Aeroporti di Roma reduces departure delays by 6 minutes with Assaia
With over 50 million passengers annually, Aeroporti di Roma’s Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) is a major international hub. The recent spike in new airlines and routes for 2024 and 2025 created a greater demand for operational efficiency and reliability.
Requirements
ADR needed a solution to help manage this increased traffic, maintain its commitment to on-time performance, and elevate the passenger experience. The challenge was to streamline complex turnaround processes and improve collaborative decision-making across the apron. A key goal is to use AI to provide more accurate predictive off-block times (POBT), ensuring everything stays on schedule and make Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM) even better.
Solution
ADR selected Assaia’s ApronAI solution, making Assaai the first enterprise from ADR’s “Runway to the Future” innovation program to achieve full deployment. The system uses strategically placed cameras to provide real-time visibility into turnaround operations.
The initial phase saw the ApronAI solution go live across 57 gates which handle approximately 75% of the passenger traffic, with the remaining stands currently being rolled out.
ADR has also deepened its partnership by joining Assaia’s Strategic Partner Community through its venture capital arm, ADR Ventures. This collaboration allows ADR to contribute its expertise to guide the future development of Assaia’s technology.
Benefits
The implementation of ApronAI has delivered significant improvements for ADR, its airline partners, and ground handlers and passengers. FCO has been named the best airport in Europe for passenger experience by ACI World for an unprecedented eight consecutive years due to their efforts across the board at ensuring each detail is optimized.
- Improved On-Time Performance: Airlines at FCO experienced an average 6 minute reduction in year on year departure delays with potential savings of an estimated 18.8 million EURO’s per annum
- Optimized Turnarounds: ADR has noted impressive results impacting on time performance. Loading bridges are now connected one minute earlier, and passenger stairs are in place nearly two minutes sooner, improving efficiency across the board and directly impacting the passenger experience, ensuring they don’t need to wait to disembark after a long flight.
- Predictive Off-Block Times: The AI delivers more accurate target off-block times, which integrates directly into ADR’s Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM) platform. This improves predictability, creates more reliable departure sequencing, and helps avoid knock-on delays.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Continuous monitoring provides statistical evidence, allowing ADR to track, compare, and improve performance like never before.
- Enhanced Sustainability & Punctuality: The solution helps improve key performance indicators related to sustainability, cost efficiency, and on-time performance, creating a better experience for passengers and airlines.
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