Our story: Advancing collaboration in the aviation industry

Airports around the world want to continuously improve passenger experience and optimise operational performance, all whilst minimising environmental impact. But success doesn’t come easy. Innovation takes time and requires capital and hard work. And even with the right investments, results aren’t guaranteed. That’s something we want to change. We do this in three ways:

1. Making proven products at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol available to the world

Airports across the globe are facing similar challenges and work towards a common set of strategic goals. Still, when it comes to digital and tech solutions that help us getting there – we tend to do everything by ourselves. We strongly believe that increasing collaboration between airports speeds up the pace of innovation in our sector, helping us to achieve those goals faster.

That's why we’ve decided to share some of the solutions we've developed and implemented at our own airport with other airports around the world. These tech and innovation solutions have proven business value at Schiphol, and are now increasingly doing so at other airports.

Interested in how we could help you accelerate, too? Check out the following solutions:

2. Developing innovation partnerships to address priority areas

Sometimes we come across a technology in the marketplace that has so much potential, that it makes us want to help accelerate its adoption. We know that working with an airport as an external start-up or scale-up can be challenging. It’s a highly regulated environment and not often associated with agility, speed and flexibility. No ideal circumstances for start-ups which need to move fast. It’s the reason we seek out partnerships with innovative companies to fast-track their way to success. We provide the resources, knowledge, testing ground and operational support – in order for innovations to become proven technology and bring value to our airport and beyond.

3. Supporting start-ups that focus on a more sustainable aviation industry

We have the ambition to become the most sustainable airport in the world. It’s an ambition that we can only reach through collaboration with others. That is why we co-invest in sustainable start-ups in the logistics industry. We to do this through SHIFT Invest. They support and invest in innovative start and scale ups in the themes: smart food & agriculture, green industries, energy transition and sustainable mobility and logistics.