Vehicles & Transportation

dnata adds four Cobus VEGA electric apron buses at Rome Fiumicino

The ground handler's Fiumicino bus fleet grows past 40 vehicles, 23 of which are already electric, within a €30 million Italian modernisation programme.

Mei-Lin ChenNovember 3, 20265 min read0 views

A generic electric apron bus with wide doors standing on a concrete airport apron between a terminal and a parked aircraft in soft morning light.

Ground handling company dnata is adding four battery-electric apron buses to its fleet at Rome Fiumicino Airport, with the vehicles scheduled to enter service by mid-November. The buses are supplied by manufacturer Cobus and are of the VEGA model; dnata says it will be the first ground handler to put this new model into operation.

The vehicles were developed specifically for work on airport aprons and will carry passengers between terminals and aircraft. According to dnata, they offer a higher passenger capacity than conventional airport buses, while redesigned doors are meant to speed up boarding and alighting and improved air conditioning to raise comfort on board. The company has not disclosed battery capacity, range or charging power for the new buses.

Fiumicino bus fleet passes 40 vehicles

The four additions take the bus fleet at Fiumicino beyond its current 40 vehicles, of which 23 are already electrically powered. dnata presents the purchase as a way of making apron handling more efficient and keeping aircraft turnaround times as short as possible.

Part of a €30 million programme

The order sits inside a wider modernisation programme in which dnata has invested more than €30 million over the past three years. During that period the company has acquired more than 550 new ground handling equipment units across Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate. The equipment includes passenger buses as well as baggage tractors, conveyor belts, passenger stairs, aircraft loaders and pushback tractors.

At the three Italian airports dnata operates more than 1,000 motorised ground handling units, and over 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).

Charging infrastructure as a constraint

dnata has not set out a timeline for further electrification of its Fiumicino bus fleet. According to the company, additional electrification also depends on the expansion of charging infrastructure at the airports, and dnata says it is working with the respective airport operators to achieve this.

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 each year.