Hytera DMR Solution Serves Finland Airport

Helsinki Airport is the main international gateway to Finland and the biggest airport in the country. It is the 31st largest airport in Europe and 4th largest in the Nordic countries in terms of passenger numbers. The airport handled 17.2 million passengers in 2016 and 165,430 tons of cargo in 2015. On average, the airport handles around 350 departures a day.

Airpro offers its customers full ground services, from the plane rolling to the gate parking place to its taking off again. The turn-around process lasts 40 minutes, during which the previous load is unloaded and a new one packed, toilets are emptied and water refilled. The schedule is tight, since after a little over a half hour, the plane may take off.

The dispatcher, Ramp Supervisor Lasse Ikonen-Lokkila directs the plane to the taxiway, working as the captain's eyes and ears on the ground. He monitors the starting of the engines and ensures that the plane is able to take off without any danger situations. Wireless communication is an essential part of the dispatcher and the loading supervisor's work.

An airport is a highly challenging environment, where many overlapping networks are operating. Besides voice connections, data messages, such as alert messages also travel on the network. Messages security is exceptionally important. Hytera's dealer in Finland, Kauko International's head of sales Matti Peltola, delivered Hytera's walkie-talkie network and hand- and vehicle radios and Peltor's Bluetooth earpieces to Airpro for field communication.

Overlapping networks, the combination of voice and data traffic, message security and noise protection makes airport communication challenging, which requires Airpro personnel's hard work, and the wireless communications devices must be able to survive all kinds of handling and weather: being struck, dropped, and getting wet.
With Hytera radio X1p, the loadmaster can be moving luggage at the plane's tail and still have a voice connection with the cockpit. Particularly if the plane is being filled when passengers are aboard, the captain can have voice communication with ground personnel during the entire time.
A maintenance contract includes Kauko documenting, storing and servicing devices at all of the airports in Finland where Airpro operates. Kauko has unified and standardized the equipment, and almost a thousand devices have now been updated.
New wireless communication technology is ensuring that there is still a voice connection to pilots over the roar of turbojet engines, and passenger planes are able to safely take off.