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PTE brings together airport and aviation professionals, software vendors, equipment manufacturers, and aviation ecosystems. While the exhibition floor was filled with impressive solutions, the most valuable insights came from conversations with airport operators themselves. My time was mostly spent at our booth discussing with potential clients, although there would have been plenty more to explore.
Regulation is driving change, but it is not the whole story
Many airports are facing demands from the upcoming Common Project 1 (CP1) regulation pushing airports towards a shared, real-time operational view. From our discussions, it was clear that the regulation is a major driver, especially for large EU airports targeting compliance by 2027. At the same time, many smaller and non-EU airports see the same requirements as relevant even without regulatory pressure.
What stood out even more clearly is that change is increasingly driven by operations. Decisions about future systems are coming from the people running daily operations and working in the Airport Operations Center, not just from IT.
Situational awareness is the core challenge
The most consistent theme across discussions was situational awareness for all airport operations. Airports are no longer asking if they need it, but how to implement it in practice. Many airports still operate with multiple disconnected systems, where data is scattered and coordination is difficult. This slows down decision-making between stakeholders and increases operational complexity.
An interesting topic, also raised by Jani Ceder from Finavia in his panel discussion, is the different ways airports approach the APOC (Airport Operations Center). Some are bringing people physically together, while others focus on enabling virtual collaboration through shared data and role-based access. With both approaches, the direction is towards a shared operational picture and proactive, data-driven operational management.
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Technology trends: strong ideas, mixed maturity
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During PTE London we saw strong interest in seamless travel, biometrics, journey-based tickets and baggage tracking. Artificial intelligence was present in almost every discussion, but often still approached from a technology-first perspective rather than through operational use cases that deliver clear business value.
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From real need to a scalable solution
For Siili Solutions, PTE was a valuable opportunity to engage with relevant airports across Europe and beyond. This year, we participated together with Finavia, Vaisala and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) under the “Future-Proof Airports” concept, combining AOS situational awareness with AWANTO weather intelligence.
This approach resonated well. AOS was originally developed together with Finavia airport operations to solve real, day-to-day challenges, with regulatory compliance coming later as a natural outcome. The solution has since scaled from one airport to several, serving also multiple clients.
The takeaway
Airports are not lacking technology. They are looking for ways to turn complexity into clarity, to connect fragmented systems, align stakeholders and support real-time decision-making. This is where shared situational awareness becomes essential.
AOS – common situational awareness & real-time decision support
https://siili.pro/aos
AWANTO – weather solution from real-time observations to 48h forecast
https://awanto.fmi.fi/
About the author |
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Karoliina Tiuraniemi |
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