Why predictability is the new performance for the world’s airports

Last month I was at the International Airport Summit in Berlin, where one theme cut through almost every discussion, panel and product demo: predictability, not performance is now what airports care most about.

For years the industry has talked about capacity growth – more movements, more stands, more passengers. But in Berlin it was clear that the conversation has shifted. Airports are no longer simply chasing more; they’re chasing more consistent, with that consistency being their ticket to growth.

Berlin Brandenburg CEO, Aletta von Massenbach, addresses delegates at the International Airport Summit.

Whether it’s stands, turns, passenger flows, air traffic, asset reliability or staffing, the strongest demand is now for tools that reduce day-to-day variability. And that plays directly into where NATS – and tools like Demand Capacity Balancer, Intelligent Approach and Intelligent Stand Manager – can help, allowing airports to deliver to plan more often.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, AI was seen as one of the keys to delivering that predictable performance. For lots of airports, AI is no longer something they are experimenting with – it’s fully operational. What they want are plug-in, low-friction tools that help their experts make better decisions in real time: turnaround prediction, stand allocation, asset maintenance and even energy optimisation. Nobody has the appetite for traditional software platforms that take years to deliver. They want simple, deployable solutions that importantly, their frontline teams can trust.

To achieve that, we’re going to have to see far greater system and data integration. Airports are looking for everything – ATC, stands, maintenance, security, passenger and air traffic flows – to be connected, not separated. They want a single operational picture, not 10 different pictures on 10 different systems.

Where this is already happening – at Hong Kong International for example, where they’ve been using Searidge’s Chorus platform for digital apron management (among other things) – it’s delivering major benefits in terms of operational predictability and punctuality. And we have a similar project underway with Manchester Airport Group to support their £2bn investment plans. The idea of a digitally connected airside, powered by prediction and real-time intelligence, is no longer aspirational – it’s becoming the new norm and it’s something you can read more about in this month’s ELEVATE.

To me, all of the above can be best summarised as ‘capacity, not concrete’. With budgets tight and expansion politically and environmentally difficult in many places, airports are under pressure to improve capacity and performance using their existing infrastructure.

That means prediction, sequencing, automation and digital twins unlocking hidden capacity and value using existing infrastructure. That’s a story that we’ve become very well versed in here in the UK where NATS has become a world leader at squeezing a few extra percentage points of performance using tools like Strategic Airport Capacity Management from already busy runways. It’s why we deployed Intelligent Approach at Heathrow as a world first back in 2015, and why airports around the world have sought our expertise through Airport Capacity Enhancement studies for decades.

One final thought from Berlin – sustainability is no longer a corporate strategy, it’s an operational requirement. I heard more than one person describe their airport as a ‘small city’, and they’re looking for measurable, data-led ways to cut waste and reduce emissions, while ensuring their environmentally driven investments deliver for them. That’s a message that chimes with what we’re doing with Clarity to help airports identify the most effective sustainability options – again, it’s all about delivering that predictability.

If you want to find out more about how NATS is helping deliver more predictable operations for some of the world’s busiest airports, get in touch.