Ground handler dnata is adding four fully electric apron buses to its operation at Rome Fiumicino Airport. The Cobus VEGA vehicles are scheduled to enter service by mid-November and will carry passengers between terminals and aircraft.
According to the company, dnata will be the first ground handling provider to deploy the new model. The buses were developed specifically for use on airport aprons, the areas where aircraft are parked, loaded and serviced.
Vehicle design
dnata says the VEGA buses offer a higher passenger capacity than conventional airport buses. Redesigned doors are intended to speed up boarding and alighting, while improved air conditioning is meant to raise passenger comfort. The company did not disclose battery capacity, range or charging power for the vehicles.
Fleet growth at Fiumicino
The four additions will take the bus fleet at Fiumicino beyond its current 40 vehicles, of which 23 are already electrically powered. dnata says the new buses are intended to make apron handling more efficient and to keep aircraft turnaround times as short as possible.
The purchase forms part of a wider modernisation programme in which dnata has invested more than €30 million over the past three years. During that period the company acquired more than 550 new ground handling equipment units at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate, including passenger buses as well as baggage tractors, conveyor belts, passenger stairs, aircraft loaders and pushback tractors.
Electrification across three Italian airports
In total dnata operates more than 1,000 motorised ground handling equipment units at the three Italian airports, and more than 60 per cent of them are now electrically powered. Where full electrification is not yet operationally feasible, the company is gradually converting diesel-powered equipment to run on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO).
With more than 60 per cent of its Italian motorised fleet already electric, a sizeable share of the equipment at the three airports still runs on other fuels, and the HVO conversion is presented as the interim route for those units.
dnata says that further electrification also depends on the expansion of charging infrastructure at the airports, and that it is working with the respective airport operators to achieve this. The company has not said whether additional VEGA buses are planned for Fiumicino or for its two Milan locations.
In Italy dnata employs around 5,000 people and serves more than 60 airlines. At its three locations the company handles over 150,000 flights, 46 million passengers and nearly 18 million pieces of baggage a year.