Dabico Airport Solutions has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Munich Airport to develop fully automated passenger boarding bridges. The agreement was signed during this year’s Inter Airport Europe, which is taking place this week in Munich.
In line with the agreement, the two companies will determine the requirements for autonomous operation of the passenger boarding bridges and will use this as the basis to develop a pilot system or Munich Airport. The development of the autonomous boarding bridges is part of a digitalisation strategy at Munich Airport that encompasses operational, commercial and passenger-friendly processes and technologies.
“With this pioneering project, we aim to reduce the duration of docking and undocking operations for passenger boarding bridges, thereby increasing the operational reliability and efficiency of our handling processes,” said Jost Lammers, CEO of Munich Airport.
He was joined by Alexander Pfurr, Managing Director and CCO of Dabico Airport Solutions Germany, who said: “The long-standing cooperation with Munich Airport, as well as the acquisition of the passenger boarding bridge manufacturer FMT in January, lay the foundation for the Dabico Group to continue developing innovative integrated systems.”
Processes already in place at Munich as part of its digitalisation strategy include biometric boarding pass checks, biometric access to gates and lounges, “smart trolleys” for navigation, chatbots for passenger inquiries, self-order terminals in restaurants and robotic projects for ground handling services as well as robot cleaners in Terminal 2.
