Challenge

Airports are an indispensable part of modern infrastructure. However, increased air traffic has often challenged airport capacity, especially during busy summer months where capacity peaks.

Scandinavia’s largest airport, Copenhagen Airport, welcomes over 30 million people annually, and that number is set to increase by a third in the future. However, it’s not a viable option to simply build a new runway.

Solution

In 2020, Netcompany and Copenhagen Airport, one of the world’s most innovative airports, created a joint venture, Smarter Airports, to develop a solution in Total Airport Management (TAM).

The result was AIRHART, a real-time TAM platform. The solution is currently implemented in an early version in Copenhagen Airport and has already merged over 100 different IT systems into a single platform managing core operations. The first version will focus on airside operations (Traffic Management), security, passenger and baggage handling, crowd control, and information systems, and future versions will evolve to cover all airport operations across the board.

»An airport is a complex ecosystem with different environments, services, and vehicles, requiring both energy and resources. At the same time, airports face increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. With AIRHART, our desire has been to create a tool that makes airports more efficient and less harmful to the environment, while still allowing them to expand their capacity to meet future needs«, explains Mehdi Motaghiani.

Results

Smarter Airports expects AIRHART to help reduce energy consumption in better aircraft traffic management, occasionally unused terminals, better predict passenger flows, optimize baggage handling, and improve safety and screening processes using artificial intelligence and machine learning – and the platform will only grow stronger over time.

»In the future, AIRHART will form the core of all daily processes in Copenhagen Airport. The database that AIRHART generates will, over time, form the basis for all daily planning operations of the airport. AIRHART helps the staff in making intelligent decisions, and the system also reduces bottlenecks,« says Mehdi Motaghiani.

»It is a significant advantage to have all data and information consolidated into one system, to which we and our numerous partners in the airport have shared access. With AIRHART, we can continue our efforts to maintain our position as one of the most digitised airports in the world, operated in the most efficient manner. We have just implemented the first phase of AIRHART at Copenhagen Airport. It has been very successful, and we look forward to using the platform to better manage increased traffic during the summer,« says Christian Poulsen, CEO of Copenhagen Airport.

Smarter Airports aims to lead in Total Airport Management and the company is in ongoing dialogue with several of Europe’s other airports about a future collaboration.

As air traffic and climate challenges continue to grow, the world’s airports need to be smarter, more efficient, and less climate-impacting.

AIRHART could be part of the solution.