Glidepath Increases Investment in Software

Media Release                                                                                                    26 August 2009

Glidepath Increases Investment in Proprietary Software Development
                                                                                                                     

Airport baggage handling, sorting and screening specialist, Glidepath, is increasing its focus on proprietary software control systems to extend its competitive appeal as a total solutions provider for customers seeking greater levels of security and detection against terrorism and contraband.

“Glidepath’s proprietary control systems are a point of difference and a core competency for us,” says General Manager New Zealand, John Fitzgerald who oversees all aspects of Glidepath’s operations including software development, design, engineering, manufacturing and sales and marketing.

“Our philosophy is that control systems should be industry specific, robust and guarantee reliability and accuracy.  We are continually building our expertise and portfolio of software products through our own endeavours and therefore retain the competency in-house, unlike others, who mainly use third parties for supply.”

Glidepath has completed over 500 airport design, manufacture and installation projects in 61 countries in its 37 year history.  The control systems design, development and consultation team, made up of highly skilled, specialist engineers, currently accounts for over 25 per cent of Glidepath’s revenue.

“Software controls are the glue that bind together our conveyors and connects them to airport, airline and border control systems. They transform fabricated metal conveyors into functional, intelligent baggage identification, screening, sortation and reconciliation systems to give airport clients and travellers greater confidence and make travel safer,” Mr Fitzgerald said.  “No other control systems generate the same guaranteed level of integration and data reliability and we are committed to ongoing investment and improvements that yield productivity gains for ourselves and our customers.”

Glidepath also provides 24 hour support, including remote monitoring, live troubleshooting, ongoing maintenance and software upgrades.

The new integrated systems are being installed in Durban, Nassau, Christchurch and throughout Australia.  They are currently operating in Auckland, Adelaide, Botswana and in Jamaica where they are specifically used in drug detection.

Glidepath Software Control Systems at a glance

Glidepath has developed a full range of integrated software security systems.  These include baggage reconciliation for automatic passenger-bag matching and 100 per cent hold baggage screening for verification of baggage content safety and security.

GlideSort provides system interfaces to airport and airline networks; fully compatible with Glidepath’s baggage handling, cargo handling and parcel sortation systems.   24 hour remote internet support for on-site operations provides problem diagnosis, incident logs, fault tracing and restoration of normal operations.

GlideSort provides full sortation and flight allocation for departing baggage; compatible with standard operating systems from straightforward flight number sorting through to any combination of flight number, class, destination and on-carriage flight sorting; secure access to flight and BSM information is provided on a user and handler basis.

GlideView provides operator control of Glidepath's systems and access to critical data for later analysis; fully dynamic, system-wide display screens through to individual component status displays; delivers any level of detail; automatic system start/stop control to overrides; configurable reporting, charting and trending of real-time and historical data; baggage desk allocation.

GlideControl is the heart of all Glidepath's conveyor systems, providing automatic control and operation of all system components from conveyor start stop sequencing, security door operation and check-in desk control operations; 100% baggage tracking accuracy, conveyor cascade and indexing control, detection of baggage jams and interfaces to radio frequency and/or optical ATR scanners.  

GlideScan uses a unique hand scanner to reconcile hold baggage against passenger manifests to ensure that no unaccompanied baggage is loaded on to the aircraft. A check is then made by the BRS to report any accompanied bags that are on-board the aircraft prior to take-off.

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