Jet bridge

A passenger boarding bridge, also called passenger bridge (English passenger boarding bridge, PBB, also gangway, colloquially finger), connects the passenger terminal building of the airport with the car doors of a parked commercial aircraft to allow passengers and staff can enter with no steps and weather influences on direct and quickest route. Alternatives are to transfer to a airport bus or walk to the plane, respectively, the use of gangways.

Types and use

In the simple case, only a passenger boarding bridge, the docks at the front entrance of the aircraft exists. There are also passenger terminal on which run two passenger boarding bridges to both the front and / or middle and the rear entrance. The number of leading to the aircraft passenger boarding bridges depends on the number of seats. The aircraft is intended to keep the downtime as low as possible, as quickly as possible to load and unload. For the Airbus A380 there are some airports also have the ability to dock with a third finger on the upper deck.

The bridge is one of the airport staff, the bridge operator called, operated, they dock with a joystick and often electronic programming guide on the door of the aircraft. Most bridges are mounted movably in three dimensions on a rotatable and height-adjustable suspension. You can thus be adjusted in height, the sides and in the length to be the different type of airplanes.

However, there are also passenger boarding bridges, which are only height and length adjustable. For each aircraft type has its own mark on the ramp, on the need to keep the nose wheel. Once the aircraft is, the fixed passenger bridge only needs to be moved up to the fuselage and cling to the aircraft skin. With this type of passenger boarding bridges the more expensive, three-dimensionally movable passenger bridge structures were saved earlier. Passenger bridges of this type include the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and at Kuching airport in operation. Today, however, the three-dimensionally movable jetways are cheaper than the construction just described.

The jetway has a padded bottom front bead, with which it clings to the aircraft skin, as well. Than roof a movable bellows, which is, after docking, closed top and thus provides a weatherproof access Since the aircraft during loading and unloading the weight shift of cargo or passengers moved up or down, passenger boarding bridges are equipped with a level sensor and automatically adapt to the changing height.

Parking positions with passenger boarding bridges are located adjacent to the building, so the airplane with the bug is parked to the building in the so-called Bay ( engl. nose -in). It then needs to be pushed back for departure with an aircraft tractor (English pushback ). There are also airport buildings where the planes are parallel to the terminal. The passenger boarding bridges have to be longer. Some gates are also designed so that airplanes parked diagonally forward at the terminal building. After retraction of the jetway, the aircraft then performs a narrow forward curve to move away from the terminal building. This eliminates the need for an aircraft tug and time is saved. Disadvantage of these two forms of parking positions is much higher space requirements. Airports that use this form of passenger boarding bridges, are the Paris-Charles -de- Gaulle (Terminal 1) and the Cologne-Bonn airport (Terminal 1).

Interior view of a passenger boarding bridge at the Bremen airport

Rarely allow passenger boarding bridges also a parallel parking position from which the aircraft can remove their own.

A320 -200 Air Berlin with docked passenger bridge at the Dusseldorf airport

Additional equipment

Passenger boarding bridges form the plane nearest point of the airport facilities. Therefore, they are also used to house technical support systems:

• At some airports the aircraft cabin is air conditioned on the jetway. Thus, to remain during parking at the gate shut the APU Airman's what the noise and pollution lowers.
• Air lines are used to defrost the aircraft ( engines and landing gear ) in the winter or air-conditioning in the summer.
• Before the proliferation of mobile phones sometimes phone lines were provided.
• A staircase allows ground personnel rapid access to the machine ( to let pilots confirm the assumed fuel) eg tanker drivers or baggage handlers ( to pick up stroller or walking frames of passengers ).
• Some jetways have an inclined elevator that is mounted parallel to the stairs in order to create, for example, magazines faster from the apron to the aircraft can.
• About garbage chutes garbage bags are drained and can be picked up by garbage truck on the airfield.
• Many airlines provide newspapers / magazines. For practical reasons ( supply together with the newsagents at the airport ) they are usually stored in the head of the passenger boarding bridges and there distributed to the passengers.

Method

The procedure for the use of passenger bridges is governed by national regulations and internationally standardized methods. A typical sequence is:

• After the signal from the marshaller to the pilot to switch off the engines are the referrers of hands the jetway free.
• Only now, the driver may leave the secure area of ​​the passenger walkway and dock.
• By tapping against the porthole of the driver signaled to the crew that the bridge is safe docked and the door may be opened. This is to prevent people be forced out of thronging passengers by premature opening of the door and fall into the gap between the aircraft and passenger bridge.
• The driver signaled to the security personnel at the gate, to open the doors for arriving passengers (in person, by telephone or by a buzzer ).
• The passenger boarding bridge is now used only for exiting the machine.
• After disembarking of passengers, the bridge can be used in both directions (eg, to change the crew ).
• After the crew announces readiness for boarding, the doors are opened the gate for departing passengers.
• After boarding, the crew confirmed the readiness to start.
• The driver drives the jetway back into the secured area and saves it (eg by a chain ) against falling down by people. Only after its release, the marshaller must allow movement of the machine.

Trivia

• In the field of low cost airlines and charter services are mostly used for time and cost reasons gangways.
• The first passenger boarding bridge was taken on July 29, 1959 in San Francisco in operation.