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13 March 2024
ADR: THE 2ND ‘RUNWAY TO THE FUTURE’ ACCELERATION PROGRAM OF THE FIUMICINO INNOVATION HUB HAS COME TO AN END
FEATURING 12 START-UPS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. STRONG FOCUS ON AI.

Fiumicino, 13 March 2024 – Today, at the Terminal 1 of “Leonardo da Vinci” airport, it was completed the second Runway to the Future Acceleration Program for startups with the “Results Day” event held at the Innovation Hub of Aeroporti di Roma. The event was attended by the 12 startups selected from the 116 applicants to the second “Call4Ideas”.
The innovative projects, focused on the airport sector and many of which based on Artificial Intelligence solutions, have "landed" at Fiumicino airport from all over the world: Aeroficial Intelligence (Austria), Argos AI (Turkey), Auxilia (France), DesignHubz (UAE), Essential Aero (USA), Guimu Robot (China), Hamsa ID (Netherlands), Matroid (USA), Proteso (Italy), ReLearn (Italy), Wintics (France) , ZestIOT (India).
The ADR's Innovation Cabin Crew (ICC) team explained the journey made over the past six months by the start-ups in the eight macro-areas to the program's partners: Autogrill, Aws, Enav, Eurocontrol and Terna listened as : Predictive Maintainance, Enhance Terminal Processes, Improve Airside Operations (improving aircraft turnaround), Environmental Impact (reducing environmental impact and energy consumption), Community & Sustainability (creation of value for the local community), Passenger Experience (improving quality for passengers), Commercial Opportunities (increasing sales opportunities), and Disruptive Solutions (that can be applied to our airport smart city).
During the program, the selected start-ups had the opportunity to work at and develop their projects within the airport with the support of ADR's innovation team and ICC’s Business Mentor.
At the end of the program, an evaluation phase will begin for potential investment by ADR Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital fund launched in February 2023 and fully owned and supported by ADR itself. The fund already has a portfolio of two startups: Ottonomy, a startup with autonomous robots capable of making contactless deliveries in both indoor and outdoor environments, and ASSAIA, which has developed software combining artificial intelligence and computer vision to provide airports and airlines with complete visibility of airport turnaround operations, enabling to predict problems and automate processes to make them more efficient.

“We are thrilled with the success of the second <<Runway to the Future>> program. After the first program that saw 50% of the projects brought into operation in the complex airport machine, the collaboration with start-ups and partners of excellence has allowed us to identify further innovative solutions that will contribute to improve our airport performances , which is increasingly sustainable and passenger-oriented,” said the ADR Innovation & Quality Vice President, Emanuele Calà. “The success of the Runway to the Future programme confirms ADR's commitment to the development of a state-of-the-art airport, capable of responding to the needs of a continuously evolving industry. For this purpose ADR set up a Corporate Venture Capital company (ADR Ventures) in 2023 to support the growth of the most promising start-ups and accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions. Today's Results Day was a unique opportunity to share the progress made with industry stakeholders and create the conditions to further develop concrete and business-driven innovation that can make available to our passengers the advantages of the airport of the future ”.
The Aeroporti di Roma Innovation Hub is supported by the holding Company Mundys, as well as by some representatives of “Airports for Innovation” network (as AENA and Nice Cote d'Azur Airport). At the end of the event, it was announced the closure of the 3rd Global Call4Startups that it will be on March 22nd.


Aeroporti di Roma, an Mundys Group company, manages and develops the Rome Fiumicino and Ciampino airports and carries out other activities related and complementary to airport management. Fiumicino, the first and only airport in Italy with a Skytrax rating of 5 stars for excellent standards in service quality, has two passenger terminals and is dedicated to business and leisure customers on domestic, international and intercontinental routes; Ciampino is mainly used by low-cost airlines, express-couriers and General Aviation activities. In 2023, Fiumicino and Ciampino airports together reached 44.4 million passengers. Over the past seven years, Aeroporti di Roma has received numerous awards, recognitions and quality certificates. The main ones are the AIRPORT SERVICE QUALITY AWARD, awarded by ACI World for the category of European airports with more than 40 million passengers per year for the years 2017 to 2023 for the high level of passenger satisfaction, and the ACI EUROPE BEST AIRPORT AWARD, category of airports with more than 40 million passengers per year, for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023: the award, in this case, rewards the achievement of excellence in several disciplines, including security, operations, infrastructure, community relations, environmental awareness and customer care. Thanks to these achievements, in 2022, ACI World included ADR in the 'Director General's Roll of Excellence', to which only 69 out of more than 18,000 airports worldwide belong for the very high levels of quality offered to their passengers. SKYTRAX, in 2018 awarded ADR the WORLD'S MOST IMPROVED AIRPORT AWARD based on the evaluation of services experienced by passengers at various airports around the world. In 2022, ADR received the BEST AIRPORT STAFF IN EUROPE AWARD from Skytrax for meeting precise parameters of friendliness and efficiency of customer service staff at the air terminal. ADR also distinguished itself in sustainability by receiving the LEADERSHIP IN SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMITMENT TO RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in 2020. In the field of innovation, in 2021, in connection with the SESAR - Single European Sky project, ADR was awarded the ACI EUROPE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AWARD for the airport's investment in the brand-new Airport Operation Centre, and the implementation of the innovation model focused on Open Innovation. In 2022, Plug and Play Tech Center, the largest private investment fund in Silicon Valley, presented ADR with the 'Corporate Innovation Award' for its commitment to promoting open innovation initiatives and building an innovative 'airport of the future', Award confirmed for 2023. On 12 February 2024, ADR celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. To mark the occasion, the company unveiled a new logo that visually reaches upward to symbolise its ongoing commitment to excellence and innovation.


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