Guiding lights

摘要

Amid scenes of chaos at Heathrow Terminal 5, the Highlight parking bay monitoring system began operation without a hitch. When Heathrow's Terminal 5 opened for business in March, passengers experienced the two contrasting sides of new technology. While the baggage handling system malfunctioned, the bay monitoring system in the terminal's multi-storey fared considerably better. The Highlight system was ready on time and has since operated effectively, according to airport operator BAA and car park contractor NCR There are 3,450 spaces in T5's four-deck multi-storey, and BAA expects more than 2.1m vehicles to use the car park during the first year. BAA's director of retail services Hugh Fenn said: "BAA work hard to develop new initiatives that respond directly to our customer's feedback. Our bay monitoring technology is an example of us coming up with an innovative solution to a common problem in a practical and user friendly way. The feedback from customers so far has been really positive. At BAA we are always looking for ways to broaden and enhance our car parking and travel services to improve the experience at our airports."