The SESAR JU, in collaboration with ACI Europe, has launched the Digital Transformation Award, to recognise a European airport that has embraced digitalisation, adopting innovative technologies and procedures to improve the safety, capacity, efficiency and environmental footprint of its airside operations. The winner will be announced during the 30th ACI Europe Annual General Assembly.
To compete for this award, airports are required to provide details of an implementation of a solution(s) (SESAR Solutions or solutions developed outside the programme) that match the SESAR vision of a digital European sky, leveraging technologies in any of the following areas:
- Automation and autonomy
- Air/ground integration
- Virtualisation
- Connectivity
- Data sharing
The SESAR vision is outlined in the European ATM Master Plan (figure 14) and digital European sky blueprint. A full list of delivered SESAR Solutions is available in the SESAR Solutions Catalogue. The implementation can be local or part of a Europe-wide initiative and must have been carried out between 2010 and 2020.
Evaluation
The selection process will see one airport awarded the Digital Transformation Award.
Applications will be evaluated based on a combination of following criteria:
- Duration, describing the time it took to implement the solution and whether the airport was a first implementer.
- Collaboration, detailing how the airport involved relevant stakeholders and any innovative approaches to ensure effective collaboration.
- Innovation, describing the digital technologies that have been harnessed to implement the solution.
- Benefits, demonstrating a clear relationship between the digital innovation and the benefits that the solution is bringing in any of the following areas (cost and/or operational efficiency, safety, capacity, environment.
- Communication, documenting how the airport has communicated about the implementation and examples, if any, of how the airport has inspired others to implement.