Government Of Canada Invests in Technologies for Airport Passenger Bridges

Mississauga, Ontario | November 21, 2005

The Honourable Albina Guarnieri, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Member of Parliament for Mississauga East-Cooksville, on behalf of the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, today announced a $1.8-million investment in R&D for new technologies for airport passenger bridges that will result in safer operation and facilitate faster boarding and deplaning.

This Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) investment is part of a $6.1-million project being undertaken by Indal Technologies Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario.

"Indal has the winning combination - ground-breaking technologies and entrepreneurial vision," said Minister Emerson. "These types of innovative R&D projects are the engines of our modern economy that allow us to sustain our high quality of life."

"It is essential that government and industry come together to make sure that Canadians benefit from a thriving aerospace and defence sector," said Minister Guarnieri. "This project is a perfect example of such a constructive partnership."

The investment will enable the company to develop new systems to better help the pilot taxi the plane to the gate and to allow the operators of passenger-boarding bridges and specialty vehicles, such as cargo loaders or catering trucks, to efficiently and safely dock their vehicles with the aircraft. The system will reduce cost, improve safety and reduce damage from accidents that sometimes occur in the loading and unloading of passengers, cargo and provisions.

The project will develop Indal's specific capabilities in aircraft recognition technologies, electro-optic targets and marking systems, guidance display systems, and a new "bridge-talk" system for coordinating the movement of multiple bridges simultaneously for aircraft that have multiple exits.

"This project positions Indal to meet the emerging requirements for automatically operating passenger bridges and other manned and unmanned operations around docked aircraft," said Vince Lacey, President and CEO of Indal Technologies Inc. "TPC's investment will help us maintain our leadership in the design and manufacture of this automation technology."

Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) is a key instrument for advancing research and development toward commercialization. Working in partnership with innovative companies across Canada, TPC shares in the cost of private sector technology projects in aerospace and defence, in environmental technologies, and in enabling technologies such as information and communications technologies, and biotechnology.

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