AtkinsRéalis focuses its size and expertise on aviation
June 27, 2024
Design, engineering and project management organisation company AtkinsRéalis has the size and expertise to make a difference in whatever sector it chooses to enter.
So it is encouraging that when it recently decided to focus on eight sectors to maximise opportunities, transportation – and specifically aviation – was among them.
Chief operating officer Philip Hoare says the decision was motivated by opportunities for growth, while the company’s decades of experience in the sector also make it a natural fit.
He adds: “As a company we’ve been really focused on our growth strategy over the course of the last three years.
“We’ve got great global capability across the aviation space, ranging from the work we’ve done on airports around the world to thinking about future technology.”
He says AtkinsRéalis has the ability to work at the intersection of infrastructure, aerospace, technology and energy, giving it a strong grasp of what is happening in aviation and the future of flight.
IATA’s own data shows just how strong the growth has been as the commercial aviation sector has bounced back from the global Covid pandemic.
Having generated revenues of $838 billion in 2019, the global airline industry saw this figure more than halved in 2020 as the world closed down to $384 billion.
In 2021, this rose to $513 billion in 2021, and was estimated to be $908 billion in 2023 while predictions show global airline revenues could hit $996 billion in 2024.
While Hoare says he is delighted to have seen the aviation industry recover so quickly, he believes AtkinsRéalis is well placed to capitalise on this growth.
He adds: “It’s really about the excitement of the opportunity and the ability to do something that we think we do well which is to take great expertise in one region and apply that to another.”
Airports is one particular area of expertise the company has Hoare says, with the company recognised as one of the top five global consultancies for airport design in the world.
He adds AtkinsRéalis has worked with seven of the world’s 10 busiest airlines, including work on JFK’s Terminal 1 and the expansion of Hong Kong International Airport.
But no matter which airport the team is working with, Hoare says one of the key areas they focus on is ensuring the airport is resilient in an increasingly turbulent world.
This can mean anything from defending an airport from cyber attacks on its ticketing or navigation systems to ensuring that it can handle extreme weather events which are predicted to become more likely with climate change.
Hoare says: “Published data shows the amount of cyber attacks are increasing with significant frequency.
“The ability of your infrastructure to be able to resist that is something that is obviously a very significant challenge and it’s something that as a company we’ve been investing in our cyber security capabilities and our own resilience over a number of years.”
And on the subject of climate change, he adds: “In the short term, probably the next 20 to 30 years, we’re going to have to deal with the increasing impacts of climate change events on the operation of any bit of infrastructure.
“We are seeing clients across all sectors of the infrastructure space reach out in terms of looking at more resilient solutions in the future.”
Hoare also believes that AtkinsRéalis can also help the aviation sector become more resilient against climate change by leading the fight against it by helping them decarbonise their operations and incorporating it into their ongoing asset management programmes.
He argues that sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is one such way of decarbonising flight and the company is preparing to meet the challenge of doing so.
Hoare says: “SAF is going to require significant infrastructure change in airports to enable it to be used. That’s something we do see a role for ourselves in.”
He adds the other area of focus for the company right now is in the field of advanced air mobility (AAM) in the cityscape as his team look forward to the future.
Hoare says: “Many of our cities are still heavily congested at ground level and the ability to take some of that traffic away and put it in the sky appeals to me … and it can have a significant economic value.
“There’s an amazing challenge for transport modellers and people keen to provide transport solutions.
“We’ve been involved on a number of projects around the world beginning to look at how you integrate that type of passenger experience into the broader transport master plan.”
He adds one such project has seen AtkinsRéalis lead a consortium including Vertical Aerospace, Skyports, NATS and Heathrow Airport to develop the UK’s first AAM ecosystem.
The project includes building a vertiport testbed and conducting demonstration flights to Heathrow.
Elsewhere, the company is also working on ground infrastructure for the CAELUS project currently underway in Scotland which aims to develop the UK’s first distribution network using drones to transport essential medicines, blood, organs and other medical supplies across the country.
Which makes for a wide and varied range of projects to work on, but shows how AtkinsRéalis brings its size and expertise to bear on any project.
AtkinsRéalis at Farnborough International Airshow 2024
AtkinsRéalis is focusing on the future at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow and the industry collaboration that will help to shape it, including a jointly hosted event with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and industry partners on the Airports of Tomorrow initiative; realising the Future of Flight, with a showcase on the UKRI Future Flight Challenge; and talking about technology, systems and future skills in both civil and defence aviation.
