Munich Airport gets Ready For Winter Weather

To ensure safe operation around the clock even in wintry weather conditions, a winter maintenance service is available at Munich Airport from the beginning of November to the middle of April.

• Winter maintenance fleet comprises 184 vehicles
• Over 200 emergency crews per shift
• Cleared flight operation area is equivalent to 780 soccer fields

In the event of ice and snow, the airport’s winter maintenance convoy is mobilized. It includes 184 vehicles: 152 of them are used for clearing and de-icing the airfield areas and 32 are used on roads, paths and parking areas in the airport’s public area. 71 of the vehicles are tractors from the region around the airport. In total, around 600 men and women are deployed as part of the winter service, with around 520 coming from agriculture and haulage companies in the region. For each shift, more than 200 emergency services personnel ensure that areas within the airport site are free from snow and ice.

To facilitate smooth and, above all, safe airport operations, large areas must be cleared when it snows: The two take-off and landing runways, aprons and taxiways alone cover around 5.6 million square meters, the equivalent of more than 780 soccer fields. It takes approximately 30 minutes to clear a runway at Munich Airport that is over 4,000 meters long and approximately 60 meters wide.

Numerous specialized vehicles are used, including 22 snow sweepers, 5 rotary snowplows and a snowcat. In addition, new vehicles have been purchased and existing vehicles have been upgraded, e.g. the addition of plows with a larger clearing width. As well as the equipment owned by the airport, the tractors belonging to those farmers in the winter service are fitted with snowplows.

The winter maintenance team is alerted by Airport Operations division, which monitors the condition of the movement areas around the clock. In addition to the latest forecasts from Germany’s National Meteorological Service (German: DWD), Airport Operations is supported by an early warning system for black ice. This system continuously gathers updated data from a total of 18 measuring stations throughout the airport. Furthermore, special vehicles are used to regularly check the braking conditions on the runways.

The cleared snow masses that are cleared are loaded onto six snow depots. A total of up to 2.2 million cubic meters of snow accumulate here each season. An underground collection reservoir ensures that the meltwater is not released into the environment.

Mechanical cleaning of the traffic areas is given priority for environmental protection reasons. The use of surface de-icers is only necessary when the movement areas are at risk of icing over. Gutters along both sides of the runways catch the runoff and carry it to a meltwater retention basin. From here, the meltwater is conveyed to the treatment plant in Eitting in a controlled manner. On some of the surfaces, silica sand is used instead of de-icing fluid.

However, it's not just the traffic areas of the airport that must be kept in a safe operating condition during the cold season: The airplanes must also be cleared of snow and ice before takeoff. This is carried out by the “polar bears” provided by the Company for De-Icing and Aircraft Towing at Munich Airport Ltd. (German: EFM), a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Munich Airport. “Polar bears” are special vehicles that spray the aircraft with de-icer immediately before take-off. The EFM de-ices up to 15,000 aircraft – from Learjets to Airbus A380s – every year. The used de-icer is collected and mostly recycled.

With all the necessary preparation, technical equipment and personnel deployment, extreme ice and snow conditions can prove to be a major challenge for the airport, airlines and service providers involved. Due to the de-icing of the aircraft, the clearing of numerous areas, and all other winter service measures, there can be delays to scheduled aircraft handling. However, the ultimate goal is to ensure safe flight operations.