Relating to the last of these, Rohde & Schwarz account manager Gary Walker provides his thoughts on some of the potential counter-measures that can be used to meet the threat posed by these machines.

ADB SAFEGATE discusses the value of its new-gen Safedock X visual docking guidance system and, as ever, airport authorities offer their thoughts on issues that are capturing their attention. Airside talks to the operators of the US gateways of Chicago O’Hare, Kansas City and Bangor in Maine as well as to Brussels in Belgium and Glasgow in Scotland; we also meet Jesús Caballero, director of Seville Airport, hearing about news from southern Spain and his ambitious plans for the future.

We see the new electric apron bus from China’s Yutong that has arrived in Europe for the first time, and meet Air-Rail, the GSE supplier that is distributing the vehicle – and plenty of other GSE as well – to a hungry market.

TCR, which operates in a similar market space to Air-Rail, offers its thoughts on the importance of ground service providers getting their preparation for the summer rush right, and the latest word from those GSPs is also not forgotten: Stewart Angus of dnata takes a look back at the impressive growth that the Dubai-headquartered handler has achieved in recent years.

This issue also examines the innovative partnership that Rushlift has struck up with Virgin Atlantic Engineering in the UK, and talks with US-based Mike Begier about the fascinating work of the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Service programme that sees biologists work closely with airport authorities to mitigate the adverse impact that wildlife can have on aircraft safety and ongoing airport operations.

And we look ahead to an entirely new sister conference and accompanying exhibition to Airside magazine that will launch in June this year; the inaugural GSE & RAMP-OPS AFRICA event will take place in Casablanca, Morocco, and promises to be an exciting new addition to the Airside stable of products and conferences.

We hope you enjoy the issue.