Runway engineers and other staff at Manchester Airport
are to get wireless handheld computers to help reduce the number of
paper-based reports they are required to fill in.
The airport is installing a wireless mesh network based on
Trapeze’s Smart Mobile technology, to allow operational staff
roaming inside and outside the terminals to access the corporate
network from wireless enabled laptops and other devices.
Aaron Bazler, head of IT at Manchester Airport, said that over
the past 16 to 18 months, the airport has been concentrating on
developing an indoor wireless network.
“Now we are looking at extending our wireless coverage outside
the terminal buildings to substations, and other buildings,” he
said.
At the moment, the airport requires roaming staff to use trunk
radios or mobile phones, and a lot of the processes are paper
based.
One of the airport’s biggest databases is based on Lotus Notes
and at the moment only PCs that are linked to the Lan can access
it, said Bazler. He plans to mobile-enable Notes so that, for
example, engineers that check runway lights can file reports and
make purchase orders from the runways, using wireless devices.
The airport hopes to go live with the airfield wireless network
in two to three months.