Busan Airport wins a walkover in “Arch of Triumph” award

Last week’s “Arch of Triumph” was won by Rzeszów International Airport in Poland with a combined score of 26.2 - presumably these guys have been told not to smile by their CAFO as they are professional firefighters. They are (from the left): Jacek Haładyj; Bogdan Gołojuch; Mariusz Więcek; Jan Kot (squad chief – holding certificate); Roman Pokrzywa; Paweł Cisło, and; Janusz Skoczylas.

The judge’s comments for this week’s only Arch of Triumph

Peach Osaka Kansai to Busan 13 September

Marc: 3.6 This FTWA evokes just one thing alone in mind…the classic Rose Royce (70s American soul and R&B group) song ‘Car Wash’. We can’t see the tender on the right because of the $10 wash and wax that the poor Peach A320 is receiving.

Paul: 6.6 This staggered crossover of the Busan fire truck water arches is known as “Gangnam Style” (see above) and has been a major influence on popular music dance styles. However, I have deducted a lot of points for the obscured fire trucks. We want to see those artists in action!

Ralph: 3.2 Not very symmetrical, and only one firetruck is (barely) visible.

Steve: 4.0 Points for trying, but a sloppy arch displayed here. It is a shame the fire trucks are not both clearly visible.

Total 17.4 – As the only FTWA this week, Busan wins this week’s ‘Arch of Triumph’, but records the lowest winning score so far.

How water arch scoring works

The scoring starts at 10 (a perfect score therefore being 40, with four judges awarding marks) and points are deducted accordingly if a judge feels that the water arch has been poorly executed. For example, an imbalanced water arch (known in the trade as ‘big boy, little boy’), any applicable violations (such as fire truck misalignment) or a failure to take into consideration conditions on the day (perhaps resulting ‘wind-induced arch drift’, to use the now-accepted industry term) will result in a loss of points. The four individual judge’s scores are then added together to form the final score. Fire truck water arch fans will soon see ‘sack the chief airport fire officer’ scores in the 0-10 range; ‘urgent visit to the fire training ground’ in 10-20; ‘no need to polish their hoses this week’ in 20-30; and ‘buy the fire fighters another pool table for the station’ in the 30-40 range.

So, the challenge to airport PR and marketing teams is this: From now on the quality of your fire truck water arches are being benchmarked – so make sure you brief the fire chief on the importance of getting it right!