More than Just Planes : Fleet Maintenance at HIA

On any given day at Harrisburg International Airport (HIA) there are more than airplanes, ticket agents, and baggage handlers operating to make sure passengers get to their final destination. There are large numbers of people and machines required to make an airport work. If you take pause for a moment you will find everything from trucks and heavy equipment to tractors and lawn mowers to police cars and fire apparatus working hard on airport property. The trucks transport airport maintenance staff, and support equipment around the property to make sure the airfield and facilities are in working order, the snow removal equipment clear the snow from the airfield during winter storms so aircraft can land safely and efficiently, the tractors and lawn mowers keep the landscape around the terminal manicured and grass near the runway neatly clipped so that aircraft crews have a clear view of the runway. Police vehicles patrol the property to keep safety and security a top priority at HIA and shuttle buses get you from the parking lot to the terminal front door in a timely fashion. There are approximately 220 various pieces of equipment and vehicles in the airport fleet that require periodic maintenance or repair. This fleet does not include the aircraft, luggage tugs, and other miscellaneous equipment used by the airlines.

With such a large fleet of equipment and vehicles working hard all year long, parts and pieces are

bound to require upkeep and maintenance. HIA has a staff of 3 qualified technicians in our fleet maintenance department that are well-trained to keep those 220 fleet members in working order. The technicians include Bill, Joe and Bob combined the guys have approximately 90 years of combined mechanical experience in fleet and vehicle maintenance. They share knowledge of vehicle emissions testing and repair, vehicle maintenance inspections, hydraulics, diagnostics, engine electronics, vehicle safety inspections, vehicle restoration and routine maintenance, metal fabrication and welding, air conditioning testing and repair, and many other areas of expertise. All of these skills and certifications allow the team to maintain a piece of equipment as small as a weed whacker and as large as the aircraft fire fighting vehicles owned by HIA.

The HIA owned equipment is maintained almost exclusively on site by our fleet maintenance department. The maintenance team pride themselves in doing as much as they physically can in the maintenance facility located on airport property. Team manager, Bob, indicated that they rarely send work out, but if they must it’s usually a job requiring specialized knowledge and equipment, for example, heavy engine work or an automatic transmission rebuild. The guys are routinely up for a challenge though; they have a myriad of training courses available to them from vehicle and equipment manufacturers. These training courses assist the department in staying technically and technologically up-to-date. Bob pointed out, that while you cannot always upgrade to brand new equipment and vehicles, you can add to and modify the existing fleet. The team’s ability to remain creative and proactive is a standard operating procedure everyday.

The ultimate goal of fleet and vehicle maintenance is to maintain all equipment in a continuously safe state of operational readiness in order to keep the airfield and facility operations supported. Did you know in the winter months that HIA has a fleet of specialized snow removal equipment that, at times, needs to work around the clock to keep the airfield clear of snow, sleet and ice? If one of these vehicles breaks down, it’s up to Bill, Joe, and Bob to get it back in working order. Many of the snow removal vehicles are custom built and require highly specialized parts in a timely fashion. By design, the guys are prepared and keep an inventory of parts in stock, and can get a vehicle back into the snow removal rotation in a snap! For example, the brushes on the high-speed runway brooms machines that are used in snow removal wear out from continuous use in heavy snow. The truck can be pulled into the shop, brushes changed out, and the truck returned to the rotation in less than 90 minutes. How’s that for efficient? That kind of quick turnaround in vehicle maintenance lends itself to your flight landing safely and on-time at HIA in winter weather. The department continuously plans for efficiency of operations regardless of the weather conditions.

When asked what were some of the more unusual vehicles they’ve worked on as a department, Bob indicated that the specialized snow removal equipment is pretty unique in it’s size and sophistication, but that the most unique items we have worked on were the Segway Human Transporters that HIA police formerly employed to patrol the interior of buildings. He also pointed out that the air traveling public might not realize that the jet bridges used to board an aircraft are also part of the equipment maintenance responsibilities. Someone needs to make sure that the wheels and other features of the jet bridges work properly!

Does this sound like a career that would be interesting to you? Bob said that specialized training, certifications and on-the-job experiences the team has learned along the way does not normally come from a traditional college education. With the technology exploding in the industry, ongoing training and accrued knowledge is never ending. Their team has a great culture; they all have differing strengths and weaknesses, but they all care about the equipment in the fleet to the point of knowing the individual character of each piece. Their mutual respect for the equipment combined with their differing expertise allows them to cooperatively take on nearly any task with great success!

“Individually we are limited but together we are limitless!”

What unusual pieces of equipment or vehicles have you seen on the airfield when you've flown to/from HIA? Which of the types of equipment or vehicles mentioned would you like to know more about?