St. Petersburg IT specialists hacked foreign airfield equipment that had been idle in Pulkovo for two years. Now the equipment with updated software (SW) is working properly, said Leonid Sergeev, CEO of "Northern Capital Air Gateways" (which manages the airport).
Pulkovo is once again using self-propelled boarding stairs and aircraft de-icing machines of foreign manufacture.
Now everything works very well. Oddly enough, the tweaked "brains" with a Russian character work better in winter.
Sanctions are to blame
Western companies, due to sanctions imposed against Russia, stopped supplying spare parts, as well as servicing aircraft and airfield equipment. Therefore, the management of many airports was forced to order equipment "through roundabout ways" from Europe, Sergeev said. According to him, the import of equipment through third countries increased its cost by 40%.
Now Russia is doing everything to avoid dependence on imports. For example, Pulkovo has already completely replaced IT equipment with domestic equipment. Airport employees participated in the development and testing of de-icing machines and snow removal airfield equipment. Other projects are also developing in this niche, Sergeev summarized.
