BAA signs £20m networking deal with Fujitsu for Heathrow T2

See also: CIO Profile: BAA’s Philip Langsdale

BAA has signed a £20m deal with Fujitsu to supply networking for the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. The terminal is half-way through its build stage and BAA expects it to be operational, at least in a limited capacity, by autumn 2014.

Fujitsu will design and implement the network infrastructure that will support the terminal’s operations, including:

– Voice – IP telephony and analogue telephony – Wireless LAN – IPTV – Security systems such as CCTV,  Access Control Systems, Integrated Departure Lounge, Flow Analytics, Automated PAX process and Positive Boarding – Airport operations systems and management such as flight information display systems, staff information systems and automated public address – Resource management systems – Check-in – Baggage reconciliation system – Building control and management systems such as light control, metering and fire alarm systems – Third party retail concessions

According to BAA head of ICS, Terminal 2 Peter Kent, Terminal 2 is the next step in the modernisation of Heathrow, following Terminal 5 opened in 2008. The bigger challenge this time, he told CIO UK, is that Terminal 2 supports multiple airline carriers.

“Terminal 5 set the standard for world-class airport facilities,” He said. “Since then, demands of passengers and airlines have moved to a higher level.”

As an illustration of this, Kent explained that Terminal 2 will require 136 comms rooms to house the IT equipment necessary to support the terminal’s operations, double the number installed in T5.

The build stage at the Terminal is half-completed and Kent explained that BAA needed an IT partner that could operate in a construction environment and co-ordinate with the construction companies still working on the site so that the network could be laid in as the facility is being contructed.

The first cabling runs are commencing this week and the first comms room will be fitted out by early September. Fitting out will go on until July 2013 and system integration will run until November 2013.

Testing will commence over the winter of next year and should be completed by the summer of 2014, when the airlines supported by Terminal 2 will be migrated across in a sequential fashion. This migration should be completed by mid-2015.

BAA is well into a five-year IT transformation planwith principle IT partners Oracle and Capgemini. Fujitsu’s concerns are primarily around operational systems which Kent stated would be developed with proven technology defined in established BAA roadmaps.