A month of innovation for Aeroporti di Roma

Starting from the first flight of the electric Volocopter and following with the official opening of the Innovation Hub, the month of October 2022 is truly dedicated to innovation at Rome-Fiumicino Airport.

Aeroporti di Roma, Volocopter, UrbanV, and Atlantia conducted the first crewed eVTOL public test flight in Italy on the 7 October, presenting the country’s first advanced air mobility (AAM) testing vertiport and hosting an interactive booking process on Volocopter’s VoloIQ digital platform. In the last twelve months, significant progress has been made on flight technology, vertiport design, and the regulations necessary to enable the first AAM services between Fiumicino Airport and the city of Rome planned to take to the skies by 2024.

The vertiport test was developed in compliance with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) “Prototype Technical Specifications for the Design of VFR Vertiports for Operation with Manned VTOL-Capable Aircraft Certified in the Enhanced Category” and is located within the regulatory sandbox approved by ENAC. It is designed to host various types of tests for both flight and ground operations, with an electric system devised to allow testing of various eVTOL charging technologies (battery swaps, fast charging, etc.).

Secondly, but no less groundbreaking, ADR has launched its Innovation Hub in Rome Fiumicino, on 17 October. Designed to accelerate business, the hub will focus on the development of innovative solutions for airports, hosting startups from Italy and around the world in a 650sqm facility at the heart of the airport’s Terminal 1.

The startups will benefit from both ADR’s direct investment, as well as the full support of a special in-house team of 30 innovators assembled by ADR, dubbed the ‘Innovation Cabin Crew’. They will help the startups test their services in the field, working closely with experts and the travelling public. 

ADR’s innovation programme, currently comprising a €50M investment scheme, kicked off around a year ago with the launch of the first Call for Ideas. This initiative aimed to identify startups from across the world interested in using Fiumicino to develop their solutions in six areas of airport operation: improving punctuality; data-driven systems; process automation; energy efficiency; the passenger digital experience; and omnichannel commerce.

The projects being developed at Fiumicino include both advanced robotics solutions – with ‘machines’ capable of activating themselves when areas of the airport need cleaning, delivering food and beverages to travellers or transporting passengers with reduced mobility in total comfort – and process innovations able to boost, and in some cases revolutionise, the efficiency of certain airport operations such as security checks, aircraft turnaround, baggage transport and reclaim and airport wayfinding.

Find out more about Volocopter taxi: https://bit.ly/3f4E6MD

Find out more about Fiumicino Innovation Hub: https://bit.ly/3W0i6TA