Effective Asset Replacement for Airports

Asset replacement is an essential and continuous task for airports to remain secure and efficient. Hold Baggage Screening (HBS) replacement has been driven by new security standards with ECAC Standard 3 requiring much of the existing screening equipment to be replaced. An increase in demand for Early Bags Storage (EBS) may force the requirement to upgrade for increased efficiency and capacity. Whilst adopting new technologies for check-in and baggage systems have created the need to replace older equipment and updated processes.

Replacing assets is potentially very intrusive for operations and can bring different challenges depending on airport and terminal. For example, asset replacement for HBS Standard 3 involves much bigger machines, due to the technology involved, than airports would use previously. In constrained or smaller airports this can be an issue. The age of buildings and terminals can also cause challenges that need to be managed effectively. With many different contractors involved in this type of project, effective communication and quick consensus from all is key to a successful project.

AiQ Consulting’s Role

In our delivery role, we work with airports to effectively plan for asset replacement. This includes capacity assessment of the existing asset process, modelling of the removal of assets and mitigations of what can be done differently during the process. We also present forecasts on potential scenarios on what could go wrong and the ‘what ifs’ involved. This includes identifying potential risks and impacts and helping to formulate plans to mitigate risks of infrastructure, labour and processes.

Our core team skills are also used during the process, including

  • Capacity Assessments
  • Capacity modelling
  • Data modelling analysis
  • Impact assessments
  • Identified and reduced business and opportunity risks
  • Mitigation development
  • Design validations
  • Ongoing assessments.

Our deep routed experience in consultancy gives AiQ an advantage in supporting asset replacement. It is essential to understand client requirements and help them to understand the impact, risks and sequence of events. Our team liaises between the client, project managers, contractors and operations throughout the project phase stage to ensure stakeholder consensus. We use stakeholder management and high-level consultancy skills to tailor our presentations, reports and findings for the client and operations. Tailoring our language and approach, depending on the people we are talking to, helps us to engage effectively with all parties from ground support staff to shareholders.

These unique skills in high-level consultancy place us in high demand to work on many operational level projects such as asset replacement, especially considering our years of working within highly space constrained airports such as Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport. Asset Replacement projects at LHR have included:

To find out more about the complex stakeholder engagement projects we have been involved in, take a look at our case studies or contact us today