A Framework for Sustainable and Autonomous Airside Operation Benchmarking

The rapidly evolving aviation environment, driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, encompasses smart operations, communication technology, and automation. Airports are increasingly developing new autonomous innovation strategies to meet sustainability goals and address future challenges, such as shifting labor markets, working conditions, and digitalization (ACI World, 2019). This paper explores high-level governance strategies, a benchmarking study, that facilitates this transition. It aims to identify the key characteristics and features of the benchmarking study applicable to the development of autonomous airside operations. It also examines areas for improvement in operations, focusing on Key Performance Areas (KPAs) and strategic objectives related to airside automation. The findings highlight several essential performance areas and formulate it to a tailored benchmarking study that airports or aviation stakeholders can adopt to develop automation in airside operations. These criteria and features are summarized into a benchmarking framework that reflects strategy objectives. This paper contributes a valuable benchmarking methodology, supporting the growing global aviation demand for improvements toward more sustainable and smart autonomous airside operations. This outcome motivates aviation stakeholders to innovate to meet environmental and social sustainability goals.