Inaugural Innovation Summit focuses on opportunities for local businesses
- London Gatwick hosted its first ever Innovation Summit in its specialist, on-site STEM Centre.
- Representatives from more than 50 organisations, including local businesses, universities, airlines and Chambers of Commerce attended.
- London Gatwick is a VINCI Airports Innovation Centre of Excellence.
Local and regional businesses joined universities, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Innovate UK, Chambers of Commerce and global companies at London Gatwick’s inaugural Innovation Summit yesterday.
The Future Airports event was hosted at London Gatwick’s STEM Centre, with representatives from more than 50 organisations hearing from American technology company Nvidia’s Head of Smart Cities and Spaces, David Gregory.
London Gatwick’s Head of Innovation, Abhi Chacko, spoke about the airport’s innovation approach and collaboration with airlines and technology partners to drive new ideas, along with industry professionals from the likes of VINCI, easyJet and IAG.
Businesses across the region learnt about future opportunities for working with London Gatwick as the airport looks for innovative ways to create a more seamless passenger experience and other opportunities within the aviation industry.
Abhi Chacko, Head of Innovation, London Gatwick said: “The Innovation Summit proved a fantastic opportunity for London Gatwick to collaborate with airlines and other partners across the industry, sharing progress and exploring new ideas to shape the future of aviation. We have a strong reputation in the industry for our innovative solutions to improve operational efficiency and enhance passenger experience.
“We were delighted to welcome such a broad range of organisations to the airport, including a number of businesses from across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and London, and look forward to developing relationships to continue working together.”
Chris Hurley, Director of Brighton-based company Airware, said: “It was great to be at the first London Gatwick Innovation Summit and learn more about the different transformational solutions that are being developed and tested.
“London Gatwick has been an integral innovation partner and has enabled Airware to demonstrate the capabilities of our next generation of mobile passenger processing technologies to airports, airlines, ground handlers and other industry stakeholders from across the globe. With support from the innovation team, we have launched the solution in a live environment and continue to prove that new innovations start at Gatwick.”
London Gatwick – a VINCI Airports Innovation Centre of Excellence - is working on a range of pioneering projects, including app-driven passenger processing, autonomous vehicles, real-time airfield monitoring, and Smart Stand.
If successful, the latter – an ambitious, first-of-its-kind trial in partnership with easyJet – will enable a controller to manage the aircraft turn from a control room, helping reduce flight delays and improving the passenger experience.
With 41 million annual passengers, London Gatwick is the UK’s second largest and one of Europe’s top ten airports. It is a vital piece of national infrastructure that drives both the national and regional economies by generating £5.5 billion GVA and supporting over 76,000 jobs (2023). Almost 60 airlines fly from the airport to over 150 short-haul and more than 50 long-haul destinations. With a declared capacity of 55 movements an hour, London Gatwick is the most efficient single runway airport in the world.
The airport is located 28 miles south of the UK capital and is extremely well-connected, with more than a quarter of England’s population (15 million people) – including all of London – less than one hour away by road or rail. A six-year, £2 billion sustainable growth programme includes an ambitious plan to be a net zero airport by 2030 and to increase capacity by bringing the airport’s existing Northern Runway into routine use, alongside its Main Runway. Vinci Airports owns a 50.01% stake in the airport, with Global Infrastructure Partners managing the remaining 49.99%.
The world’s leading private airport operator, VINCI Airports operates more than 70 airports in 14 countries. Thanks to its expertise as a global integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and manages airports by providing its investment capacity and its know-how in optimizing operational performance, modernizing infrastructure and managing their operations and environmental transition. VINCI Airports is the first airport operator to have committed to an international environmental strategy in 2016, to achieve the goal of net zero emissions across its entire network by 2050.
For more information:
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is a leading infrastructure investor that specializes in investing in, owning and operating some of the largest and most complex assets across the energy, transport, digital infrastructure and water and waste management sectors. With decarbonization central to our investment thesis, we are well positioned to support the global energy transition. Headquartered in New York, GIP has offices in Brisbane, Dallas, Hong Kong, London, Melbourne, Mumbai, Singapore, Stamford and Sydney.
GIP has approximately $115 billion in assets under management. Our portfolio companies have combined annual revenues of approximately $71 billion and employ over 116,000 people. We believe that our focus on real infrastructure assets, combined with our deep proprietary origination network and comprehensive operational expertise, enables us to be responsible stewards of our investors' capital and to create positive economic impact for communities. For more information, visit www.global-infra.com.
