The UK’s biggest independent on-airport de-icing services provider is Airline Services, a Manchester-based company that de-ices at 10 UK gateways – the most recent addition being London Heathrow.
Airline Services de-ices for over 60 carriers across those 10 airports, employing a range of rigs from both US-based manufacturer JBT AeroTech and units manufactured according to its own design. Four more JBT de-icer units have been purchased in just the last year, informs Airline Services CEO Bryan Bodek, while the decision was taken to develop its own design because the company felt that it needed something robust, reliable and capable of handling pre-heated de-icing fluids. In regard to the latter, Airline Services stores de-icing fluid in bulk and heats it to the optimum temperature at that point, avoiding any problems
associated with on-board mixing/heating/cooling cycles. This, and the fact that the volume of fluid actually pumped is kept to a minimum, means that there is less fluid degradation during the de-icing process.
Airline Services has been in operation since 1988 and Bodek puts its success down in large part to its ongoing investment in training, equipment, technology and infrastructure, a commitment that has allowed it to provide “extremely reliable services” over the course of the past 25 years. The scope of the company’s operations – it offers many other products and services besides de-icing, such as cleaning, engineering and workshop work, as well as various in-flight entertainment facilities – has also offered it certain benefits of economies of scale. Thus, for example, all its staff who will de-ice in winter are not laid off come the spring; they remain on the staff to undertake similar work, such as washing aircraft, and in so doing will keep their skills up to date.
Much has changed over those two and a half decades, of course. Bodek has seen dramatic changes in the nature of de-icing fluids, customer expectations – client airlines will always want better performance, he points out – and even in weather patterns. That last point is important; as the weather in the UK has become more extreme, so the challenges of on-airport de-icing have increased, and customers do not accept bad weather as an excuse!
Ever-changing demands and ever-evolving technologies mean that Airline Services must constantly monitor the market to ensure that it stays at the forefront of any developments. It’s particularly important given the company’s promise to work with each and every carrier it serves in order to fully understand its needs and provide a bespoke de-icing operation for that airline. For Bodek, one size certainly doesn’t fit all, and Airline Services will employ the appropriate de-icing product in the appropriate way depending on the airport, the carrier and the aircraft involved, he affirms.
De-icing, Bavarian-style
Another committed European de-icing services provider is EFM. Formed in 1992, EFM – more formally, Gesellschaft für Enteisen und Flugzeugschleppen am Flughafen München) is a joint venture owned by the Lufthansa subsidiary GGG Service for Airlines and Munich Airport. It is the only provider of aircraft de-icing services at Munich and currently serves round about 100 carriers.
EFM employs 27 de-icing vehicles, all of them Vestergaard models, to carry out approximately 14,000 de-icing operations a year.
“For us,” says EFM’s managing director, Hans-Joachim Püschner, “it is very important to keep up with the very latest in de-icing technology,” not least because such technology is covered by industry regulations (he points in particular to the Association of European Airlines’ Training Recommendations and Background Information for De-Icing/Anti-Icing of Aeroplanes on the Ground, 10th Edition, August 2013 as being something of a must-have reference work).
Having the right points of reference is vital, Püschner continues, given the pace of change in this segment of the aviation industry. “The de-icing business has changed radically over the last 20 years,” he says. “Today, aircraft de-icing is much more the focus of airlines, airports, boards of control and the industry as a whole than it was before.”
Witness, Püschner adds, such factors today as: the greater volume of relevant regulations; more frequent audits; greater use of thickened de-icing fluids (type II or IV) as opposed to the basic, ‘unthickend’ type I fluids; more rigorous environmental regulations covering the application of de-icing fluids; greater research and development taking place on an ongoing basis; the higher demands placed on de-icing fluids; the development of alternative de-icing methods, such as heat radiation and forced air techniques; modern and much-improved de-icing vehicles; greater co-operation between airlines, airports, air traffic control and de-icing companies; the use of modern control, information and communication systems (such as the De- and Anti-Icing Information System, or DAISY); and, last but by no means least for an enterprise such as EFM, he draws attention to the greater price pressure on de-icing companies operating today.
The challenges are likely to remain tough, Püschner argues, highlighting the continuing need to provide enough suitable staff and vehicles at prices acceptable to customers while always meeting the rigorous regulations of the various boards of control, environmental authorities, airlines and airports.
A long, cold winter
There are few big, busy airports that have to contend with as long and as cold a winter season as Canada’s Toronto Pearson International Airport but its operating authority, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), has the resources to meet the challenge. The Toronto Pearson Central Deicing Facility (CDF) de-ices an average of 13,600 aircraft per winter season. In fact, in the winter of 2010-11, it handled 15,682 de-icing operations.
The majority of Pearson’s de-icing is performed at the CDF by one service provider – Servisair. The latter’s operation at the gateway is approved by Transport Canada and it works to a specific contract agreed with each individual carrier. The GTAA oversees the handler’s operation, while the carriers audit Servisair’s programme and services, explains GTAA’s manager, aviation compliance and co-ordination Joe Forbes.
So what was it that attracted GTAA to Servisair? According to Forbes, the decision to go with Servisair was made against criteria of “safety, experience, safety, operational and cost efficiencies, safety, environmental compliance, adherence to a regulator approved programme and… uncompromising attention to safety!”
The winter in Northern Europe, in Scandinavia, can be as harsh as on the North American continent. Swedavia, the Swedish state-owned national airport authority that owns, operates and develops 11 gateways across the country, reports that it recorded a total of 12,500 aircraft de-icing operations at just Stockholm Arlanda International Airport – its busiest gateway – during the 2012-13 winter season.
Swedavia doesn’t undertake any de-icing services itself at Arlanda and the de-icing service providers operating there are wholly accountable to their customers, the airlines, notes Per Lindgren, Swedavia’s ground operation manager at the airport. In fact, he explains, according to the airport operator’s business model, Swedavia does not provide any de-icing services at any of its gateways, although the de-icing service providers must have licensing agreements with the airports at which they operate.
The customer
The end-user of these de-icing services are, of course, the aircraft operators – the airlines. An Air France (AF) operations spokesperson explains what a big, main-line carrier such as AF looks for from its de-icing service providers: “Of course, the de-icing services provider has to be available at short notice as weather conditions change. It should conduct the de-icing in accordance with local procedures and guarantee a high level of quality without any failures.
“The provider should control the de-icing step by step and inform us immediately if there have been any problems. It must also be able to communicate precisely with flight crews (having the appropriate vocabulary skills). Finally, de-icing operations should take place at appropriate and dedicated areas close to the runway threshold,” he observes.
At AF’s main base at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, de-icing is carried out by airport operator Aéroports de Paris (ADP), while anti-icing of the carrier’s aircraft is performed by AF staff. But its aircraft are differently handled at the various gateways across AF’s worldwide network. Frequently, it is the airport authority that has the monopoly on both aspects of the process of preparing an aircraft for flight in icy conditions, but in other places there can be competition between providers.
Even where some degree of competition in service provision exists, from a carrier’s viewpoint on-airport de-icing service provision might seem like something of a closed shop. Whether an airport authority takes on the task of providing de-icing services or asks a third-party service provider such as Airline Services, Servisair or any other handler to do the job, the fees tend to be set and the airline must pay the price. The AF spokesperson explains: “The price of de-icing operations is fixed by airport authorities and therefore not negotiable.
For every aircraft landing between 15 October and 15 May, a ‘fixed price’ is clearly indicated to carriers (depending on the size of the aircraft) and this has to be paid whether de-icing takes place or not.
“Furthermore, on top of that there is a supplement (depending on the size of the aircraft) to pay if the aircraft undergoes de-icing,” he adds.
The prices will differ, of course, according to the provider at different gateways, but an airline has little choice but to meet the cost if it wants to operate year-round services any given airport.
Of course, an airline and its pilots do have some freedom of choice. On any given day, depending on the conditions, the pilot and his crew can decide whether their aircraft is de-iced or not, and the scale and intensity of the service (a full service would include full de-icing of the fuselage, tail and wings – all surfaces – plus anti-icing follow-up to ensure there is no refreezing before take-off). The airline crew might also be able to negotiate the speed of the process and how many de-icing units and operators are to be used.
Changing awareness, evolving technology
The industry and the travelling public are now well attuned to the effects of contamination on an aircraft and the need for de-icing and anti-icing. That is probably no bad thing, and nor are the various improvements that have been made in de-icing and anti-icing fluids, de-icing processes and de-icing equipment, all of which – says GTAA’s Forbes – “have allowed us to gain efficiencies and throughput by safely de-icing multiple aircraft with engines running, thereby maintaining a higher level of operation during winter storm events”.
Swedavia’s Lindgren also points to the improvements that have been made in de-icing fluids. Less glycol is now used, he notes, with a more efficient mix of water and glycol at a more effective temperature now being employed. These days., some of the de-icing operator’s vehicles are also used to blow snow off aircraft before de-icing begins, Lindgren explains.
For the future, Forbes would like to see “further automation to control flows, as well as environmentally friendly fluids and methods to remove and prevent contamination, plus equipment automation to increase efficiencies”.
He also points to another issue that appears to have grown in significance – engine inlet icing – of late. Such contamination doesn’t happen often and only in certain conditions but it is difficult and time consuming to remove and can cause significant damage if it goes undetected. It would, Forbes says, be great to see manufacturers looking at ways to prevent ice from adhering to engine components and surrounding surfaces.
In terms of evolving de-icing technology, there has perhaps been less of an impact on the carrier than the service provider. That’s not to say airlines haven’t seen changes, and for the better, however. For example, the AF spokesperson notes: “ADP has improved its equipment, infrastructure and number of de-icing areas over the last three years, so operations are becoming faster and more aircraft can be treated in shorter timeframes. All this is very positive.”
One particular focus the carrier has is on its environmental footprint and, looking forward, AF is keen to minimise the impact of its de-and anti-icing operations. It is “also being innovative about new methods and procedures, such as the use of forced (pulsed) hot air.
“One aspect remains a permanent priority though: flight safety must always be assured,” he concludes.
Up and running
Last month (November), Integrated Deicing Services (IDS), a New Hampshire, US-headquartered aircraft de-icing services provider, announced that it had signed a 10-year contract with easyJet that will see IDS provide 100% of the low-cost carrier’s de-icing requirements at Geneva International Airport. The service provider also looks after easyJet’s de-icing at London Luton.
Other big recent news from IDS saw the company sign a letter of intent with RG Aircraft Services at London Heathrow which will see IDS take over its de-icing responsibilities at the UK’s busiest air gateway. Patrick Brown, IDS vice president of sales, marketing & customer relations, comments: “As a premier de-icing company, our entrance into Heathrow is very important for many reasons. However, first on the list is to showcase how our special techniques and services can add to airlines’ performance and efficiency.”
IDS has come a long way since it was formed a little over a decade ago to provide de-icing services at the little airport of Colorado Springs. It is now present in a dozen or so US gateways as well as in the UK and Continental Europe. It operates a fleet of approximately 120 de-icing trucks, all of which use a forced air injection system with enclosed baskets that the company believes enables it to use much less glycol than other systems – helping both to ensure the on-time departure of aircraft and minimise the environmental footprint. Its sister company, Deicing Solutions, even manufactures its own de-icing fluid for IDS to use.
“We’re like the first responders,” says Brown, of IDS and its work. “When you need us, we are going to be there.”
Training aids
Nicolae (Nick) Rudei is the operations manager and de-icing trainer at handler Romanian Airport Services. He has, since 2008, been providing de-icing training for most of the major airports in Romania, but Rudei has gone above and beyond his job description to help others involved in aircraft de-icing. He explains: “Aircraft-deicing.com is a personal project I started in March 2013. The idea behind this website was quite simple – until then there had been no other independent website dedicated entirely to airplane and helicopter de-icing operations and, therefore, I thought that it would be a great idea to create a free site where I could bring together general information about aircraft de- and anti-icing and to share a part of the more advanced material I use in my de-icing training.”
He has seen significant changes in the sector, just in the last five years. “Industry requirements keep changing year on year according to the following principle: reducing cost without affecting the safety of the flight. Unfortunately, however, sometimes safety is left behind as the client (airline) wants to keep the de-icing costs as low as possible. Introducing a new and better (fluid saving) technology applied wrongly can cost more than money.”
As far as regulations go, the world can be split into two parts, Rudei considers: the FAA-governed part and the rest of the world. “In Europe, we use the common standards issued by the AEA (Association of European Airlines). New guidelines that aim to improve the safety of the ground de-icing process are added each year in the AEA document ‘Training Recommendations and Background Information for De-icing/Anti-icing Aeroplanes on the Ground’,” he informs.
“The clients (the airline) are starting to request new de-icing technology to be used,” Rudei continues. “I think it is extremely important that ground service providers should keep up with the demands in the industry and train the personnel involved in the de-icing process accordingly. Only by doing this can ground service providers be economically efficient and stay ahead of their competitors.”
He has some interesting observations to make in regard to the changing nature of de-icing equipment. “Besides working as a de-icing trainer, I have also had the opportunity to lead a technical department that was undertaking the maintenance of 25-year-old de-icing units,” Rudei explains. ”While comparing a Ford FMC TM1800 to a JBT Tempest 2 de-icing unit, for example, one would observe the fact that the working principle is the same; however, for the latter, the technology is far more advanced.
“Due to the fact that de-icing fluids type II and IV are pseudoplastic, it is difficult to spray without damaging the fluid. Therefore, technology has had to go a long way to mix the fluids with water, heat and spray them. Basically, as far as business goes, we are still doing the same thing – we clean the aircraft and protect it from frozen deposits until airborne. Only now, we are better prepared and we have the advantage of using better machines,” he says.
