Convinced of the need to develop reliable, proven and, above all, systems able to enter the advanced digitization of distributed transport, AVAIRX supports the development and integration of the blockchain for efficient, shared and transparent management and operations:

• transport data,
• digital infrastructures and their protection,
• services, including combined offers and MaaS,

while allowing a collaborative, transparent and confident approach, especially in the current trend for automation and robotization of transport systems.

AVAIRX closely follows the evolution of the start-up Supraways and its development. As the true fifth element of emerging systems, Supraways offers an automated, efficient and environmentally friendly urban passenger and freight transportation system on a dedicated supra aerial infrastructure. The Supras (System for Urban Personalized Rapid and Autonomous transit) are electric powered autonomous and beam-suspended vehicles. They can accommodate between 7 and 9 seated passengers or - in other configurations - goods or waste.

This revolutionary mode of transport offers an alternative solution for transfer to major public transport stations (railway stations, airports, multi-modal hubs, etc.). Supraways is the missing link in the transport offer for suburban areas and for interurban connections. Cities, that have been designed with car-sprawling infrastructure whose budgets and spaces do not allow for the integration of tram and streetcar lines, could see in Supraways a tool for sustainable development of their territory, taking advantage of public supra aerial corridors

The SESNA project is a French national R & D project on autonomous vehicles financed by BPI France and the Ile-de-France region. RATP, CEA, Bureau Veritas, Sherpa Engineering, EasyMile and BMCP are the consortium partners. The project objectives are to assess the risks of cyber attacks and to verify that autonomous vehicles are resistant and resilient to hacker attacks. The CEA Paris-Saclay - which is a sensitive site due to its civil research activities – hosts this trial project. Performed in a semi-open environment, its purpose is to test the viability of an autonomous shuttle system in a continuous and cybersafe operation.

The Airport Access Ideas forum is an interactive discussion forum designed to highlight the technological and behavioral changes in mobility and the key challenges that airports face in order to provide all users with landside access to and from airport and terminal infrastructure.

By dealing with questions of energy distribution network, baggage handling, digitization, turnover and profitability, behaviors and new uses of emerging systems or regulations, AVAIRX has revealed the major issues for the deployment of electric, connected and autonomous vehicles in airports:

• testing intelligent communication systems, inter-vehicle communication networks and smart infrastructure to enable secure communication between vehicles, airport facilities, terminals and cargo / baggage handling;
• identify the development fields of emerging systems for better access to airports in order to avoid the imbalance of current incomes (car parks and real estate)
• develop partnerships to promote the development of MaaS, with the objective of preventing the risk of disintermediation of airports with their passenger customers and the risks of disruption of the ecosystem with airline customers.

As part of its renovation and expansion program, the Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport - currently the largest airport platform in Russia with the ambition of being one of the world's largest hubs – requested ADP Ingénierie (APD-I) for the design of an underground passageway connecting all passenger terminals of the airport. This tunnel, bored under the existing runway, was to house an innovative transport system for passengers and luggage.

With the objective of transporting at least 11.5 million passengers and 5.9 million pieces of luggage a year, the client expressed his preference for either an Automatic People Mover (APM), a wire-guided system or autonomous shuttles.

The mobility and transport needs to, from and within airport platforms are very wide and very diverse. Passengers and employees of companies working in the territory, goods sold in the duty free shops of the airport or to be cargoed by airplanes, flow of luggage ... All, on various terminals, carparks, runways, tracks and roads in connection with public transport, etc. For the Aéroports de Paris Group, passengers and goods flows merging, in a context of rapidly changing intermodal mobility and the continuous quest for improvement and attractiveness of the airport territory, offer an opportunity to invent a new generation of connected airports. This is why, starting in 2014, the ADP Group's Innovation Hub began to explore the potential of autonomous vehicles for its development and operations.