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As Dubai Airport braces itself for the busiest time of year – dnata has stepped up to ensure that passengers start their journey safely and on time. Playing a key role in the smooth operations on the ramp, are the small but powerful pushback tractors. These high powered ground services equipment, play a crucial role in making sure aircraft are positioned precisely on the taxiway for the aircraft to taxi to their take-off.
Weighing between 30 to 70 tonnes, the tractors can push back a fully loaded A380 aircraft (tow-bar less tractor) weighing 550 tons. As aircraft do not have reverse gears, they rely on a pushback tractor to position it for take-off, safely and with precision. The aircraft is pushed back to the manoeuvring area where its engines can then be started, to taxi safely. dnata currently employ around 200 licenced pushback operators to handle the tractors whose engine capacity ranges from 180 – 750 horse power.
The tractor is connected to the aircraft either directly or through a tow bar. At Dubai International (DXB), dnata has 67 pushback and tow-bar less tractors in service that handle up to 500 push backs every day. A conventional pushback tractor is mostly used with a combination of a tow-bar that is connected to the aircraft for in gate pushback. The tow-bar less pushback tractor connects directly to the nose wheel of the aircraft and pushes the aircraft. This type of tractor is used for both gate pushback and towing the aircraft, and travellers on the A380 will see it push back their aircraft.
dnata handles all flights and baggage at Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), as well as all passengers transiting though DWC and those accessing Terminals 1 and 2 at DXB. The global air services company manages more than 80 million passenger and 140 scheduled airlines annually, departing or arriving Dubai, or in transit en route to their final destination.
