News

Dr Mirjam Wiedemann, Lecturer & Researcher in Aviation, University of South Australia and Henrik Rothe have invited researchers from University of South Australia and Cranfield University (UK) and Australian and European airport representatives to workshop strategies and implications for land-use and terminal space during COVID and beyond.

In these turbulent times, airports need to identify opportunities to diversify revenue streams.  Can this be done by better connections with your city and new land developments?  What will be the new normal for airport passenger service along the journey?  The Urban Turbine research project aims to redefine the city-airport relationship by improving the value that airports deliver to all stakeholders in their communities.  How will the passenger journey be impacted post-COVID?  Our research can support you to better manage demand and capacity in responding to future travel requirements.

We are proud to announce that Salzburg, Austria’s largest Regional Airport became the first airport sponsor of the Urban Turbine Research Project. Thank you to the team which is working very hard to support this Foundation research in unprecedented times and unseen drop of passenger volumes.

Optimising the way passengers travel from the airport to hotels in more than 40 Ski-resorts will support the airport in defining the infrastructure requirements especially for the excessive peaks in the short winter season. In close collaboration with tour operators and airlines, we will assess the Passenger Process along the Journey improving the Passenger experience and reducing the operational costs for all stakeholders. This research is supporting sustainable development targets and enabling aviation to recover from C-19 challenges. Results will be presented at the next Urban Turbine Research Project workshop at the Opening Event of the new DARTeC facility in Cranfield. Airport CEO Bettina Ganghofer, MA and Executive Vice President Technical Services Rudolf Lipold express their high expectations into this unique collaboration between academics – airports – industry/planning experts searching for and implementing the right way of the airport’s passenger facilities.

Covid-19 has shuttered the aviation industry and many airports and airlines are devastated with a sudden drop of business. The Urban Turbine Research Project has already started to investigate how a broader spectrum of non-aeronautical revenues and coordinated planning policies can integrate airports better into day-to-day life of cities and regions, resilient to shock-waves tackling the industry in regular cycles. Thank you Channel NewsAsia Singapore for the opportunity to share our views.

We are looking forward to welcoming airports who will thrive in the research of future airport infrastructure and business models to our Urban Turbine workshop on 13 November at Cranfield University.

Watch the Urbane Turbine research project video

The hard work in developing and promoting the Urban Turbine research project in recent years has been recognised in Passenger Terminal World’s Annual Showcase 2020 issue, and this was noted by industry experts at IATA GAPS in Warsaw and the ACI Commercial Forum.

Mats Klevjer from airport advertising company Airmagine, with whom Henrik Rothe connected at a recent aviation industry forum, said: “It was interesting to see and hear how hands-on you approach the industry…I’m sure innovation and improved technology and services will help bridge the gap between the airports and their local communities.” Patrick Bohl, Head of Retail and Advertising at Budapest Airport, also praised the research project, stating that it “really is fascinating.”

The new podcast by New Civil Engineer! This one features the fantastically interesting Henrik Rothe and is all about the Future of Airports Urban Turbine Research Project and shares his thoughts on the role that airports of the future could have in connecting existing #infrastructure , #cities and #communities https://www.newcivilengineer.com/podcast/.

London Heathrow Centre of Excellence for Sustainability Think Tank looking into Urban Turbine based strategies reducing carbon emissions at airports without compromising capacity – productive kick-off to a collaboration with Mike Mulheron and Surrey University.

Good to see such positive comments towards opportunities the Urban Turbine research offers to the majority of airports, the smaller and the regional ones, the backbone of regional connectivity

Thanks to an overwhelming attendance of our Beautiful breakfast and stimulating feedback to our research we look forward to engage with all those airports and industry partners in the next stage of our investigation into future airport models.

 

We are delighted to present our thoughts about future airport in the March edition of the Passenger Terminal World magazine [page 84 to page 90] alongside Passenger Terminal EXPO in London.

https://www.ukimediaevents.com/publication/23a799e9/86

 

We are delighted to launch the web page for the Urban Turbine research project.

Thanks to the contribution by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and generous support of all members of the Urban Turbine research project we were able to summarise what has been gathered in recent months and years, conclude, formulate targets and enter the next stage of the research.

We are very grateful to all the conversations leading to this platform, in particular airport managers and planners from all London airports, Andrew Goodenough of Bristol Airport, Manchester Airport Group, Glasgow Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Brussels Airport, Vantaa Airport City, Finavia, Atlanta International Airport, Riga International Airport, San Antonio International Airport, GVK/Bangalore Airport and Melbourne Airport.

Urban Turbine research project introduced to an audience of forward thinking airport managers and industry experts alongside Amadeus’ Airport Common Use Service (ACUS), Anne Maire Pellerin’s future airport security concepts, Cape Verde Airports and Greater Toronto Airports Authority during the Distributed Airport Infrastructure panel discussion at the IATA Global Airport Passenger Summit in Athens, proposing innovation stimulated by IATA and ACI’s shared NEXTT programme. Thank you, Anne Carnall for the invitation, we look forward to continue this conversation.

While the country is looking towards Heathrow, following the Government’s green light in June for a third runway, we have turned our eyes towards the country’s regional airports. These airports (outside London) have for the last two years accounted for half of all passenger flights into the UK (see aviation trends). They help to drive the regional economies by making the wider UK more accessible for tourism, providing significant employment locally and enabling the movement of freight; contributing significantly to the country’s GDP. Jen Samuelson and Alice Drew presented their paper at the European Council of Spatial Planners ‘Young Planners Workshop’ in Paris.

Jen and Alice will present at Regional Airports and their future growth at the next Solent #WomeninPlanning event.

The productive atmosphere revealed during the Urban Turbine brain storming workshop in the Sandpit Learning Design Studio at Martell House. Thanks to the outstanding success of the first baggage from-home pick-up service set up by AirPortr for British Airways to three major London airports the first independent research project was launched, the Baggage-free terminal. Building on the valuable experience gathered by Randel Darby and Paul Mewett and their team we will investigate the further expansion of the off-terminal baggage handling.