VASCO: Airports Authority of India (AAI) would commission three new passenger boarding bridges (aerobridges) at Goa airport, on Monday.
With the commissioning of these three new aerobridges, all eight parking bays will now be available at Goa International Airport. The new and old facilities will now enable the passengers to have direct access to the aircraft while departure and to terminal building from aircraft during arrival. As of now airlines are using coaches for transporting passengers to and from terminal building when aircraft is parked on any of these three bays.
As per AAI, most of the international tourist chartered flights operating at Dabolim International Airport are using bigger Aeroplanes which can only be accommodated in Bay No 6 and 8. Till now aerobridge facility was not available for these parking bays and the charter passengers were brought to the terminal building in coaches. With the commissioning of these new bridges, the facility will be extended to the tourists arriving in bigger size chartered flights like Boeing 747, Airbus 330, Boeing 787 (Dreamliner).
These new passenger boarding bridges are part of the comprehensive contract awarded by AAI Corporate Headquarters, New Delhi, for various airports in India for purchase of 17 aerobridges. The contract was awarded to M/s Adelte Airport Technologies, an Engineering company based in Barcelona, Spain. Some components of these aerobridges like Telescopic Tunnel, Rotunda Column and Service staircase are manufactured in India by Bharat Earth Mover Limited, Bangalore, under Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. This has resulted in huge saving in cost of sea freight, custom duty and production.
In addition to facilitating smooth passenger flow, the installation of new aerobridges would improve safety in the apron area as airlines will not be required to use coaches for transporting passengers to/from aircraft which will reduce the number of vehicles operating in the operational area resulting in improved airside safety.
