WEBVTT

00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:11.000
My name is Marcel Eßer. I've been working here at the airport for 10 years now, and for almost 2 years I've been Operations Manager for Flight Operations and Winter Service Coordinator.

00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:19.000
What makes Cologne Airport special is the significant elevation difference along our main runway. So even though the runway looks fairly flat, the

00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:27.000
difference between the two runway thresholds can be up to 20 m. This means that for winter service, it can be raining on one side of the runway while it's snowing on the other.

00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:32.000
During the summer months, we're currently training our winter service staff.

00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:40.000
Our staff need to be trained regularly. We have around 9 different types of vehicles that people

00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:48.000
need to be instructed on. To meet the particular challenges of winter service, here at Cologne Bonn Airport we have, among other things, in our main runway

00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:58.000
what we call our runway condition monitoring system, which transmits various data such as the type of contamination, whether rain or snow, as well as the depth of surface coverage.

00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.000
Weather data for winter service is extremely important to us, because it allows us to work proactively

00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.000
and apply preventive de-icing treatments in advance, so that in situations where the temperature drops, we've genuinely already treated the

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:19.000
runway. And because Weather Solutions' data is fed to us in parallel through the runway condition monitoring system,

00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:27.000
it's very helpful for us in coordinating clearing and spraying operations.

00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:35.000
Without Weather Solutions' precise forecasts, we would definitely run into problems in operational flight activity. For example, if we didn't receive the snow forecast, we'd

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:42.000
end up with the problem of possibly clearing the snow too late, meaning that in the worst case, aircraft would have to be diverted,

00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:51.000
or unable to take off, which would mean a significant loss for us. Last year we had a case where there was a borderline weather situation, and it was very uncertain how

00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:59.000
the weather would develop over the next one to two hours. In that situation, it was very helpful for us to reach out directly to meteorologists and to stay in

00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:06.000
direct contact throughout the operation, to find out how the weather situation would develop over the next 10 to 15 minutes. That helped us enormously during the operation.

00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:15.000
What I particularly like is the real-time data we get from Weather Solutions through the app, which afterwards helps us with the

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:22.000
analysis of operations, since we can use the archive to look back at difficult days, and then decide for ourselves

00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.000
what we could have done differently, where there's potential for us to learn.

00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:26.000
We're very satisfied with our collaboration with Weather Solutions and the MeteoFocus weather portal,

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:38.000
and we can highly recommend and endorse the data, especially for flight operations and winter service as well.