Helsinki Airport (Finavia) has been named the winner of this year’s Digital Transformation Award, a joint initiative between the SESAR Joint Undertaking and ACI EUROPE, recognising its pioneering work in digitalising airport operations. The award highlights Finavia's Airport Operational Status (AOS) system, which improves situational awareness, operational efficiency and collaboration across the airport community.
The Digital Transformation Award is presented annually by Airports Council International Europe (ACI EUROPE) in cooperation with the SESAR Joint Undertaking. The award recognises a European airport that has successfully embraced digitalisation, adopting innovative technologies and procedures to improve the safety, capacity, efficiency, and environmental footprint of its operations.
The award was announced during the ACI EUROPE Annual Congress and General Assembly on 23 June in Prague. The jury was impressed the judges with a highly mature, situationally-aware, and operationally-embedded digital platform – delivering clear efficiency savings and enhanced operational resilience.
The AOS is a real-time situational awareness and operational management platform that brings together information from airport processes, passenger flows, baggage operations, turnaround processes, weather conditions, safety and security systems, and other operational data sources into a single view. The system provides airport operators, airlines, ground handling companies, authorities and other airport partners with a common operational picture, supporting faster decision-making and more proactive management of disruptions.
As a mark of their success, the platform has been scaled across 20 airports, improving coordination at network level and showcasing a strategic and future-focused approach to digital transformation.
"Receiving this award is a great recognition for the long-term development work carried out together with the entire airport community and our technology partner Siili Solutions. Airports are complex environments where smooth operations depend on seamless collaboration between numerous stakeholders. AOS enables all parties to operate based on a shared situational picture and real-time information," says Jani Ceder, Vice President, Airport Operations Control & Insight, Helsinki Airport.
Presenting the award, Andreas Boschen, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, said: "This award highlights the real impact of digital transformation in airport operations. Finavia’s AOS platform is a strong example of how shared data and situational awareness can improve efficiency, resilience and coordination across the airport community."
London Heathrow Airport was also highly commended in this category for its continued efforts to harness digital technologies for improved airport performance.
The awards also recognised the achievements of other SESAR Joint Undertaking members. Rome Fiumicino Airport extended its record-winning streak by being named Best Airport in the Over 40 Million Passengers category, while Aena's Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport and London Luton Airport were highly commended in the Best Airport Awards for the 25–40 million and 10–25 million passenger categories, respectively.