Lyon Airport to expand robotic parking service with additional spaces

Credit: Stanley Robotics

Following a successful trial, VINCI Airports and Stanley Robotics have announced that the outdoor robotic parking service at Lyon Airport has entered a new deployment phase and will expand in summer 2020.

The two partners signed an agreement stating that the service will benefit from an additional 1,500 spaces – increasing the current 500 to 2,000 available parking spaces. The service will utilise seven autonomous robots that work simultaneously, with 28 cabins available to passengers for dropping off and picking up vehicles.

Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Concessions and Chairman of VINCI Airports, Nicolas Notebaert, said: “We pursue an ambitious industrial strategy to benefit passengers, at all of our 46 airports around the world. This strategy is based on two pillars: Customer experience and innovation. Lyon Airport rolls out this strategy in an exemplary fashion, which is why it has become one of VINCI Airports’ three centres of excellence for innovation in the field of customer experience. Among other advantages, this role means we can extend the innovations tested in Lyon to other airports in the VINCI Airports network.”

With this robotic valet system, passengers are no longer forced to waste time looking for a free space or trying to locate their vehicle. After booking their parking space prior to arriving at Lyon Airport, passengers drop their vehicles off into dedicated cabins and make their way to the terminals using the provided shuttle bus. The robot then takes responsibility of the car, parking it in the secure car park. When they return, passengers are able to pick up their vehicle from one of the same cabins.

Lyon Airport is the host of an innovative world-first project that contributes to the airport’s ability to improve the passenger experience and is aligned with its sustainable development targets. The partnership that made the service possible, which began in 2017, aims to be able to provide over 6,000 parking spaces to passengers in the future.

The project represents sustainable innovation and works to help VINCI Airports achieve their sustainable development targets at Lyon Airport. By making it possible in the future to create 50 per cent more spaces within the same surface area, the use of the robotic parking spaces reduces land use and ensures that the surrounding soil structure is preserved.

The service also works to decrease CO₂ emissions by eliminating the need for passengers to drive aimlessly around in search of a parking space. The robots are also powered by electricity, subsequently not emitting any carbon emissions. Estimations suggest that, for a one-year period and 2,000 parking spaces, approximately 100 tonnes of CO₂ emissions will be avoided.

Tanguy Bertolus, Lyon Airport’s CEO, said: “The robot valet service provided by Stanley Robotics and developed in Lyon meets the strategic objectives of Lyon Airport, namely, to enhance customer experience and reduce the environmental impact of the airport’s activities. This project is one of the factors behind the outstanding results obtained in these two areas by Lyon Airport, which in 2019 was named Europe’s best airport in the 10-25 million passenger category by Airports Council International (ACI) and certified carbon neutral for its activities (ACA level 3+).”