Apron control

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The apron control (Engl. Apron control ) is a means of traffic airports that for the traffic management of aircraft on the apron areas is responsible. It can be operated either by the national air navigation service provider, by external companies or by the airport operator itself. The employees of a ramp control are as apron controllers (Engl. Apron controller ), respectively.

tasks

Control tower east of the apron control at Frankfurt Airport
Traffic situation on the apron of Munich Airport

The main task of apron control is to ensure, within the framework of its regulations, a safe, delay-free and orderly taxiing of the aircraft on the aprons of an airport , as well as to prevent safety-endangering approaches and collisions between these or with obstacles. It issues taxiing instructions and pushback releases to the pilots of an aircraft in order to guide it after landing over the apron to the assigned parking position , or from the parking position over the apron in the direction of the assigned runway . The delimitation of the area of ​​responsibility of the apron control with the corresponding transfer points at which the aircraft is taken over by taxiing or area control or handed over to them can be seen from the corresponding maps of the currently valid AIP .

In addition, the apron control coordinates various other road users ( marshallers , follow-me vehicles , aircraft tugs, etc.) on the apron areas.

The apron control is usually located in the tower or at another exposed location on the airfield in order to ensure the most unrestricted field of vision possible. The traffic is directed by aeronautical radio and mobile radio . The call sign of an apron control point is "Vorfeld" ( apron ).

There are currently independent apron controls at the international airports of Dresden , Erfurt , Frankfurt , Hamburg and Munich in the Federal Republic of Germany . These departments are operated by the respective airport operators. In addition, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus also operates its own apron control at its special airfield in Hamburg-Finkenwerder .

With the opening of the new capital city airport in Berlin (BER) , apron control will also start operations there, which is to be taken over by the German Air Traffic Control (DFS) . In Munich, during the largely motion-free core time of the night flight restriction from 11:30 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., DFS is responsible for apron control.

Outside Germany there are z. B. also in Switzerland at Zurich Airport an own apron control.

Legal basis

According to § 45 LuftVZO , the airport operator is responsible for a. the obligation to operate the airport properly, which means that it must also provide air traffic control on its premises. This task is in Germany i. d. Usually transferred to an air traffic control provider ( Deutsche Flugsicherung , DFS Aviation Services , Austro Control , or similar), who then also exercises taxi control on the aprons. At airports with a very high volume of traffic, however, the airport operator increasingly retains responsibility for the aprons and runs its own apron control.

Since, in contrast to the maneuvering area, there are lower safety distances on the apron and there is also uncontrolled vehicle traffic, the apron control does not issue clearances, but instructions. However, these instructions are binding for pilots and are regulated in the relevant NfL.

Other relevant regulations include: a .: LuftVG , Luftfahrthandbuch Deutschland ( AIP ), ICAO-Annexe , Flughafenbenutzungsordnung (FBO), Nachrichten für Luftfahrer ( NfL ).

See also

literature

  • O. Hengstenberg, BB. Borys, TC Gudehus: Cooperative airport operation . System technology and human-machine systems, University of Kassel 2003.
  • WeFis / KBB: New home for the apron controllers . In: The flight director . No. 6 , 2005, p. 12–15 ( dfld.de [PDF; 1,2 MB ]).
  • Benedikt: Royal Bavarian apron control . In: The flight director . No. 3 , 2007, p. 31–33 ( gdf.de [PDF; 2.0 MB ]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Flughafen Dresden GmbH: The airport reporter . Published on July 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ Flughafen Erfurt GmbH: Employee for the traffic control center / apron control (PDF; 33 kB). Call for applications from July 17, 2013
  3. ↑ Fraport AG: Frankfurt Airport puts two new control towers into operation . Press release from April 23, 2010
  4. ↑ Flughafen Hamburg GmbH: Employees in focus - Axel Husfeldt knows all the ways . Communication dated May 28, 2010.
  5. ↑ Munich Airport GmbH: http://www.munich-airport.de/
  6. ↑ M. Meisner: BER security personnel waiting. In: Der Tagesspiegel . February 6, 2013.
  7. ↑ M. Graf, R. Schmid: “Contact Apron, One Two One decimal Seven Five”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 1.31 MB). @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.flughafen-zuerich.ch  In: Homebase. No. 10, 2005, pp. 4-6.