During the program, the selected start-ups had the opportunity to work at and develop their projects within the airport with the support of ADR’s innovation team and ICC’s Business Mentor.
FIUMICINO – At the Terminal 1 of Leonardo da Vinci Airport, it was completed the second Runway to the Future Acceleration Program for startups with the “Results Day” event held at the Innovation Hub of Aeroporti di Roma. The event was attended by the 12 startups selected from the 116 applicants to the second “Call4Ideas”.
The innovative projects, focused on the airport sector and many of which based on Artificial Intelligence solutions, have “landed” at Fiumicino airport from all over the world: Aeroficial Intelligence (Austria), Argos AI (Turkey), Auxilia (France), DesignHubz (UAE), Essential Aero (USA), Guimu Robot (China), Hamsa ID (Netherlands), Matroid (USA), Proteso (Italy), ReLearn (Italy), Wintics (France) , ZestIOT (India).
The ADR’s Innovation Cabin Crew (ICC) team explained the journey made over the past six months by the start-ups in the eight macro-areas to the program’s partners: Autogrill, Aws, Enav, Eurocontrol and Terna listened as : Predictive Maintainance, Enhance Terminal Processes, Improve Airside Operations (improving aircraft turnaround), Environmental Impact (reducing environmental impact and energy consumption), Community & Sustainability (creation of value for the local community), Passenger Experience (improving quality for passengers), Commercial Opportunities (increasing sales opportunities), and Disruptive Solutions (that can be applied to our airport smart city).
At the end of the program, an evaluation phase will begin for potential investment by ADR Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital fund launched in February 2023 and fully owned and supported by ADR itself. The fund already has a portfolio of two startups: Ottonomy, a startup with autonomous robots capable of making contactless deliveries in both indoor and outdoor environments, and ASSAIA, which has developed software combining artificial intelligence and computer vision to provide airports and airlines with complete visibility of airport turnaround operations, enabling to predict problems and automate processes to make them more efficient.
“We are thrilled with the success of the second “Runway to the Future” program. After the first program that saw 50% of the projects brought into operation in the complex airport machine, the collaboration with start-ups and partners of excellence has allowed us to identify further innovative solutions that will contribute to improve our airport performances , which is increasingly sustainable and passenger-oriented,” said the ADR Innovation & Quality Vice President, Emanuele Calà. “The success of the Runway to the Future programme confirms ADR’s commitment to the development of a state-of-the-art airport, capable of responding to the needs of a continuously evolving industry. For this purpose ADR set up a Corporate Venture Capital company (ADR Ventures) in 2023 to support the growth of the most promising start-ups and accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions. Today’s Results Day was a unique opportunity to share the progress made with industry stakeholders and create the conditions to further develop concrete and business-driven innovation that can make available to our passengers the advantages of the airport of the future ”.
The Aeroporti di Roma Innovation Hub is supported by the holding company Mundys, as well as by some representatives of “Airports for Innovation” network (as AENA and Nice Cote d’Azur Airport). At the end of the event, it was announced the closure of the 3rd Global Call4Startups that it will be on March 22nd.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
