This upgrade is designed to rapidly cool wide-bodied aircraft up to the largest aircraft, the A380, even in the hot and humid conditions common to Dubai. This should enhance passenger comfort and operational efficiency, and reduce environmental impact.
Cavotec's long-standing presence in Dubai means that its engineers have a detailed knowledge and extensive experience of engineering parameters dictated by local, and highly variable, ambient conditions, including sandstorms, early morning humidity and the dry, hot air that features towards the middle of the day.
A key challenge of this project was to deliver a PCA system in the absence of an E3 Gate solution. E3 Gate enables users to integrate the provision of a full range of utility services via in-ground pits close to the parking line. Because of customer technical requirements, the state-of-the-art E3 Gate system was not used for this project, (although it has been installed elsewhere in Dubai International). Instead, for this project, Cavotec developed a unique turnkey solution ideally suited to maximise performance in Dubai: the so-called PDX120i. The system was subsequently engineered to distribute air to the aircraft connection points.
The gates are expected to be commissioned by the end of the year.
