German technology giant Siemens is showcasing its new solutions to greatly reduce the manual efforts associated with baggage and cargo handling at the Airport Show that opened yesterday (May 11) in Dubai.

The 14th edition of the event will conclude tomorrow at Dubai International Conference and Exhibition Centre.

Michael Schneider, CEO, Siemens (Infrastructure & Cities Sector, Mobility & Logistics Division, Logistics & Airport Solutions), said: “We are showcasing this technology for the first time in Dubai. This cutting-edge technology ensures faster movability and reduced footprint.”

Schneider, whose company is a major technology supplier to Dubai International Airport- the world’s second busiest airport for international passengers with over 66 million passengers in 2013.

“This is smart way to load and unload baggage and handle them more efficiently. We are hopeful about the technology being deployed in Dubai as the Al Maktoum International Airport is getting ready to handle much bigger number of passengers, which will require faster baggage and cargo movability,” he added.

He said that the new Baggage Vision System is going to be quite helpful as sometimes baggage label with barcodes end up torn or twisted after the wear and tear associated with loading and unloading and long trips around baggage carousels. It leads to baggage diversion to manual coding stations.

“The Siemens Baggage Vision System does not only rely on the barcode, but combines barcode reading with optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify the flight number and destination airport shown in the label. This results in better recognition rates and reduces the work needed at the manual coding stations,” he said.

The Siemens SmartTilter also represents the very latest technology for dynamic tilting of trays. The new SmartTilter enables bags to be offloaded at their delivery point at a very fast speed. It can reach a maximum throughput of 2400 discharges per hour, he said.

The B2B event, which got off to a flying start on Sunday with 25 exhibitors from 39 countries on board, is seeing the launch of 40 new technology, products and solutions by various global companies looking for a strong footing in the region’s highly-promising aviation markets.

The Middle East region is investing $100 billion, including $40 billion in the six GCC states, for airports expansion and new developments to handle the anticipated growth in air traffic. The Middle East, according to International Air Transport Association, is expected to record the fastest growth rate of 6.6 per cent until 2016, making it the second-fastest growing aviation market in the world. – TradeArabia News Service