As a part of preparation for the autumn-and-winter period Strigino Airport (belongs to Airports of Regions Group) carried out a complex of preventive measures aimed at ensuring the safety and regularity of flights in snowfalls and freezing temperatures, prepared the airfield maintenance equipment and accumulated a stock of chemicals and de-icing fluid.
During the preparation for the autumn-and-winter period the Airport conducted routine repairs of the apron and the runway for ice protection, bought sufficient amount of liquid and granular deicing chemicals certified for use at civil aerodromes, as well as the sand-and-salt mixture for treating local driveways and roads. Drainage facilities were checked to prevent flooding during the rain and melting of snow. Furthermore, skiddometers measuring braking coefficient passed additional tests.
All airport custom vehicles (including aircraft deicing machines) are prepared for operation in the autumn-and-winter period, all transport units underwent scheduled and seasonal maintenance and repairs. Strigino’s vehicle fleet includes graders, compact municipal cleaning machines, tractors, rotors and runway sweepers allowing to quickly clear the runway from snow. In addition, by the beginning of the autumn-and-winter period the airport acquired an aircraft heater trolley, which provides hot air at a temperature up to 90 degrees Celsius to the aircraft passenger cabin and allows to heat the cabin to a comfortable temperature within 10 minutes and warm up the aircraft engines before start up.
The Airport performed scheduled maintenance of water and heat supply networks of its facilities taking into account switching to winter operations and checked secondary and emergency power supply.
Personnel passed training for handling alternate aircraft landing, massive flight delays and congestions in the passenger terminal building, the Airport worked out the schemes of interaction with the related organizations in non-routine occurrences.
For reference: the autumn-and-winter period will last from October 26, 2014 to March 29, 2015.