march2023 - 8

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Menzies Pilots New EV and
Charging Infrastructure at LAX
Menzies Aviation is piloting Mullen
Automotive electric vans and Loop
Global charging infrastructure across
its operations at Los Angeles International
Airport (LAX) as it looks for
innovative solutions to support its
ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral
by 2033.
Menzies has a global GSE fleet of
27,000 that includes more than 8,000
vehicles, at 250-plus airports worldwide
and is committed to switching to
electric wherever possible to reduce
emissions in line with its sustainability
strategy.
Mullen and Menzies have agreed to a
60-day pilot program that will evaluate
the Class 1 Electric Vehicle (EV) cargo
vans in several use cases across Menzies'
LAX operations, such as transporting
cabin cleaning teams to aircraft.
Loop will provide EV charging
infrastructure and fleet operations
software to service the Mullen electric
vans through its electric vehicle fleet
as-a-service (EVFaaS) program.
" Collaborating with suppliers, airports
and our airline customers is
absolutely vital for Menzies to achieve
its sustainability goals. We have
committed to switching to electric vehicles
wherever possible to reduce our
carbon emissions, however charging
infrastructure can be a barrier so it's
great to be working with both Mullen
and Loop to pilot a solution at LAX.
Early feedback is positive and I'm looking
forward to seeing the results from
this collaboration, " said John Redmond,
executive vice president Americas, Menzies
Aviation.
" We hope this pilot at LAX is just a
stepping stone in ushering in a new
era of fleet electrification at airports
throughout the world, " added Dustin
Cavanaugh, CEO of Loop Global, Inc.
March 27-30
NPMA PETRO 23
Washington, D.C.
April 18-20
MRO Americas
Atlanta, GA
April 21-26
International Aviation
Snow Symposium
Buffalo, NY
April 25-26
NATA FBO Success
& Management Seminar
New Orleans, LA
May 16-18
IATA Ground Handling Conference
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
contact-free deicing.
Deicing tusks have been a good solution
for many years, but as technology
advances, aircraft materials are also
changing, and new generation aircraft
are constructed with carbon composite
materials.
Accidental mechanical contact with
Venice Airport Retrofits
Vestergaard BETA Deicers
with Radar Sensors in Italy
Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) recently
upgraded its Elephant BETAs with
new radar system technology created
by the Vestergaard Company to enable
8 || Ground Support Worldwide || March 2023
these new fuselage structures requires
inspection of this area and may result in
flight delays.
With the radar system, an aircraft
touch is avoided completely. Tusks are
replaced by a radar system near the
deicer spray nozzle, which initially slows
down the movements of the deicer when
approaching an obstacle, then stops
it completely when a minimum distance
is reached.
Retrofitting of the first vehicles was
possible for the newer generation of
the BETAs and carried out in January. A
Vestergaard mobile service team did the
installation at Marco Polo Airport, and
the units were the first modified in that
way in Italy.
At present, numerous aircraft have
been deiced with the radar-equipped
BETAs. Andrea Florian, safety supervisor
at Marco Polo Airport, in a Vestergaard
march2023

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