Autonomous and electric airside
Electric ground equipment and charging, driverless airside vehicles, electric taxiing, remote towers, A-CDM and digital twins, safety cases and the workforce, as at 2026. Part 4 of the Airside operations series.
What you will be able to do
- ✓ Explain why ground support equipment is going electric and plan a fleet charging scheme within power, time and outage limits.
- ✓ Describe how driverless airside vehicles work, the live deployments at Changi, Haneda and Narita, and how to read trial data before extending a route.
- ✓ Assess how remote and digital towers and shared camera systems change apron management, using the official findings on the VT-GHE wing strike at Vijayawada.
- ✓ Compare onboard and offboard electric taxiing and build a fuel, carbon and cost case for dispatch towing.
- ✓ Apply A-CDM and apron digital twin data correctly, including timely target off-block time updates and checks on data quality.
- ✓ Build and audit a safety case for autonomous airside operations against FAA, Japanese, Singaporean and European approaches, and plan for workforce change.
Course content
Session 1 · Why the airside is going electric
1.1
- Why ground equipment is going electric · free preview
- Electric ground equipment and its batteries
- Charging, power supply and the grid
- Worked example: an overnight charging plan
Session 2 · Driverless vehicles on the apron
1.2
- How a driverless airside vehicle works
- From trials to live service
- Sharing the apron with people and aircraft
- Worked example: reading a month of trial data
Session 3 · Remote and digital towers and the apron
1.3
- Remote and digital towers
- Who manages the apron?
- Blind spots and the limits of a camera
- From the investigation file: a wing strike at Vijayawada, 2021
Session 4 · Electric taxiing
1.4
- Why taxiing is worth electrifying
- Two ways to taxi without engines
- What changes on the taxiway
- Worked example: does dispatch towing pay?
Session 5 · A-CDM and apron digital twins
1.5
- Airport collaborative decision making
- Digital twins of the apron
- Data you can trust
- Worked example: a lightning stop and the off-block time
Session 6 · Safety cases, regulation and the workforce
1.6
- A safety case for autonomy
- What regulators say in 2026
- The workforce: new roles, new skills
- Worked example: auditing a trial safety case
Who this course is for
Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.