The Case for Smarter Facility Management at Airports

Hexagon’s software is used at airports around the world to support projects and operations. What challenges make airports unique when it comes to facility management?

Facility management is a critical component of a well-functioning airport. Compared to other sectors, it takes place in a particularly demanding and complex environment.

First, airports never truly stop. Systems always remain live while thousands of passengers move through terminals and aircraft land, turn around and depart. Maintenance and repairs must happen without disrupting operations.

Second, airports concentrate an unusually wide range of assets in a single environment. Runways, fuel systems and power infrastructure with critical safety implications coexist with retail spaces, lounges, baggage systems and restrooms. Few sites combine civil engineering, utilities, IT systems, security infrastructure and customer-facing facilities at this scale.

Finally, in the post-COVID context, airports are under pressure to handle growing traffic and increase revenues without adding headcount or environmental impact.

Reliability is central to that challenge. That’s the reason why airports increasingly view facilities and asset management as a core operational capability, with a strong focus on responsiveness, risk control and resilience.

What are some of the common challenges that airports face when trying to improve their facility management practices?

The first challenge is fragmentation. Many airports still manage assets across disconnected systems or spreadsheets, with one team tracking inspections, another one work orders and a third tracking contractors.

This makes it particularly important to gather information on one platform so that these teams can share the same source of truth. This platform, often an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) platform, needs to act as a “super-connector” that can interact with the ERP, gather real-time data from IoT sensors or SCADA systems and make information visible via other systems, such as Power BI, for example.

The second challenge is resistance to change, partly due to the fact that airports are uniquely vulnerable to tech failures.

Finally, airports operate as multi-stakeholder environments. Operators, airlines, ground handlers, contractors, retailers and authorities all touch the same assets. Coordination breaks down easily when information is not shared consistently.

How can an EAM platform help address these challenges?

A modern EAM platform provides structure before it provides automation. It creates a shared asset register, a single maintenance history and a common language across teams. This alone removes friction.

It also translates to improved planning. Preventive maintenance becomes realistic, with work orders aligning with flight schedules and technicians arriving with the right parts, documentation and access permissions. Mobile tools matter here, which reduce paper loops and rework.

Visibility follows. Managers see asset health, backlog, compliance status and contractor performance in one place. Decisions shift from reactive to proactive. This matters during disruptions, where minutes count.

Visibility is also essential for compliance: Airports must document everything, from safety inspections to environmental controls to cyber resilience. This documentation burden grows every year, particularly in Europe.

What are necessary ingredients for success?

First, integration is a necessary condition to realise value. EAM platforms connect with IoT data and provide BIM models and GIS views, which help teams understand context before touching equipment.

HxGN EAM often plays this backbone role. It supports linear and discrete asset, complex hierarchies and regulatory reporting without forcing airports into rigid processes. The software adapts to how airports operate rather than the reverse.

Ease of use is also critical. Airports face significant skill gaps, with personnel sometimes struggling to adapt to new technologies, particularly if they’re not intuitive. Many experienced technicians are approaching retirement. New hires arrive with less exposure to complex airport infrastructure and mixed comfort with digital tools.

There is a lot of conversation about “smarter” or “integrated” facility management today. What emerging capabilities are bound to develop at airports?

Let’s name three. For effective maintenance planning, spatial context is essential. Digital twins of terminals, runways and utilities allow teams to visualise work before it happens. This reduces safety risk and accelerates execution.

Predictive maintenance will continue to mature, but the real shift is prescriptive guidance, for example via Asset Performance Management (APM). Systems move beyond issue detection by analysing root causes and recommending corrective and preventive actions, including optimal timing and trade‑offs based on asset criticality and opportunity.

Lastly, we see asset management supporting the push for greater sustainability. A company like AES uses HxGN EAM to support dimensions like utility optimisation and APU-OFF programs (which avoid using the aircraft’s Auxiliary Power Unit when the plane is on the ground) without adding headcount.

Taken together, these changes help square the post-COVID circle: supporting greater passenger numbers, who enjoy a better experience and fewer hiccups, and getting airports to increase profitability without sacrificing operational efficiency or service quality.