Some good news may be on the way for air travelers accustomed over the years to
shuffling through those dreary steel
boarding tunnels between their
plane and the terminal.
The National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA), the
organization charged with
developing fire safety standards
in the U.S., has dropped its
longstanding objection to using
glass in passenger boarding bridges.
Should the new recommendation
be widely accepted and enacted by
local safety officials as expected,
airport designers will have the
option of using glass to both
brighten passenger experiences
and enhance the architecture
of terminals.
Passengers will be able to walk
through a boarding bridge that
offers a panoramic view of the
activity at a bustling airport and
preview the scenery awaiting them
after completing their journey.
Architects will be able to build
on the trend toward the greater use
of glass in terminal design. Most
modern terminals are designed with
large expanses of glass facing the
airfield, and glass boarding bridges
will integrate well with that look.
“Up until now, architects have
had to design a beautiful glass
terminal building with steel boxes
next to it,” said Bret Pilney, vice
president in the aviation group
at Burns & McDonnell, a Kansas
City, Missouri-based engineering
and design firm. “This will allow
boarding bridges to blend in
better with the terminal from a
visual standpoint.”
The change to the NFPA standard
came after several years of study
and wasn’t taken lightly.
While glass boarding bridges
have been allowed in Europe, Asia,
Canada and other international
airports for many years, their use in
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport
A CLEAR FUTURE FOR
PA SSENGER
BOA R DING
BR IDGES
BY JAMES DOCTORMAN AND RANDY POPE
