BRNO AIRPORT INVESTED 13 MILLION CZECH CROWNS IN MODERNIZATION OF OPERATIONAL SAFETY. NEW "DEFROST" WILL HELP AIRCRAFT COMBAT WITH SNOW AND ICE

Press release
Brno, September 19, 2019

Up to a height of sixteen meters, the airport technician can pick up a new vehicle for de-icing and anti-icing treatment of aircraft, which in recent days has strengthened the team of aircraft ground check-in staff at Brno-Tuřany Airport. Thanks to a new investment of 13 million crowns, the airport has one of the most modern equipments of its kind, which is able to quickly and efficiently mix and then apply the optimal de-icing mixture to the surface of the aircraft according to current weather conditions. The purchase of the vehicle is a part of the plan for investments in the operational safety of the airport and the new addition to the airport technology should serve in Tuřany for at least another twenty years.

"From the point of view of operational safety, the process of removing icing, such as snow and ice, from the surface of an aircraft is one of the most important activities that airport employees perform as part of ground handling. The icing is dangerous because it can change the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft and cause loss of lift during take-off, which can also lead to a threat to safe take-off," said Aleš Charvát, Head of the Airport Operations Department at BRNO AIRPORT.

The de-icing itself can then have up to two phases, in which liquids that have been specially developed for this use are applied to the aircraft using nozzles.

"The first phase concerns the de-icing itself, where a 'type I liquid' mixed with hot water is applied to the aircraft so that the temperature of the mixture is at least sixty degrees Celsius. The second phase is performed (anti-icing treatment) using a 'type II fluid', the purpose of which is to protect the aircraft from further icing. When the aircraft is in the air, icing usually does not occur, or the system of the aircraft can handle it itself," explained Aleš Charvát.

The manufacturer and supplier of the vehicle is the Danish company Vestergaard, with which the airport has a good experience because it already supplied BRNO AIRPORT with a de-icing vehicle for smaller types of aircraft in 2011.

"We have a very good experience with the company and one of its main advantages is that it can really assemble a vehicle according to the customer's wishes, airport conditions and the types of aircraft that appear at the airport. The technical parameters we have chosen guarantee that the vehicle is able to prepare practically any aircraft that will appear in Brno for the safe take-off and will last in operation for another twenty years," added Charvát.

Media contact:
Jakub Splavec
Media representative of LETIŠTĚ BRNO and Accolade group
+420 724 012 623
jakub.splavec@amic.cz