The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) selected ERA (a member of OMNIPOL group) to supply another 200 vehicle-mounted SQUID transmitters as its surface vehicle tracking system. The contract was awarded to ERA in cooperation with Fleetcom, inc. ERA has strengthened its dominant position in this field in Canada, with now over 700 SQUIDS functioning in all at Canadian airports: Toronto Pearson International airport and Montréal-Mirabel International airport.
"Another significant batch (200 pcs) of ERA vehicle transmitting units called SQUID goes to Canada to provide enhanced ATC and safety operations at the manoeuvring area of Toronto Pearson International Airport. We are pleased to team-up with Fleetcom, inc. for this delivery," stated ERA head of sales Jakub Thomas.
The ERA-designed SQUID self-contained vehicle tracking unit improves airport safety and overall situational awareness by continuously broadcasting the exact position of all ground vehicles and thus minimising the risk of vehicle collisions, especially during low visibility conditions.
ERA has delivered 700 pieces of this vehicle mounted squitter beacon to Canada since 2012 and over 7,000 SQUID units worldwide since 2004. SQUIDs predominate at some of the busiest airports around the world, like: Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schiphol, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
As an important part of every advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS), SQUID fully supports the concept of "Area Management"; for example, it allows operators to define discrete boundaries outside of which the SQUID unit stops transmission. The design of this small and lightweight equipment ensures easy integration and interoperability with any multilateration or ADS-B system based on the Mode S Extended Squitter datalink.
On Toronto Airport
Toronto Pearson International Airport is the largest airport in Canada, and the 30th busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, handling 47.1 million passengers in 2017. It is located 22.5km north-west of downtown Toronto, in the municipality of Mississauga, and serves the province of Ontario with 12 million inhabitants. The airport is named in honour of Lester B. Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and 14th Prime Minister of Canada.
