International airport Moscow-Sheremetyevo

As part of its renovation and expansion program, the Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport - currently the largest airport platform in Russia with the ambition of being one of the world's largest hubs – requested ADP Ingénierie (APD-I) for the design of an underground passageway connecting all passenger terminals of the airport. This tunnel, bored under the existing runway, was to house an innovative transport system for passengers and luggage.

With the objective of transporting at least 11.5 million passengers and 5.9 million pieces of luggage a year, the client expressed his preference for either an Automatic People Mover (APM), a wire-guided system or autonomous shuttles.

Our client: ADP Engineering for Moscow-Sheremetyevo International Airport

The challenge: Connecting terminals at Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport with an innovative transport system

Our solution

Produce a benchmark of technologies applicable to this environment.

At the request of ADP-I, AVAIRX mapped systems providers and stakeholders able to meet these specifications and studied the applicability of their solutions as needed by Moscow-Sheremetyevo airport. Our research was conducted through direct interviews, a documentary search and an analysis of existing autonomous vehicle projects. It identified the providers of autonomous self-driving vehicle systems and Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) that were closer to this specific demand, able to conduct the analysis of the technical specificities of their technologies and that were able to reply to a possible request for proposal. We concluded our study with recommendations that allowed ADP-I to build its overall study and develop its own recommendations.

Results: Following AVAIRX’s recommendations, a rail-guided People Mover system was chosen, solutions and systems with autonomous and virtual guidance were not sufficiently reliable in 2014.