With challenges such as capacity constraints, security threats and sustainability mandates exerting ever-increasing pressure on the aviation sector, airports around the world are looking into the latest advancements in technology to improve efficiency and cost management.
One company offering an innovative solution is Indian tech giant WAISL, which has developed AeroWise, an Airport Predictive Operations Centre (APOC). An APOC operates as an ‘autopilot’ for airport management, using real-time information sources, digital-twin innovation and AI to predict issues and offer solutions.
WAISL’s platform integrates 40-plus IT and OT systems covering 100 or more essential key performance indicators (KPIs), transitioning airports away from fragmented legacy technology to a unified system.
Preetham Kamesh, global chief business officer at WAISL, explains: “AeroWise is designed to make airports move from reactive to predictive operations, allowing them to have early warning signals of what could go wrong and making them more prepared to handle traffic, manage disruptions and serve customers by anticipating issues.”
“AeroWise is probably the first of its kind that covers the airport end-to-end, including airside, terminal and landside,” he adds.
An opportunity for innovation
WAISL has been serving airports for the past 15 years. When Kamesh joined the company a little over three years ago, he quickly realised that airports, alongside the entire aviation sector, are lagging behind in the adoption of new technology.
“They’re still working with very old legacy technologies,” he says. “It’s surprising, considering how critical airport infrastructure is.
“I realised that they were at the cusp of understanding the benefits of using new technology, and that there was a massive opportunity for us to build something for the industry that could be the next generation of how airports are run and operate.
“The smarter digital airport of tomorrow is what we could see coming in the next few years,” he adds.
The company started building AeroWise three years ago, subsequently launching it at Hyderabad Airport in India, which handled 29.5 million passengers in the 2024-2025 financial year. It is now offering its solution to industry stakeholders on a wider scale.
“I think the timing is right. Airports need [this technology] more and more,” says Kamesh. “We want to deploy it at very favourable pricing to airports across the globe, so they start adopting the new technology.”
The concrete benefits
To gather information on the tangible benefits of AeroWise for airports, WAISL commissioned the Boston Consulting Group to evaluate the business value for stakeholders across categories including increased capacity, increased revenue, and cost efficiency. The exercise revealed that AeroWise could save a medium-sized airport between $10-15 million (£7.5-11 million) per year, while smaller airports could see savings of $2-6 million (£1.5-4.5 million).
For example, AeroWise could allow airports to raise revenues by speeding up passengers’ journey through security and check-in, thereby increasing their dwell time in duty free. In addition, the technology could help airlines improve their resource management and fuel efficiency. All of this is managed through a real time digital twin of the entire airport that visualises, reports and manages operations proactively.
“At the end of the day, all this new technology has to have a return on investment,” says Kamesh.
“These [figures] have to be proven through the AI models and all the benefits [in practice], but we do have a clear hypothesis.
“We manage 100 KPIs of an airport within our solution, and how those KPIs are improved is directly linked to a financial value gain for the airport.”
Multiple applications
AeroWise functions through the use of multiple technologies, such as video analytics, LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors, dome cameras, radar, and ADS-B systems. Notably, this allows AeroWise to track passengers from curb to gate, generating data that supports several areas of crowd management – from monitoring queues at check-in counters and predicting potential no-shows to using sentiment analysis to gauge how passengers may be feeling.
Moreover, AeroWise has multiple airside applications. WAISL’s Unified Total Airside Management (UTAM) system, known as TurnWise, is the platform’s specific module for improving turnaround times and efficiency.
“From the time an aircraft is 70 miles away from an airport, we start monitoring when it will land, the time it will take to get to the stand, how the ground handlers have to get ready for it and if there are any delays or [adverse] wind conditions, and consequently manage the preparedness of the terminal to engage the landed aircraft,” says Kamesh.
“This is the most critical part for airlines and airports, because an airline makes more money when they are in the skies. So, by improving their on-time departure and arrival, [TurnWise reduces time spent] on the ground.”
“It’s a massive increment to the airline’s revenue, and that’s how airports get more efficient for the airline.”
Increasing capacity
Another noteworthy benefit of AeroWise is that it could help airports find ways to increase their capacity through operational efficiency rather than capital expenditure. This is a particularly promising possibility for UK airports like Gatwick, which is the busiest single-runway airport in Europe, and Heathrow, which runs at 99 percent capacity. Although expansions are planned for the airports, with a third runway set to be built at Heathrow, these will not reach completion until the mid-to-late 2030s at the earliest, if at all.
“[Airports] in Europe and the UK don’t have space to expand, so they have to become more efficient operationally to increase capacity,” says Kamesh. “These solutions are even more important for airports in the UK, [but] adoption has been really slow.
“We did research on 250 airports worldwide. In Europe, 75% of airports don’t have anything like an APOC […] and even if the APOCs exist, they don’t have predictive capabilities. There is a similar trend across the globe.
“They should know that these solutions do not have to break the bank – they can be quite modular and easy to invest in.”
Predictive technology
Importantly, AeroWise’s predictive capability could help airports make more informed decisions by running ‘what if’ simulations programmed with historical data and using AI modelling to identify the easiest path to recovery.
Examples range from less consequential scenarios such as stuck gate doors, minor aircraft delays and understaffing on check-in counters, to serious disruptions including hurricanes, sandstorms and conflicts like the current situation in the Middle East, preventing aircraft from landing as airspaces are closed or runaways are not accessible. The system can then identify how to manage passenger flow to avoid unnecessary queues and delays, provide timescales for returning to normalcy, and alert various people on the ground to improve efficiency.
In 2021, the Single European Sky ATM Research 3 Joint Undertaking (SESAR 3 JU) was established as the technological pillar of the EU’s Single European Sky policy. The initiative aims to accelerate the development of technological solutions for aviation under the Digital European Sky programme. Kamesh explains that SESAR identified APOCs as tools that could support the digital transformation of airports. However, he claims that many of these existing APOCs lack predictive abilities.
“Actually, those are just operation centres with a lot of stakeholders in them,” he says. “There is no real prediction simulation happening in these centres, and that’s what we are bringing to the table now.”
Driving adoption globally
Over the next four to five months, AeroWise will be going live at Delhi Airport, which ranks among the world’s top 10 busiest airports, and is close to implementation in other parts of the world, such as Australia and the Middle East. By the end of 2026, WAISL plans to roll out the technology at two sites outside of India.
“For 2026, our first ambition is to have AeroWise up and running in all parts of the world, even if it’s at one or two airports,” says Kamesh.
“We want that to be the benchmark and baseline for all airports to follow. Pushing adoption is most important for us.”
In order to achieve this, WAISL is focused on improving integration with all existing systems at airports, and lowering barriers to adoption with favourable pricing models and a modular framework. This allows customers to purchase standalone tools such as TurnWise or crowd management technology, while retaining the flexibility to add further functionality as their needs evolve.
“Today, technology is available faster and is more reliable,” says Kamesh. “We want to bring that to this industry, which I think is going to need it, not only for cost savings, but for safety reasons.
“That’s becoming more and more important – not just for cyber security, but even in terms of looking at behaviours of people to make sure there’s no risk of anything happening, detecting foreign objects airside, and preparing for changing climates.”
He says that one of the biggest challenges in implementing AeroWise has been tackling the lack of collaboration between airports and airlines, as data is needed from both parties.
“[Collaboration] should happen more and more, where airports, airlines and ground handlers come together for the benefit of everyone,” emphasises Kamesh.
“That’s something that we are driving […] AeroWise is leaning towards not just providing a predictive operations centre, but becoming the virtual total airport management solution for the entire aviation industry.”
