The Noggin Blog

Airports have never been busier. But luckily, thanks to the professionalism of airport operators, traffic flows smoothly; passengers get processed efficiently; and the planes themselves come and go.

A few weeks ago, the team at Noggin attended the Australian Airports Association (AAA) National Conference, the pre-eminent aviation conference in the Asia-Pacific region. There, we learned all about the latest innovations in airport technology as well as new developments in best-practice principles.

When it comes to air travel, the saying, “birds of a feather flock together,” takes on a troubling connotation. In 2016 alone, the U.K. recorded more than 1,800 confirmed bird strikes, or eight in every 10,000 flights. Similarly, statistics in the U.S. point to an estimated 13,000-plus bird strikes in this country every year. Passenger lives aren’t usually at stake in these incidents –there’ve only been 25 fatalities due to wild bird strikes between the years 1990 to 2013, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But the risks of bird strikes aren’t exactly insignificant either.

According to the Airports Council International, passenger traffic at the world’s largest airports increased over five percent. Total traffic to the world’s top twenty busiest airports almost reached 1.5 billion people.

 
Airporters of the world! We’re only a few days away from the Third Annual British-Irish Airports Expo, the singular event where suppliers and providers showcase their latest cutting-edge solutions and industry-propelling concepts. We’re excited to announce that Noggin will be there too, bringing the latest in crisis management technology, Noggin Crisis, across the pond to London and right into the airport space.

Fifty-six people aboard a flight departing Belfast, Northern Ireland escaped serious injury over the weekend after the nose landing gear on their airplane failed to descend and the pilot was forced to land at Belfast International Airport (BFS) without it.

The pilot of the Flybe airline Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 was hailed a hero after landing the airplane as smoothly as possible on the plane’s nose and skidding for several hundred yards on the tarmac. The ground crew, which included awaiting fire and emergency medical first responders, was also praised by Belfast International Airport Operations Director Alan Whiteside for responding "extremely smoothly."