Vanderlande Industries Gain Operations & Maintenance Contract for Barcelona El Prat Airport

Vanderlande Industries Spain acquired the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contract for Barcelona El Prat Airport terminal 1 in June, 2012.

Airport Operations and Maintenance

Vanderlande will oversee all O&M operations for the airport's baggage management system over a period of one year - with the possibility of extending the contract to three years.

Vanderlande Industries have been responsible for O&M activities relating to the baggage handling system since they installed the system in 2009. A new tender process for the operations and maintenance contract started in 2012. Vanderlande's prior involvement did not lead to the new contract being assigned to them automatically. The airport operations and maintenance contract included some challenging requirements and only 2 organisations reached the final stage, one of which was Vanderlande themselves. After tenders were evaluated for cost and technical content, Vanderlande were awarded the contract.

Vanderlande Industries Spain's operations and maintenance director for Barcelona, Freek Wullems, commented: "In the last few years the site-based service team proved that they fully understand the logistics process and offer added value in advising the airport how to make efficient use of the baggage handling system. In the new contract we will take this one step further with an important focus on cost reduction for the airport in general and on energy saving in particular. The environment in Spain is changing due to the economic crisis and we need to help our client in facing these new challenges. We will do this while maintaining our best in class performance of the baggage handling system."

Baggage Handling System

Barcelona Airport's Terminal 1 baggage handling system features 14 check-in desks in the parking area and 140 in the departures area. The system uses tubtrax Destination Coded Vehicles (DCVs) for baggage transport. This completely redundant system can carry baggage tubs at as much as 6 m per second and incorporates CT and X-ray systems for hold baggage screening at all levels of security.

The baggage handling system features an automatic EBS (Early Baggage Storage) system featuring fourteen cranes for retrieval of about 1500 items of stored baggage and 22 make-up units. Vanderlande's baggage handling system can handle more than 800 bags an hour.