Belfast City Airport enhances wildlife control management with ClickAirport

BelfastCity Airport is a major success story. Market demand has created continual growth, despite inevitable physical & environmental challenges.

For those with long memories, Belfast City was first named Sydenham when it opened in 1937. It was used for private flying, & also became the manufacturing base for Shorts Brothers aviation.

It was renamed Belfast Harbour airport when it first hosted commercial scheduled flights in 1983. Many in the aviation industry were sceptical of its chances of long-term survival. The airline industry was then heavily regulated, and many airlines were state-owned.

Existing airlines flew into the existing Aldergrove airport, & saw little potential for Belfast Harbour. Indeed, many industry observers at the time commented that the airfield was nothing more than a promotional stunt for the Short Skyvan, then in production on the airfield.

How wrong they were. The wave of airline deregulation from the '80's was allied to a rapidly growing range of feeder liners able to operate from the short 6000ft runway. Freddie Laker had long since flown the flag for low-cost operators, & now the potential of the concept was unleashed. Belfast Harbour's time had come.

City airports are always attractive to regular travellers. They save time and, more importantly, aggravation. Their small size relative to the huge hub airports means that the whole scale of operation is less congested, & more human than in those hubs. Transport access is good, & short business visits become a practical reality.

As Belfast Harbour was only a couple of miles from the city, it was renamed Belfast City Airport, & in 2006, renamed George Best Belfast City Airport. It retains the IATA identifier of BHD, & the ICAO code of EGAC.

Life is always a balance. Whilst millions of users a year show the market demand for city airport benefits, environmental factors can constrain growth. That may be issues such as runway constraints, poor weather record, local opposition, or terminal access & throughput.

That's as true at BHD as at other city airports. The runway is just 6000ft. There are local issues & capacity limits. Despite these challenges, the airport is now served by 8 scheduled airlines, to a wide range of domestic and European destinations. Local economic growth has been well served by BHD, demonstrated by rising passenger numbers.

One particular operational issue requires active management. The expanses of water & grass may make the airport scenically attractive to us. To wildlife, they make the airport their promised land -- the ideal destination to sleep, feed & breed. Birds literally flock to the airfield surrounds.

Unfortunately, not all birds are risk-aware. We all see that as we come close to running down pigeons that won't move off the highway You get some sense that they lack something when you recall that a Goose flew into a NASA shuttle on take-off. If you can't see, feel & hear a shuttle coming, you've got a sensitivity problem...

That means the airport management have to manage wildlife. They are very well aware of their operational environment, & regularly mount patrols to manage risk. In addition, the regulatory authorities define procedures for wildlife control.

Barry Strain is the Airside Operations Manager, responsible for day-to- day safety. He was well aware that making existing procedures as effective as possible meant introducing new systems to improve the time his teams were active on the airfield taking risk prevention action.

He needed to reduce wasted time, especially that created by form filling & reporting. He also needed help to analyse trends over time -- to spot seasonal variations in bird populations, to recognise how time of day affected numbers, to determine the variation in types of wildlife, to know the most effective deterrents over time He needed all of this, whilst simplifying life for his operating staff.

He searched around the industry for help. Luckily Barry is well connected to colleagues at Luton Airport. As Barry says "It's fortunate that I have links to Luton, as they were ahead of us in their need to tackle wildlife control. They have been using a web-based management system that has given them real productivity gains.

Their airside safety teams use PDA's on their patrols, & are able to enter all of the mandatory data needed very simply. When they finish their activities, they automatically download all of the information into a central database managed by ClickAirport, & any authorised user can access that information & generate operational reports.

Luton's needs mirrored our needs. We met with ClickAirport, ensured they could do what we need, & are now introducing their system here "

Barry & Belfast City Airport are now going the ClickAirport route. We wish them well as their contribution to the Belfast economy grows.