How Airports of Rome is embedding open innovation from the inside out

c: ADR

For many airport innovation teams, the challenge is not the absence of good ideas – it’s translating those ideas into action, navigating complex organisations, and delivering real, measurable outcomes. At Airports of Rome (ADR), innovation isn’t a standalone function – it’s something that’s being deliberately embedded into the fabric of the business.

What open innovation means for airports

When Giovanni joined the airport in early 2023, the mandate was clear: “We need to build and speed up this innovation presence at the company,” he recalled. “The aim is always to stay at the forefront, let our airports transform towards the airport of the future.”

For ADR, open innovation is not a buzzword, but a way of doing business: “Open innovation for me means players of the same industry joining forces to address jointly common challenges. In this industry, it’s way easier than any other, because we don’t really compete. I think we can say that out loud as airports. Joining forces is natural.”

That non-competitive environment, he explained, creates an opportunity for airports to collaborate rather than duplicate effort. “Collaboration, I think, will be the key from now to 2035.”

Giovanni believes open innovation is critical for any airport because when he joined the industry, he noticed how siloed it was.

Innovation Cabin Crew: a ground-up approach

One of the most distinctive features of ADR’s innovation model is its Innovation Cabin Crew – a team of 25 colleagues drawn from across business units and staff functions who perform this role on top of their daily jobs. These employees act as startup mentors, pilot owners and innovation champions.

“These colleagues help startups keep the pace during the pilot,” Giovanni explained. “We, as the innovation team, are the facilitators. But the key to our innovation model is our own people.”

He’s particularly proud of the mindset shift the crew has embraced: “They even developed a mindset towards accepting failure. Because managing an airport means that you have to be perfect. Operations in an airport are perfection. But this framework allowed the company to understand that failure is accepted – more than accepted, it is the baseline when it comes to starting your learning curve.”

The team meets monthly, but their real value is delivered during ADR’s six to eight-month accelerator programme, where they engage directly with startups and provide feedback that informs commercial deployment.

C: ADR

How to embed innovation in a legacy environment

Giovanni is frank about the challenges: “Internal engagement, for sure. It’s always a challenge because people obviously change.”

To keep momentum and avoid the perception of innovation as an exclusive club, ADR shuffles its Innovation Cabin Crew every two and a half years. “Otherwise, the risk would be to create this siloed tower of innovation inside our company with people saying, ‘those people think they are better than us.’ No, we have to shuffle.”

They also launched an innovation engagement training programme for all ADR employees to help them understand what the meaning of innovation is, and what it means for ADR.

Another major challenge was creating a pathway from pilot to deployment. “Setting up all the post-pilot process was a mess – in a good way,” he laughed. “It didn’t exist before. But now, thanks to that hard work, we have a 50% conversion rate from pilot to deployment.”

Advice to other airports

For airports just beginning their open innovation journey, Giovanni offers two key pieces of advice:

“First, start with a hub-spoke model. You need endorsement – vertical endorsement – so get key decision-makers on board when you design the strategy.

Second, adopt a test-and-trial approach. It sounds easy, but it’s not, because people must accept failure and understand what it means to risk in this industry.”

Innovation that leaves the lab

ADR’s approach is not just theoretical, it’s delivering results. In March 2025, ADR announced the full deployment of autonomous wheelchairs into operations at Fiumicino Airport.

“These wheelchairs were embedded into our core operations process. We now have four autonomous wheelchairs up and running and available for our PRM passengers at Fiumicino Airport,” said Giovanni. “Seeing the operations side and tech side working together towards the same aim was great.”

The number of PRM passengers at ADR’s airports has risen steadily from 1% to 1.3% of passengers, meaning around 500,000 PRM passengers are estimated to travel through ADR’s airports, so solutions like these make a difference. The average age of the passengers requesting  wheelchair assistance is 66 years of age, and they are very open to trying the autonomous technology, which was a pleasant surprise to Giovanni.

And it’s not just about mobility, ADR is also experimenting with LIDAR-based passenger flow technology to map the curb-to-gate journey. “This is massive,” he said. “You can understand how passengers behave during traffic peaks, plan infrastructure better, sell dynamic advertising and design new venues more effectively.”

The bottom line

At ADR, open innovation is not about tech for tech’s sake. It’s about bringing people together, internally and externally, to solve real operational problems.

As Giovanni puts it, airports may be driven by internal KPIs – but open innovation must also answer to a different kind of accountability: to the founders and startups that take a leap of faith to work with you.

“The first advocates are always the start-up founders,” he says. “If we fail with them, we can turn off the key and close the programme.”

It’s a reminder that the true measure of an innovation programme is not just how many pilots you run – but the people you work with to help their ideas take off.

For airports looking to innovate meaningfully, that people-first, execution-focused approach might just be the real blueprint for success.

C: ADR

Giovanni Gennaro is currently leading the development of ADR’s innovation strategy, with a focus on AI, automation, and robotics pilots aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and elevating the customer experience. He brings prior experience from core operations teams in startups, as well as in strategy and M&A consulting.