Bahrain International Airport

One of the Middle East's leading airport hubs enhances its communications with SITA's Professional Mobile Radio

October 2010

Bahrain International Airport is one of the leading airports in the Middle East. Strategically located between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the airport serves more than 40 international airlines flying to over 60 destinations worldwide.

Bahrain International Airport is also the fastest-growing cargo hub in the region providing both a Middle East Regional Distribution Centre for major international carriers and a 'super hub' for DHL's worldwide network. As a designated super hub, it helps support operations to reconstruct Afghanistan and Iraq and serves as a major regional centre for both airline and truck cargo.

From 2007 to 2009, Bahrain International Airport enjoyed 22% passenger growth - serving a total of 9 million passengers. During this same time period, aircraft movements at the airport increased by 40% to 103%.

To keep pace with this significant growth, the airport is planning to extend one of its terminal buildings, which will include additional air bridges, completely renovated baggage facilities and more parking, check-in desks, and shopping facilities. Several additional expansion projects are envisioned from now until 2030.

The airport is operated by the Bahrain Airport Company.

The business challenge

Hundreds of users, from the airlines using the airport to ground operations staff, rely on Bahrain International Airport's radio network to exchange critical information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For many years, the aviation authorities employed an analogue radio system. However, by early 2008, the system could no longer handle the airport's increasing communications demands, particularly as the airport continued to expand.

Bahrain International Airport urgently needed a robust, state-of-the-art digital radio system that would:

Cost-effectively bring all users, including ground operations staff, airlines and other stakeholders, onto a single radio platform
Reduce the number of radio terminals required at the airport, while ensuring the most efficient use of the available radio spectrum
Provide secure, encrypted radio communications
Offer a scalable solution with the ability to deploy process-oriented voice and data services such as flight oriented dialling (FOD) and other airport security applications to meet future needs
Enable a smooth migration path from the old system

After considering several options, Bahrain Airport Company chose SITA's Professional Mobile Radio solution as part of a five-year US$ 3.2 million agreement.

SITA's solution

SITA's Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) solution provides voice and data communications for all Bahrain International Airport users through a single dedicated wireless network, which is designed to meet the airport's mission-critical communications needs.

In 2008, SITA rolled out its PMR solution to an initial 640 users working for all airlines and ground handlers on the Bahrain International Airport campus. This involved migrating users from the previous analogue system to the new digital PMR system - a fully managed turnkey solution, which functions as a shared radio network for the many different user groups at the airport. SITA managed every step of the process, from technical design to system installation, testing, training, logistical and operational support and final delivery.

SITA's PMR technology is based on the terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) standard, an open digital standard, which the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has defined for digital professional mobile radio. The solution is vendor agnostic, enabling third-party development, manufacturing and implementation of fully interoperable network and radio terminal products. This makes it a very flexible option for Bahrain International Airport.

In addition, as Bahrain International Airport continues to expand, the solution can easily scale up to serve the increasing number of users expected by the ambitious growth objectives of the Bahrain Airport Company.

"In line with our commitment to introducing cutting edge solutions for all those who operate within Bahrain International Airport, SITA provided us with a Mobile Radio Service that meets our needs exactly. The integrity of the radio coverage is constantly checked by a radio-link test system and the 'signal coding' within the system protects the privacy of our communication. With this new digital system, all Bahrain International Airport operators stand to benefit from clear, reliable and secure communication."
- Gordon Dewar, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company

A second phase of the programme will include new value added applications such as Flight-Oriented Dialling and Security Guard Control.

Flight-Oriented Dialling enables immediate communications among all personnel involved in the turnaround of an aircraft at the gate. Communication groups are automatically created based on notifications from the airport operational database, without the need for any external action. Each of these communication groups include the many roles necessary to perform the turnaround operations, such as fuelling, catering and cleaning. People are identified by the system via a log-on procedure, and correctly associated to the different roles.

All members of the group can speak after a brief push of the push-to-talk button, and the whole group will listen to the message on the loudspeakers of the hand portables, without the need for any manual operation.

Security guard control uses a combination of RFID technology and PMR. The solution allows the monitoring of security guards during their patrol routes, visualizing their position on a screen. This ensures that guards are following their routes and alerts supervisors to any problems or deviations.

Business results

Bahrain International Airport 's new digital PMR system can easily handle the airport's high traffic load, supporting its mission-critical business. It also offers several other benefits in the areas of security, quality and additional features -- while at the same time reducing the total cost of ownership.

Higher reliability and better quality

The key reason to turn to SITA Professional Mobile Radio was the need for a tailored solution with high reliability features. The solution, used only by an airport's tenants and agencies, is designed without any single point of failure and it can easily handle traffic peaks of 50% above average traffic. This clearly sets it above GSM-based solutions, which are invariably affected by the behaviour of GSM users in the area and therefore cannot provide the needed service level all days of the year.

In addition, this system has improved both the voice quality and clarity of radio transmissions, and the completely digital transmission technology offers excellent, highly reliable coverage in both internal and external areas throughout the entire airport -- including runways, aprons, passenger areas, cargo areas, hangars, and maintenance areas. The quality and availability of communication is far superior to any WiFi solutions, which are usually based on non-standard implementations and do not prioritise voice over data.

Enhanced security

With SITA PMR's advanced TETRA technology, potential eavesdroppers can no longer 'tune in' to airport transmissions with standard radio scanners. In addition, lost or stolen equipment can now be barred from the system, further enhancing security.

Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

The TCO with SITA PMR is comparatively less than previously available alternatives. For example, analyses of various public safety network projects estimate an operating cost per user above US$ 200 per month. However, the TCO of SITA's PMR can be less than half of comparable solutions on the market".

Wide range of features

Users can now choose from a wide range of call types, including push-to-talk calls, wide area group calls, multiple group calls, and private telephone calls, depending on their needs. Emergency and priority calls are easy to make, and each user has a unique telephone number - an important advantage over analogue radio systems - creating a robust, flexible and user-friendly mobile communications solution.

"SITA Professional Mobile Radio is the best private mobile voice solution for airports currently on the market. It includes Java-enabled handsets, which support air transport-specific applications like flight dialling, RFID-based security systems, control and supervision of airfield lighting and many other features which SITA's exclusive focus on air transport makes us uniquely qualified to support."
- Hani El Assaad, SITA Regional Vice President, Middle East & North Africa

Bahrain International Airport

One of the Middle East's leading airport hubs enhances its communications with SITA's Professional Mobile Radio