The origin of A4idee actually dates back to the mid-80s. As a secondary school student, the journey from Sassenheim to Schiphol Airport was undertaken by bicycle as a hobby. The international character, the junction of all kinds of traffic flows as well as the impressive aircraft that could be seen at Schiphol at the time, were the most important reasons to regularly make the trip. During secondary school, Schiphol retained its appeal and appeared as a subject in many speeches and presentations.
First experiences as airport engineer
By sheer chance, immediately after completing the higher education program of Civil Engineering, the opportunity arose to work as a junior project manager at the Dutch airport design office. During the first seven years, there was the possibility to work on a wide range of airports, among which:
- Schiphol Airport Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Cairo Airport, Egypt
- Bangkok Airport, Thailand
- Shenzhen Airport, China
- Johannesburg Airport, South Africa
- Vienna Airport, Austria
- Sarajevo Airport, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The work mainly concerned the preparation of development plans for future years, in which an optimal balance was sought in the development of the various airport facilities (runways and taxiways, aprons, terminal buildings, cargo areas, landside road structure, etc.) on the basis of the expected traffic volume. In addition to these design activities, practical experience was gained with the reconstruction of the runway at Sarajevo Airport, which had to be made operational in a short period of time after the war within the framework of the European Rehabilitation Programme.
Experience with Schiphol Airport
During a second period at the same company, the focus shifted almost entirely to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, with civil design activities for the projects listed below:
- Roads and surrounding facilities around the World Trade Center Schiphol
- Reconfiguration of the Rinse Hofstraweg under the extension of Lounge 1, between the C and the D pier
- Runway 18R-36L, including connecting taxiways and de-icing aprons P6 and P7
- Parallel taxiway Z around runway 36C, including de-icing aprons P4 and P5
- Parallel taxiway Y around runway 18C
Services on behalf of A4idee B.V.
In addition to Schiphol, additional experience was gained in the design and development of Marsa Alam Airport in relatively short period of time, with a Greenfield situation, whereby there was a large area of only sand near the coast in Egypt.
The actual establishment of A4idee B.V. as an independent company took place in 2006, with services being provided to Schiphol in the Asset Management department for various subjects. The main focus was on composing and maintaining the technical policies and ideas of the Terminal, which are used as a basis for new construction of, or adaptation to the Terminal. Extensive experience has been gained in the entire development of buildings and building sections, whereby the entire process from initiative up to and including transfer and commissioning has been frequently completed.
At the same time, A4idee has set up new methods for transferring information from projects to management and for the complex process of preparing assets for operational use. Another appealing activity of A4idee was the Development Plan for the Schiphol Terminal Complex. With Asset Management as the client, an ideal layout of a new terminal to be built was worked out, in which the requirements of the most relevant stakeholders could be met.
NS Trainstation Schiphol 1980
Source: Website Stationsweb.nl/Postcard
Since 2014, A4idee can boast broad airside experience through intensive involvement in Schiphol's runway maintenance strategy. As infrastructure ages and air traffic grows, the challenge here is to find the most optimal form of maintenance for the runways, based on a cost-benefit analysis and with the direct involvement of all stakeholders. This process is currently going on.
In addition to Schiphol, A4idee was also actively involved in the following projects:
- Drawing up alternatives for the airside development of Frankfurt Airport
- The design of Lelystad Airport, both airside and landside
- Developing the landside infrastructure at Siem Reap and Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia
- Supervising the certification process and developing the airside design of aprons P1, P2 and P3 at Luxembourg Airport
Airport development is the core business of A4idee. Partly due to the broad experience in the entire development process of airports, from initiative up to and including the operational phase, A4idee is driven to further apply its acquired expertise to new airport specific issues.