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12 Paris Airports Authority

PIERRE CÔT
Formerly Director General, Paris Airports

Air transport will expand considerably during the next 20 years--aircraft capacity and numbers of flights will increase, faster turn rounds will be needed, freight transport will increase and, possibly VTOL and STOL aircraft will be introduced.

All airport facilities must be developed to meet this expansion. In the aircraft manoeuvring area provision must be made for the largest aircraft anticipated. In the terminal area facilities must be developed for both passengers and freight.

Aircraft manoeuvres and parking, refuelling and ramp operations, connections between aircraft and terminal for passengers and baggage, and the automatic computation of load sheets are all factors to be considered. Passenger handling procedures must be speeded up and passenger services, such as provision of car parking spaces, waiting rooms, thoroughfares etc., must be improved, and baggage handling techniques rationalized. For freight there are special considerations. Technically, pallets and containers must be used and the freight terminals must be considered as premises for stocking and preparing them. Customs regulations should be considered and the provision of cold stores and easy intercommunication between warehouses, freight terminals and aircraft must be examined.

Operationally, special consideration must be given to the handling of parcels and computers and automatic stocking and selection devices must be increasingly used. In the transfer area, the use of standardized containers will ease the problems of transfer of freight between different transport media. The development of industrial zones at airports, similar to those at seaports, would offer the advantages of rapid transfer from factory to aircraft.

Aircraft hangers and workshops could well be built to fit a given aircraft type and to have the same life span. Facilities must also be provided for private aircraft.