another airport battling with the conflicting demands of capacity and sustainability is the host of ACI Airport Exchange, Aéroports de Paris (ADP). It has seen traffic increase every year for the past four years, and is witnessing even stronger growth this year to date, according to anna.aero data.
Patrick Jeantet, COO of ADP, will be chairing a unique session at the Conference, to discuss this challenge with his counterpart at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport Berk Albayrak, who has the unenviable task of planning for an airport that is consistently growing at 20% per year.
Oslo Airport is also midway through a significant development due for completion in 2017, and carries with it a nation’s reputation of climate change responsibility. Øyvind Hasaas, the airport’s Managing Director, will be joining the session to discuss its approach. Daniel Burkard, Director Business Development, Domodedovo Airport, will also be outlining the Moscow airport’s investment in fast-build techniques to meet construction deadlines.
Lessons from further afield
A key decision within sustainable airport design is whether to unite all services under one roof or develop several terminals. Greg Fordham, Managing Director of aviation consultancy Airbiz, will be presenting case studies on two projects – Calgary Airport and Melbourne T4 – where the final results of infrastructure development differed largely to original plans. Also on this panel, to relay sustainability and development lessons, are senior representatives involved in Chicago O’Hare’s new runway, the world’s largest airport to-be in Dubai, Cambodia’s airports and far-flung Iqaluit Airport in Canada.
EUROCONTROL launches climate change initiatives
The Conference will also serve as an important platform for EUROCONTROL, which manages Europe’s Air Traffic Management, to launch initiatives aiming to mitigate aviation’s impact on the environment.
Policy Officer Rachel Burbidge will be launching the EUROCONTROL guidelines on adapting airport infrastructure to be more sympathetic to climate change. Panellists from Avinor and DGAC/STAC France will respond, plus a representative from the Federal Aviation Administration will share insights from developments in the US.
‘Collaborative Environmental Management’, or CEM, is a EUROCONTROL protocol designed to formalise discussions between the many parties interested in the impact that airport development has environmentally. The study cites the examples of Vienna, Manchester, Stockholm and Groningen airports, where such collaborative efforts have assisted developments impacting upon aircraft noise and air quality. Tim Walmsley, Head of Environment at Manchester Airport, will be on the panel discussing the specifications, while representatives from Aéroports de Paris and others will also respond.
As the conference meets as a tributary of the wider 2000+ delegate ACI Airport Exchange event, hopes are high for dynamic discussion, where successes can be celebrated and future trajectories plotted, to help our enterprising industry continue to thrive in a sustainable manner.
The 8th ACI Airport Development & Environment Conference takes place at ACI Airport Exchange, at the CNIT in Paris, 3-5 November 2014. The conference stream will deliver case studies on broad development strategy, covering everything from real estate to environment to new facilities, to help our audience effectively plan how it should develop and manage its facilities in the years to come. Representatives from the field will discuss their vision of best in class airports and how they are striking the balance between new development, sustainability and capacity demand.
» Register your place at ACI Airport Exchange
» View the Airport Development & Environment Conference agenda
