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| The order includes an E8000 escape stair, which was also developed for use with wide-bodied aircraft |
The airport company New Doha International Airport (NDIA), which is currently building a new airport to accommodate the vigorous expansion of Qatar Airways, has signed a 19.7 m€ agreement with Rosenbauer for the supply of 18 fire fighting vehicles, including a multi-year maintenance and service contract. As well as 11 PANTHER (8x8 and 4x4) ARFF vehicles and an E8000 escape stair, the order also includes six different rescue and fire fighting vehicles.
The vehicles are to be supplied by as early as October 2012.
The Panthers are based on four- and two-axled chassis and have engine outputs of 1260 HP and 705 HP respectively. Able to accelerate from 0 – 80 km/h in less than 21 seconds and with a top speed of over 135 km/h, the PANTHER 8x8 meets the specifications of top-category (Cat.10) airports.
In service worldwide, the ARFF vehicle PANTHER 8x8 was specifically developed for deployment at international airports having two or more runways. These are the airports most likely to handle 'superjumbo' airliners such as the A380. Here, the high-performance vehicle PANTHER 8x8 permits the shortest possible response times for getting large extinguishant payloads to the fireground and discharging them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The order includes an E8000 escape stair, which was also developed for use with wide-bodied aircraft. The E8000 does an excellent job of evacuating passengers efficiently and safely in an emergency. Rosenbauer escape stairs are in service at the international airports of Singapore, Berlin, Munich, Paris and Frankfurt, to name but a few.
The New Doha International Airport is set to commence operations in 2012 and will have Airbus A380-ready runways and taxiways right from the outset. With the fleet of emergency vehicles it has ordered, the new airport will be ideally equipped to meet the heightened requirements brought about primarily by the entry into service of the ‘superjumbo’ Airbus A380.
