Ultimate Airport Dubai (2013) s01e09 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: Dubai International Airport,
one of the fastest growing
airports on the planet,
and aiming to be number one.
Cleared for takeoff.
NARRATOR: But perfection is never easy.
Final call Emirates to Sydney.
Gatwick, Amsterdam.
NARRATOR: More planes
The flight has departed.
(crying)
NARRATOR: more passengers
Absolutely ridiculous.
I need extra manpower here
at transfer desk.
NARRATOR: and massive construction
just to keep up.
So much scaffolding everywhere,
nothing is finished.
NARRATOR: It's nonstop.
(whistles)
If you don't love it,
it's just gonna kill you.
NARRATOR: 24/7.
I think it's stuck.
One, two, three, push!
NARRATOR: It's the job of 60,000 staff
from all over the world
It's either you can deliver
or you're out of the building.
NARRATOR: to make this
the ultimate airport.
NARRATOR: Dubai International
is the global commuter's crossroads.
Geographically favored, it sells itself
as one of the world's
top international hubs.
But it faces tough competition
from Hong Kong, Singapore, and London.
There have been billions
of dollars spent to make Dubai
the international traveler's choice.
It's big business.
But poor service, delayed flights,
or bad experiences can undo all that.
- (chattering)
- Yeah, tell me.
NARRATOR: Mustapha Bourouche is preparing
to get a difficult flight
to Dhaka away on time.
MUSTAPHA: It's one of
the challenging flights.
We've got lots of people
coming from worldwide, you know,
and they're fond of shopping,
which is nothing wrong with it,
but the problem is, kind of like,
sometimes you'll find an issue
to convince them to lay off their bags.
One, two, three.
Which one you're gonna lay off?
You lay off this one.
Give me your boarding pass, please.
NARRATOR: This flight is
notorious for large numbers of passengers
being seduced by the extensive shops.
With one of the biggest
airport duty frees in the world,
and averaging 63,000 sales a day,
it's no surprise passengers arrive
at Mustapha's flight
weighed down with shopping bags.
The flight is full so we don't have
space in the cabin.
It's a full flight,
completely full flight.
The only issues here,
it's just the hand baggage.
Everyone has got three, four bags
and he stops and whack them in,
in the head rack,
which will just gonna
delay the departure time of the flight
and it will cause the crew
a problem in boarding.
NARRATOR: There's a strict carry-on
allowance. Overhead space is limited.
While you're boarding, just give it
to our staff, yeah? Thank you.
NARRATOR:
Mustapha and his team know from experience
that the only way
to keep the boarding on schedule
is to transfer
the extra carry-on baggage to the hold.
Only everybody wants to be the exception.
I just brought some items here.
If you allow me to just carry it.
Look, on this, right, look at,
what's your bag, you have a bag here?
- This is a laptop.
- A laptop, that's fine, no issues.
Today the flight is full,
and at the head rack,
the head rack, when they put the bags on,
they're going to be really full and no
space. Please, try to understand.
Yeah, I have expensive watches,
that's all.
- How many watches?
- Watch, two watches.
Please, one for your lady, yeah? Just--
- Can I, I just can carry? Yeah?
- Please do so, you're free.
And then you hand it over.
Listen, while you're boarding,
you don't hand it over now,
- while you're boarding.
- Yeah, okay.
My staff will be down there
to help you out, yeah? Thank you.
NARRATOR: One passenger of the 500
persuaded to part with his hand luggage
and send it in the hold.
One hour until push back.
Make sure your passports, your money
Hello, passport, money are with you?
- You have your passport with you?
- WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.
Your money with you?
Anything valuable? Sure?
WOMAN: Yeah.
NARRATOR: As Mustapha starts to win
the battle with the hand luggage,
he receives a call
from baggage handlers on the tarmac.
Emirates, how may I help you?
Uh, tell me.
Quick. Come to the point. I'm quite busy.
Okay.
Oh, thank you very much
for this morning gift.
At this time you're telling me?
Bags onboard?
NARRATOR: Some luggage
has triggered a security alert.
They want to talk to the passenger.
What's his name? What's his name?
Kamal Mohammad?
I have 20 Kamal Mohammad on this flight.
Give me the third name.
Kamal Mohammad what?
NARRATOR: Mustapha needs to find
the right Kamal Mohammad
and get him to the security team.
If he can't clear his bag quickly,
it may delay the flight.
Attention, please. Paging for Mr. Kamal
Mohammad, Mr. Kamal Mohammad.
Would you kindly recognize yourself
to the boarding gate staff?
Thank you.
NARRATOR: In the huge Emirates engineering
complex on the far side of the airport,
this $200 million A330-200
is in for its six-yearly paint job.
Appearances are important to the airline.
They want the planes looking their best.
But a respray is more than cosmetic,
it's a vital safety procedure.
The plane must be stripped back
to bare body
so that engineers can check
for any structural defects
before the new coat is applied.
Shift manager Martin Taylor
oversees the job.
To actually strip it, recork it, which is
sealant, put the sealant in the joints,
and put all the gloss on and all
the logos, we've got a ten-day turnaround.
Ian, still quite a bit left to do.
NARRATOR: Martin works
with paint controller Ian Pratt.
(indistinct)
NARRATOR: Day one:
prep the plane and strip the old paint.
And I've told them once they're finished
there just to mask that bit up there.
There's all the silver tape
which is aluminum foil,
and that's predominantly there to protect
the nonmetal structures of the aircraft
like Perspex from the aircraft windows.
NARRATOR: This tape and foil
protects vulnerable parts
from the corrosive stripper.
MARTIN: If we wasn't masking them off,
then the paint stripper
would actually eat into the plastic,
damaging the window.
Potential, it could crack.
NARRATOR: Plane prepped,
time to strip the paint.
These barrels over here are
about 200 KGs of stripper in each barrel,
and we'll use about 1,800 kilograms
of stripper to strip the whole aircraft.
- Everything ready.
- Yeah. Right, crack on, let's go.
Get the stripper coming!
NARRATOR: Up to 18,000 kilograms will be
sprayed manually to strip the paint.
(shouts)
Pump it through, man, pump it through!
NARRATOR: Every centimeter of this
59 meter long plane must be covered.
There's no stripper on here.
If you look at it, there's no stripper
and that means it's not gonna work.
Keep your eye on it
and get an even coat on it.
This section here,
put a little bit more on it,
a little bit more stripper, okay?
This will sit on here now
anywhere between three to eight hours.
We're hoping for it to,
what we call is pickle,
bubble and blister
the paint back to at least the primer.
NARRATOR: Once applied,
all they can do is wait.
IAN: It's now a peroxide stripper, yeah,
so it's a bit more
environmentally friendly.
Eh, it's not aggressive
as the older strippers,
and that's why it takes more time
for it actually to work.
NARRATOR:
It will take eight hours to find out
whether they've applied
the stripper correctly.
If not, they'll have to start again.
This plane is booked to fly
with passengers in nine and a half days.
It could cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars a day
for every day that the aircraft's
on the ground,
so we have to achieve that target,
so obviously the aircraft
can get back up into the air
so it can be earning money
for the company.
NARRATOR: Mustapha is trying
to get a fully booked Dhaka flight
boarded in time for push back at 9:00 a.m.
What's the problem? What is it?
NARRATOR: But one bag
is jeopardizing his schedule.
It triggered a security alert
and the passenger still hasn't been found.
What?
You're kidding me.
(laughs) I made a call now
on the response.
Say once again,
say what's the name, Kamal Mohammad?
(sighs) Okay, I'll do it again.
Attention, please.
We're paging for Mr. Kamal Mohammad.
Mr. Kamal Mohammad,
kindly make yourself recognized
to the boarding gate team, please.
Thank you.
NARRATOR: All baggage is screened before
being loaded into the hold.
Mr. Kamal Mohammad's bag has failed
the scan. It needs to be checked manually.
If they find anything weird,
we call the passenger
'cause we can't--
We don't touch the passenger baggage.
We need, you know, the passenger
to be there to see his bags.
Maybe they burst,
maybe something happened to them,
to make sure that he's happy
with all this, then we'll bring him back.
NARRATOR: Neither the bag
nor the passenger can board
without this further check.
Kamal Mohammad?
Kamal Mohammad!
How are you, sir?
You have anything in your bags?
- Yeah.
- Let me see your passport, please.
Mr. Kamal Mohammad, how are you today?
You came from where?
- Karachi.
- How may I help you, sir?
Thank you.
Do you have anything in your bags?
- (speaking Urdu)
- MUSTAPHA: Yeah.
In your bags, you have anything?
(both speaking in Urdu)
NARRATOR: Luckily, Mustapha can speak
Kamal's native language of Urdu
and the situation is resolved.
I had to explain to him in Urdu,
which I picked it up here, you know,
just to be more closer to him and to let
him understand that there's no issues,
'cause when they hear security,
they get paranoid and they think
something's wrong with them.
Sometimes they have some toys,
and toys, it looks like weapons.
NARRATOR: Kamal Mohammad
is sent to clear his luggage
and Mustapha is free
to start boarding the flight.
Forty-two minutes until push back.
MUSTAPHA: We start boarding, guys, please.
I need you at the escalator.
We start boarding now.
We're inviting our valuable customers
traveling in business class
to proceed for boarding.
I'm requesting the remaining valuable
economy class passengers,
please remain seated.
Straight to the aircraft. Tickets.
NARRATOR: With a full flight,
Mustapha must make the boarding
as quick and efficient as possible
to make the push back deadline.
All families, please, with children.
NARRATOR: The lounge is nearly empty,
but seven passengers are unaccounted for.
They double-check the boarding passes.
MUSTAPHA: Okay, start checking the one
missing on your boarding passes,
please, guys, yeah? 154, 799, 210.
NARRATOR: Fifteen minutes until push back.
Ali, call the lounges, please. We're
missing two "J" class on Dhaka flight.
You know what, stop, don't call them,
they reported already, thank you.
NARRATOR: Connecting passengers
arrive at the gate,
but with 12 minutes to go,
there is still two missing.
Waiting for them could delay departure.
MARTIN: That's good there.
I'm happy with that.
IAN: Yeah?
NARRATOR: In the engineering hangar,
the paint stripper has done its job.
Guys, little bit of urgency. Come on!
NARRATOR: It's now time for Martin
Taylor's team to carefully scrape it off.
It's quite an important process, this now,
to give us a good understanding
how the metal on the airplane's looking.
NARRATOR: The composite body of the plane
must have no imperfections.
A single scratch could lead to corrosion,
and that is potentially lethal.
- MARTIN: From the front--
- IAN: Yeah.
Gonna come down there, scrape it all off.
Use the plastic scrapers.
It's important that we dig all the sealer
out in between the seams
so the engineer will be able to do his
intermediate corrosion inspection.
IAN: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Plastic scrapers
are used instead of metal
to avoid damaging the plane.
We're on a bit of a schedule
to get it finished by the end of today
to allow the engineers to come in
and do their inspections,
while we stand in the wings, so it's
pretty critical that we move on quick.
NARRATOR: The crews work
to a tight schedule.
Controller Ian Pratt wants to be sure
staff are properly deployed on the job.
IAN: How many have you got
on this platform then, four or five?
- We got four here.
- Okay, no problem.
- MAN: Just four on the other side as well.
- IAN: We'll get it done.
NARRATOR: The team
must balance speed with caution.
Arial, look,
who's driving this platform? George!
Platform is just a little bit too close
right now.
Look, look. Look, look, who's that?
NARRATOR: One tiny bump could delay
this plane's return to service.
George! Guys! Not too close!
Not too close to the aircraft, okay?
Ian, you need to get a grip of this, yeah?
- What?
- Keep making sure, keep an eye out
and make sure that these platforms are not
hitting the aircraft, okay?
Or get in too close
that they could cause damage.
Guys, you're stood around doing nothing.
Why are you not stripping the aircraft?
Why are we pushing this in?
Why aren't you underneath there
doing this bit here?
Start using your noggin.
NARRATOR: A final push, and the bare body
of the plane is revealed.
Time for the corrosion inspection.
Did you see the gents on this flight?
NARRATOR: Mustapha is still missing two
passengers for the Dhaka flight.
If he waits any longer for them,
the flight won't leave on time.
With ten minute to takeoff,
the decision's made.
The gate is closed,
just as one passenger turns up.
- What's your name?
- Hussein.
- You came from where?
- Munich.
- Relax, take it easy.
- But this flight was delayed, no?
NARRATOR: It's bad news.
You're not on this flight, my dear.
NARRATOR: Seconds earlier
he'd have made the flight.
MUSTAPHA: Well, you missed your flight.
HUSSEIN: But this one
was delayed from Munich.
Okay.
NARRATOR: This passenger missed the flight
because his inbound plane
from Munich was delayed.
As 45% of passengers in the airport
are transfers,
it's a daily problem,
but not the experience
the airline wants passengers to have.
MUSTAPHA: Thank you, sir.
To gain a passenger,
you need to be in his shoes,
so you just treat the best I could to make
a positive impact on my customers
'cause I want them to come back again.
I don't want
It's not a like one-time trip.
I want them to go and fly
and come back to us again.
- This is your boarding pass.
- Yes.
This is your seat, an aisle seat, 584,
so you don't have to
go to the transfer desk for anything,
- it's all done.
- Okay.
Just go and get your vouchers
for breakfast and lunch.
Yes.
This is your passport.
Your gate is Bravo 28.
And when is the next flight to Dhaka?
- 12:30.
- 12:30, okay, this is no problem.
Yeah, what's the time now in
You have a German time?
Er, yes.
Please do change it to local timing.
It's ten to 9:00.
- HUSSEIN: Now it's six o'clock.
- MUSTAPHA: No, please.
You will still lose the flight if you
carry keep on looking on the previous.
- My apology. All the best.
- Okay, thank you very much.
NARRATOR: One missing passenger sorted,
but one still unaccounted for.
Now we're missing
reference 396, two pieces, 57, ex Hamburg.
NARRATOR: The flight might be closed,
but the last passenger
is still on the computer system.
Mustapha needs to take them off,
but can't without a double-check.
Sometimes people can
slip through the gate.
This is the checks that I do:
boarding pass is not here,
onboard he's not there, off the system.
I can't take him off the system
unless I do these checks, physically.
NARRATOR: The no-show
has delayed the plane.
It's now two minutes
past the push back time.
MUSTAPHA:
Check with your crews, 46 Bravo is empty.
- 46 Bravo?
- MUSTAPHA: Yeah.
- Just make sure it's empty.
- CABIN CREW: Okay, I'll go.
(radio chatter)
NARRATOR: The cabin crew check the plane,
baggage handlers search for
the passenger's luggage in the hold.
- 46?
- 46 Bravo.
- Is not there?
- Yeah.
NARRATOR: Confirmed passenger not onboard,
bags found and unloaded.
The flight leaves, but 22 minutes late.
I wish this flight could've
been gone on time
after all the hard work
that my team and I did.
But apparently, all this,
nearly 500 passengers,
they suffer this delay
'cause of one person did not show up.
You have to off-load
many containers to look for his bag.
It's like a needle,
you're looking for a needle, you know,
in a haystack, you know?
NARRATOR: To deliver
as a top transfer destination,
Dubai has to operate 24/7 with a takeoff
every three minutes, until now.
6:45 a.m., height of the morning
rush hour, and thick ground fog,
a feature of the winter season, rolls in.
Not good for Dubai,
and to make matters worse,
a critical runway backup system
has failed.
Planes are grounded, diverted,
or left circling in the air.
Passengers face long delays.
Juggling these flights is air traffic
control officer Justen White.
Fog has a massive effect,
probably a lot of the residents
because we don't see it here
very often, you know,
it's a handful of days each year.
Basically it just closes down
the whole airport.
NARRATOR: As the temperature rises,
fog clears, and the airport
prepares to reopen.
It puts pressure on us because it puts
pressure on everyone's schedule,
so that creates a big backlog,
both arrivals and departures.
NARRATOR: During the closure,
ATC were forced to divert aircraft
to other airports in the region.
Now they must get passengers and planes
back to Dubai, and the sky is full.
On approach,
everyone inbound goes into a hold.
There's a lot
still going around and around.
Emirates 782, Dubai Tower, good day.
Continue your approach by Cat left,
Hello Kilo eight.
NARRATOR: Air traffic control
manage the log jam in the air,
preparing to land planes
as quickly as is safe.
Then it will be over to ramp services
to get passengers,
bags and cargo on and off flights.
Coordinating the teams today
is controller Nargis Jawaid.
You can see the weather
is clearing very fast,
so we're going to be very, very busy.
NARRATOR: 8:30 a.m., the airport opens.
Delayed and diverted planes are squeezed
into a packed flight schedule.
The airline normally turns around
eight planes an hour.
It just increased to 14.
Everyone is stretched to the limits.
JUSTEN: Emirates will run out of gates,
and they'll run out of the facilities
at the gate, like the tow motors,
and they'll just keep shuffling around.
Quite often someone will taxi
to a gate and it'll be occupied
and they'll have to go somewhere else,
and that creates a bit of a problem.
Emirates 86,
your parking is now Gulf three.
NARRATOR: Nargis oversees planes
being turned around.
If she wants to get the schedule
back on track,
her only option is work crews faster.
NARGIS: We should unload
the aircraft in 40 minutes.
Uh, we're trying our best
to make it to 25 to 30 minutes,
so that means we get
extra ten minutes there.
On the loading side,
we have one hour 15 minutes.
We'll try and cut down to one hour
and we get 15 minutes from there as well.
NARRATOR: Even if she saves
25 minutes a flight,
it will still take hours
to get back to normal.
But as fast as she formulates a plan,
a major hitch appears.
NARGIS: Okay, fine. Okay, okay, bye.
Now the flights have started landing
one after the other.
Now the allocation guy has just called me
saying that he's having a problem
because there's no staff.
Uh, we're just looking
what best we can do from our side.
NARRATOR: With more planes
arriving than normal,
but the same number of stands,
allocation staff scramble for space,
leaving ground crew stretched to keep up.
And with 40 people from cleaners to
engineers needed to turn a plane around,
it only takes one missing team
for the recovery plan to falter.
Now the activities are held up
because the guys from the baggage
has not come because it was last minute.
They brought the aircraft
from this particular stand,
and there is nobody to pick up the bags.
Can you ask somebody
to send us LD3 dolly Bravo 23, EK343?
Now I just informed the baggage guys
to come and pick up the bags from here.
NARRATOR: Over 300 passengers
have deplaned, but their baggage hasn't.
Dubai International
is operating near capacity,
and wanting to increase this
by 15 million passengers in the next year,
they've chosen to open
a new $3.2 billion concourse
before it is fully complete.
The challenge now:
run an operational terminal inside
what is still a building site.
And that is the job of Jumah Al-Mazrooie.
Hisham, where is Ian?
Shine, what you're going to do?
One of the biggest challenges
you get when you go out for operation
and you still have
lots of construction work to be done,
you have to jeopardize
between the customer experience
and what they're gonna see
within the building,
and between you
finishing up the job and moving.
NARRATOR: This is
an operational part of the terminal,
but there's construction mess everywhere.
It is vital the public are not exposed
to hazardous building materials.
JUMAH: I have a lot of
construction material I need clean it up.
You see this is, whatever construction
in here I'm taking it out.
I'm throwing it out, okay?
MAN: Yeah, it's all rubbish.
JUMAH: I would throw it,
there is not all of it is rubbish.
This is your material, my friend.
This is your material.
If you want, I can throw it for you.
I do you a favor, Shine.
Okay, come with me.
This door is now my concern.
What we're going to do with it?
Don't look at my phone, look at the door.
Yeah, yeah.
NARRATOR: This door doesn't have a lock.
Passengers can wander straight
into the construction dumping ground,
another safety and security risk.
This is passenger area.
I don't want it
because everybody's going out.
It need to be always closing up, uh
you know, without people interrupting,
it need to be always locked down
in all this area, we have four areas.
NARRATOR: Both trash and locks
are a quick fix,
but elsewhere, construction and operations
are in conflict.
We've got a problem, we need to sort.
That area has been operational now.
We need to have some certain elements of,
you know,
hygiene and waste management
that is not working properly.
We need to sort out for the contractor.
Listen. My proposal,
keep two skips this way.
You gonna put them there?
NARRATOR: The senior contract manager
is Hendrick Moll,
and the challenge here is this area
is designed for the operational
airport supplies and trash removal,
but at the moment, it's monopolized
by the construction crews.
Jumah is in a tough position,
who to prioritize.
You have to use both lifts, or one?
- You need both?
- Yeah.
For how long?
I would say at least
for another two weeks.
- Ten days minimum.
- Yeah.
At least.
For the service area and hotel finishing.
Now the construction material
will be less and less.
It's more furniture.
My only thing is that now,
for the deliveries,
all of it is happening in the west.
Coming in, and then
they have to walk all the way
through the departure,
through the passenger areas.
NARRATOR: Jumah wants shop and
restaurant deliveries to use these lifts
and stop having to walk
through the terminal.
Give me one.
We'll have a minimum,
a minimum of two coming in.
Give you one. You can have one.
JUMAH: You can't put hygiene stuff
You can't put food stuff
We'll stick with the plan.
Keep it for two weeks.
After that, we'll take it out.
NARRATOR: Jumah admits defeat, for now.
He can't have food
and construction waste in the same lift.
But he's far from finished
as he moves on to the next conflict
with senior site engineer
Malik Sajid Anwa.
Nargis is juggling a backlog of flights
after fog shut the airport.
She needs to get the schedule
back on track
to deliver passengers the experience
the airline wants them to have.
The plan was to cut turnaround time
by 25 minutes,
but she's only got the same number
of staff to deal with more planes.
Operations are stretched,
crews can't keep up with demand.
We are losing a lot of time right now
because we're just waiting, doing nothing.
Ten minutes is very precious to us,
to save time on these flights.
NARRATOR: Nargis struggles
to hit her own targets on this off-load.
To get the things done faster,
I have to help them out by making calls,
so I'm just gonna follow up
with the baggage.
Hello, good morning.
Nobody has come to pick up the baggage
from Bravo 23, EK343.
Okay, they have just come now,
they have just come now.
Okay, okay, thank you.
So the guys have just come now,
so I will leave them.
Now they'll finish it very fast.
So we'll just go on the next flight.
NARRATOR: One plane off-loaded.
But Nargis needs to get a handle
on the extra flights
to manage her team's workload.
Syed, can you just tell me,
how many flights are yet to land?
Twelve flights more to come in.
And the total diversions, how many
was there? The last one I had was 21.
That's a big number, no? Let me just write
it down. (laughs) Okay, fine.
Now we have got
the latest figure is at 34.
So 34 is a very big number,
and 12 flights yet to land,
so we're still waiting
for 12 more flights to come in.
Ramp services, good morning.
NARRATOR: Thirty-four diverted
passenger flights and still 12 to arrive
is a major disruption for the airport.
The flights which are affected,
um, the short sector flights can recover,
but the long sector flights, they can't,
so sometimes it really takes a long time
for the recovery,
like 24 hours.
NARRATOR: Nargis shuttles between crises.
Next up, a delayed plane
that is not at its scheduled gate,
and with no ground crew
to deplane passengers, baggage and cargo.
Everyone is waiting onboard, so we're just
running around to get the passengers off.
Quickly, huh.
(speaking Urdu)
The only way to get the passengers off
is with steps and transfer buses.
And Nargis finds herself at the sharp end.
NARGIS: Since there is no staff,
I have to do it myself.
The staff is on the way,
but it's okay, I can do it.
That's not part of my job description,
but at the same time,
we all work as one team.
If there is nobody
and the flight is there,
if it's not my team, then it has to be me.
NARRATOR: It was the plan
to take less time to unload,
but on her own, it's taken 50 minutes,
twice as long to clear the plane
of passengers and baggage.
He's got only one more unit to off-load
and then the aircraft is fully off-loaded,
so the activities are over.
Even when Nargis has turned around
that last diverted flight,
she knows it could still be at least a day
before operations are back to normal.
Sections of the new terminal
opened before construction was finished.
The challenge is to keep both an airport
and building site
working efficiently.
It's a great, you know,
constraint to us, but, you know,
we have to balance between the two.
We cannot keep it
a construction site forever.
NARRATOR: Jumah is troubleshooting
behind the scenes
with senior site engineer
Malik Sajid Anwa.
What about this?
You cannot block this scaffold now.
You cannot.
It's an emergency staircase.
Otherwise I get in trouble
with the operation.
All this construction waste
is blocking the emergency exits,
a dangerous situation,
and Jumah is just getting started.
I have a small help I need from you
in the duty-free area.
We need to clear up some items.
NARRATOR: They move into
an area of the terminal
that Jumah wants to hand over
from construction to the operations teams.
Malik, I'm telling you now,
don't do anything without my permission.
- Is this your material?
- MALIK: Yes.
Okay, I just need you to clear it out
so that I can properly
give the guys their room.
NARRATOR: Jumah heads into the operational
staff areas as Malik races to keep up.
- JUMAH: Malik!
- MALIK: Huh?
JUMAH: Why do we have
too many open ceiling?
- Why do we have too many open
- This one some damage.
But you have a lot,
this side, this side, right?
NARRATOR: These corridors
connect the crew areas
to passenger parts of the airport.
They're now operational,
but lacking the finishing touches.
JUMAH: Malik, we have a prayer room here.
- MALIK: Yeah.
- JUMAH: But there is
MALIK: This is a prayer room.
Nobody knows about it,
doesn't have any sign.
- Yeah, the sign is missing.
- JUMAH: Okay.
NARRATOR: Blocked emergency staircases,
missing signs and ceiling tiles,
plenty to fix,
but Jumah's time on the project
is limited.
JUMAH: I'm not staying here forever,
you know that.
These guys, they need to take
responsibility and check the area.
The building is operational now.
Okay.
NARRATOR: On the passenger side
of the new concourse,
the specialized A380
boarding system has broken,
jeopardizing the departure of a flight.
Mel Sabharwal has been called to help,
but can't even enter the gate
without assistance.
This is one of the new gates so we've
allocated a New York flight here today.
This is gate A1,
and the system is not working.
NARRATOR:
The new concourse is designed
to deliver travelers
the ultimate airport experience.
Passengers from first,
business, and economy are segregated.
Each can board
directly to their plane level
through a system of lifts and ramps,
but the lifts have stopped working.
We'll have a problem transferring
passengers from both of the lounges,
the first class
and the business class lounge,
um, into direct level boarding
for the 380 aircraft.
NARRATOR: The fault
can be manually overridden with a pass,
but that's not the slick operational image
the airport wants to deliver.
MEL: We have to use a lot of manpower here
purely because the lifts are not working.
But I've had to pull out one, two
three staff from the lounges
just to assist.
Um, and that's just
on the first-class level.
It'll be the same upstairs as well.
NARRATOR: It's not ideal,
but at least passengers are now boarding.
I can see the business class lift
going up and down,
so that seems to be working.
NARRATOR: The only problem is
that when a fault is overridden,
the safety mechanism
in the system kicks in.
If the boarding gate door is left open
for more than a few seconds,
a high pitch alarm sounds.
I don't know if you could hear the alarms.
You can hear them in the background here.
Seems to be quite noisy, so I just want
to have a quick look and see
how that's gonna affect any passengers
that are boarding from downstairs.
NARRATOR: For Mel to get to the alarm,
she has to take the troublesome lift.
Do I need to override it with this
or I can go straight down?
Just like this?
NARRATOR: Mel arrives at the economy
departure gate for boarding.
It seems to be constrained
to one particular area,
so it's not too bad over here
but it is particularly bad, as you can
Can you see where the red light is?
That's where the noise is coming from,
so that's probably the area where
the passengers will feel it the most.
NARRATOR: This is not the experience
the airline wants passengers to have
of the new concourse,
but Mel can't fix it.
It's quite uncomfortable
when you walk through that door,
but at this stage,
nothing really we can do.
We have to get the boarding started.
We cannot delay the aircraft for this.
NARRATOR: Economy passengers
have no choice
but to board through the door
with the high-pitch alarm.
To try and get the technicians here
within a minimal time frame,
so to speak,
uh, is quite a challenge
because they are actually
working on other parts
of the concourse as well.
I'm not sure if they realize
that it is a priority at this stage,
but we certainly flagged it off
as a priority.
NARRATOR: And Mel has had enough.
She needs this problem fixed.
More planes are scheduled
to use this gate today.
NARRATOR: In a vast engineering hangar
on the far side of the airport,
this Airbus A330 has passed
its corrosion check
and is ready for its respray.
Today, 270 liters of white paint
must be applied in three layers.
It's no mean feat to be able to get
one of these painted in ten days.
NARRATOR: The paint is
especially designed for aircraft,
able to tolerate temperatures
of minus 60 to plus 50 degrees,
and resistant to hydraulic fluid and oils.
IAN: Get a nice even wet coat on it, yeah?
The first coat,
we'll mix up 90 liters of paint,
and we've got roughly
75 minutes to apply it.
If we don't catch it within that time,
it can cause the paint to dry too quickly,
so therefore the next coat
won't adhere to it properly.
Or if we do it too quickly,
then we've got a chance of running
or solvent getting trapped
between the first and second coat,
which will cause blistering,
and that'll cause the whole airplane now
to be redone again.
NARRATOR: Timing is everything,
but they must also be meticulous
about the thickness of the paint layer.
This is vital as it affects
the weight of the plane.
When the whole aircraft's painted,
there'll probably be around about a ton
of paint and materials on the aircraft.
NARRATOR: And that weight must be spread
evenly over the entire plane.
If the coat is thicker on one side,
the plane will be left heavier
on that side, making it unbalanced,
and an unbalanced plane
is dangerous to fly.
We have special machinery.
We can check the thickness,
the paint thickness.
We check it between each coat.
NARRATOR: Each coat
must be less than 400 microns thick,
the equivalent of eight human hairs.
If it's too thick, then it has to be taken
back down again and repainted
so it doesn't exceed the limit.
NARRATOR: The first layer is on,
but now it gets trickier
to make sure they don't miss a bit.
MARTIN: You're putting
white on top of white,
so you really need to be conscious now
about what we call a wet edge
to make sure we don't get any dry spots,
'cause that could ruin the whole process.
They work in tandem now together to make
sure that they cover the whole spectrum,
both teams,
because he can see the light coming up
and he can see the light going down.
Nice and easy.
Three coats, just build it up,
so it comes to a nice finish.
MARTIN: Uniform,
that's all we're after, isn't it?
It's a pretty sort of nervy day to make
sure everything's running smoothly.
NARRATOR: Ian spots a potential problem
on one section of the plane.
IAN: Guys! (whistles) Guys!
(whistles) Stop! What's this here?
What happened there?
Just up at the seam joint.
Bring it across.
Up near the wing to body,
just after the seal.
I just see some imperfection in the paint
so I just wanted to
get the guys to check it,
to have a look at it
and see what the problem is.
NARRATOR: Luckily,
it's a straightforward fix.
It's okay, we won't
do anything with it now.
We'll just apply some more paint
on the next coat
just to make sure it's all covered.
NARRATOR: End of the shift
and one fuselage painted white.
But there's still a lot to do.
The wings, livery, and a full safety check
before it can be released to service.
(alarm blaring)
NARRATOR: At gate A1 in the new concourse
airport service manager Mel Sabharwal
is still struggling
with a deafening alarm.
To troubleshoot this operational crisis,
Jumah has been called away
from wrangling building problems.
Have you called somebody for that?
- Yeah, we called them.
- Who? Okay, then who you call?
I called (indistinct)
- Mmm, yeah.
- There's still
Did you finish the flight?
We've almost finished,
but the only problem that I've got--
Can I come back after ten minutes?
- Of course, you can.
- After you finish
It's the alarms that were the most
disturbing thing for the passengers.
- What is the alarm? Let me have a look.
- Mmm.
Get your body in here.
(laughs)
Finished? Okay.
You finished? Everybody's on? Okay.
Let's have a small look.
MAN: We have at least
another three passengers boarding now.
Yeah, no problem.
I just want to look down there.
- Where is this, what-- Yeah, but
- MEL: It's downstairs.
We should have engineering services
and police as part of the process.
Let me check it out.
NARRATOR: Jumah wants to see
if he can fix the problem himself.
And he also wants to know
why nobody's come to disable it.
Where is Sherpa? Engineering services?
They should have a technical team
to just close it.
And they should not work within the area.
I don't understand why
we should have it this way.
I don't know how
nobody's responded to this.
Mmm, neither do I.
Okay, can you come with me for a second?
(indistinct)
I can't walk as fast as you. Heels.
- Nothing here? Okay.
- No, no.
NARRATOR: This is an operational problem,
but with the building
still under construction,
it falls on Jumah to try and fix it.
Okay, let's troubleshoot it.
I think it's positive points
to have these things now
rather than, you know, when we have no
support team from the construction
or from the contractor
to go and immediately rectify and repair.
I love the enthusiasm of trying
to get something fixed, it's amazing.
NARRATOR: The problem
appears to be getting worse
as alarms sound around the concourse.
MEL: Is that another one upstairs?
I want you to go on the concourse,
but I don't want to
I have something else to do. Can you do
something with the alarm system?
They are checking the remote
and they have
And I need to know how much
NARRATOR: Finally,
the engineers stop the noise,
but Jumah is concerned
they should've been here sooner.
- Not respond.
- They should respond.
- Yes.
- This is a problem.
I cannot let the passenger go
with alarm there.
At least we will have to deactivate it.
NARRATOR: Job done,
peace returns to the terminal.
Anyway, the team is here.
They fixed it now,
so that's the main thing.
NARRATOR: And over
in the engineering paint shop,
this A330 is nearing the end
of its ten-day repaint.
Engines, winglets, masked,
scotched, prepared,
ready for gold, ASAP, that's what we want.
NARRATOR: The old paint stripped
and new white base applied.
And over the past four days,
a full livery and marking completed.
But before it can be released
to the fleet,
it must pass a rigorous engineering check
by Ross Wilding and his team.
Ramesh, where are the rest of the guys?
Right, tell them to come out and start
removing all the door nets, please.
NARRATOR: The inspection
takes place from the tele-platform.
Paint supervisor Reynold
checks the quality of the job.
So now I'm getting the reading
for the orange peel level,
which is the smoothness of the surface.
NARRATOR: Bumpy, uneven paint
increases drag on the plane,
making it less efficient in the air.
12.1. Perfect.
NARRATOR: Next up, thickness.
Now I'm getting the paint thickness.
NARRATOR: Too much paint
and the plane will be too heavy,
increasing fuel consumption
and airline gas bills.
Eighty-nine, 100,
so of an average of 90, so it's fine.
NARRATOR: The technical aspect
of the new paint job is a pass,
but Ross still needs to inspect
the non-painted parts of the aircraft.
What we're looking for
is when they start the paint process,
they will masking tape up all the windows,
and there have been cases
where occasionally the stripping fluid
has seeped through the masking tape
and it can damage the windows.
NARRATOR: And it's not
just stripper damage they're looking for.
- REYNOLD: It's over sprayed?
- Yeah, yeah.
(indistinct)
Get the guys to remove
this over spray, yeah?
NARRATOR: Even with the meticulous taping,
a little bit of paint has sneaked through.
It's got a slight bit of overspray
on the window as you can see there
and the guys, they'll come
and just remove that off now.
NARRATOR: It won't affect
the plane's performance,
but isn't the standard expected
by meticulous Ross.
But if it had been stripper instead of
paint, it would be a different story.
If the window's damaged,
we'd have to replace it.
Straightaway,
we'd have to replace the whole window.
So we don't take any compromise obviously
with the integrity of the window.
NARRATOR: Apart from a few minor fixes,
Ross is happy with the aircraft.
Cleared for service.
Tow truck's on its way, so that's
everything done now, yeah, no defects.
NARRATOR: The platform's moved away
and the hangar cleared.
Job done.
Captioned by Pixelogic Media