Effective airfield ground lighting (AGL) systems are vital if an airport is to operate efficiently. With so many gateways now supporting 24/7 flight operations, it is obviously especially important. Four airport operators – from Europe, North America and Asia – talk about their AGL systems, the maintenance challenge and their plans for updating their lighting systems
Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport has two runways, each 3,600m long but with widths of 60 and 45m. The gateway has about 10,000 lights around the airfield that is dominated by those two strips, which are controlled by Siemens’ Airfield Ground Lighting Automation System (AGLAS). The AGLAS system, which can offer individual lamp monitoring and control, was introduced at Leipzig/Halle in 1999-2000 with the construction of the airport’s northern runway, and subsequently expanded in 2007 with the construction of its southern runway. The AGLAS system on the southern runway offers individual lamp control, and the lights (manufactured by ADB, Honeywell, Lucebit and Erni) are of the halogen variety.
But Thomas Schneiderheinze, Flughafen Leipzig/Halle’s technical director, explains that the airport is something of a special case when it comes to airfield lighting because of the particular arrangements of its apron. Most of its lights are to be found not concentrated around the middle of the airfield area, he notes, but at one end, where they are sited between 36 and 48m off the ground.
With regard, therefore, to using LED lights – which, Schneiderheinze freely confesses, is very much the future – Leipzig/Halle has found it difficult to make the transition to the new technology. “We would love to use them on the apron, but right now there is no business case for it,” he says; the halogen lights are just so much more effective in the particular circumstances that apply on the airfield at Leipzig/Halle.
That is not to say that the airport operator hasn’t switched over to LEDs where it can; it is just that – up to now – those locations have tended to be landside, in offices and terminal areas, for example. “We change wherever possible to LEDs in order to save energy,” Schneiderheinze informs, and – where the airport has done so – the change has always been welcomed by those working under the new lights.
Airfield roads can also be lit by LED lights. Here, the airport operator is using the experience of local and city authorities that have made the change to LEDs to its own benefit.
Moving towards LEDs on the apron over time is a priority, however. “The use of LED lights is a very important issue for the [relevant] specialists of the German-speaking airports, which work very closely together [on this issue],” Schneiderheinze points out. “The specialists of these airports meet every year for an exchange of experience.”
It’s clear that Schneiderheinze would move across to LED lighting right across the apron if he could, but the nature of the airfield environment in the particular case of Leipzig/Halle is making that difficult. As well as the specifics of the airport ramp there, he points to a number of other challenges that have, up till now, prevented Leipzig/Halle from taking the plunge and moving across to a full LED apron environment: “The use of LEDs in the field of airfield lighting technology is relatively new and still has ‘children’s diseases’. So there are still problems with their use in the winter.
“Plus, in this market, there are many companies that are new to this market segment, and we want to use products which are technically mature and have established themselves in the market.”
Expanding on this latter point, he notes that airports are, in general, not always able to gamble on rapid change. Gateways have to function over long hours (often around the clock) without interruption and at a high rate of operational intensity; they can’t afford to risk impacting flight schedules as a result of untried technology or systems. And airfield lighting systems are complex; hence, Schneiderheinze remarks: “LED lights are the future. That goes without saying. But we will need to do it step by step.”
Need for a rethink?
The environment is slightly different at the Northern European gateway of Copenhagen Airport. Denmark’s biggest and busiest air gateway has a total of about 7,000 lights on the airfield. On the runways, it uses LED-flush lights, except on Runway 12-30 that benefits from elevated halogen lights. On Runway 22R, it has LED approach lights.
Most of the airport’s taxiways are lit by halogen equipment, but there are also approximately 500 to 600 LED lights in place to provide illumination as and when necessary. Taxiways are also equipped with LED elevated lights. According to Claus Hincke, director of technical service & operations at operator Copenhagen Airports, the gateway primarily uses lights supplied by HELLA Induperm (HELLA of Germany acquired Denmark-based AGL specialist Induperm in 2011; in 2016, TKH Airport Solutions of Germany acquired HELLA Induperm).
Lights are replaced after a light measurement inspection. It’s not possible for the naked eye to see if the lights are completely fulfilling the airport operator’s stringent requirements, Hincke explains. Furthermore, as with so many other gateways around the world, “Our plan with AGL is to replace our halogen lights with LED over the coming years,” he informs.
Hincke has his own thoughts on how the industry should move forward with regard to AGL. “I can’t speak for the authorities,” he remarks, “but I think they have to rethink existing rules and recommendations, to take full advantage of new technology like LED.
“As an airport, we also have to rethink how we in the future are going to maintain our AGL. LED is quite a new technology in airfield lightning and we have to learn where LED has its ‘weak spots’.”
Happy so far
Across the North Atlantic and the huge distances of the North American continent can be found Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in the north-western US state of Seattle. Sea-Tac, as it is also known, has approximately 8,000-9,000 total lights in total along all its runways and taxiways, and 202 signs associated with the airfield.
Approximately 187 centreline, 180 TDZ (runway touch down zone), 110 edge and threshold lights, as well as 25 signs are of the LED variety, informs Sea-Tac’s senior manager aviation maintenance, electrical and electronic systems, Gary Richer. The remainder are of the halogen type. As for the manufacturers: Liberty Systems for the ALCMS (Airfield Lighting Control & Monitoring System), ADB for regulators and most of the fixtures, OCEM Airfield Technology for LED edge lights, Crouse-Hinds for halogen signs and ADB and Lumicurve for LED signs, Richer says.
Looking ahead: “Our runway designations will be changed in the next several years, so we are planning to change the rest of the signs to LED at that time,” he predicts. Nevertheless, Richer confirms: “We are happy with the LED signs thus far. The jury is still out on the infield LED fixtures. The cost for replacement is high compared to halogen lamps and we experienced close to a 10% failure rate over the first 12 months, although the failures have slowed drastically since then.”
New technology
Meanwhile, in Asia, Singapore’s Changi Airport serves more than 100 airlines flying to some 380 cities in about 90 countries and territories worldwide – it is one of the continent’s, and the world’s, busiest air gateways. Served by two parallel runways that are each 4,000m long and 60m wide, it has a total of 43km of taxiway, all of which must be lit as necessary by a large and complex AGL system. In fact, both runways have close to 900 halogen lights to provide illumination when required, while the airport’s taxiways have about 12,000 lights in all.
About 60% of the lights along the taxiways currently consist of halogen lights, while the rest are LEDs. However: “We are in the process of replacing the halogen lights with LED ones,” says Teng Hwee Onn, senior vice president, engineering management & systems planning at operator Changi Airport Group (CAG).
As to the future: “With passenger growth and aircraft movements increasing over the years, we are exploring new technology and systems to improve the way we carry out inspections for better efficiency,” Teng notes.
“Changi Airport will be operating with a three-runway system in the next decade, and the third and latest runway will be fully equipped with LED airfield lights. For the existing runways and taxiways, the current halogen lights will gradually be changed to LED ones,” he forecasts.
Teng and his colleagues are keeping a keen eye out for any new technologies that will help them meet the scale of the challenge of lighting Changi’s airside environment. “A particular new technology that has come to our attention is Power HF technology, whereby standalone bulky Constant Current Regulators (CCRs) are converted to rack mountable types, saving equipment space and ensuring better power-efficiency,” he observes.
“Another exciting upcoming technology that Changi Airport is looking at is airfield lighting using Contactless Energy and Data Distribution, also known as CEDD technology. By using CEDD technology, we can further expand the capabilities of our airfield lighting to include camera sensors and heat detection sensors, allowing real-time status updates of all the lights in the airfield. The installation method is also simpler. The savings on time and manpower translate into higher efficiency in the maintenance of the lighting systems at Changi Airport,” Teng concludes.
