Digital Sky Challenge: Creating new digital technologies in European Airspace

The beautiful sunny skies of Athens set the scene for this year’s most exciting event in aviation, The Digital Sky Challenge!

This 48-hour marathon of innovation and ingenuity drew participants from over eleven different countries, all prepared to revolutionize the skies.

Athens International Airport, December 2

What’s happening inside one of the highly secured airport buildings?

Let’s take our eyes off the hypnotizing sky for a second and find out!

Applications to participate hit record-breaking figures this year as more than 340 individuals hoped to secure a position on one of the competition’s 12 teams. Event organizers, the SESAR Joint Undertaking and ACI EUROPE, and the event host, Athens International Airport, were honored to see so many of the industry’s best and brightest eager to take part in this exciting initiative.

The Digital Sky Challenge tasked teams with finding solutions for three unique categories; Passenger Experience, Environmental Impact and finally Safety. Each topic included real-world data and previous cases for teams to consider and utilize in their proposals.

We got lucky with the weather; time to check In for the challenge!

Passenger Experience

Considerations:

1. How can European aviation increase reliability and improve the delivery of flight delay information through big data?
2. How can European aviation better guide passengers throughout airports and simplify directions to various locations, particularly boarding gates?

Environment challenge

1. What is the impact of extreme weather events on aircraft emissions and noise?
2. Can passengers be better informed about the emissions resulting from their travel through a multimodal mobility tool?

Safety Challenge

1. Utilizing safety data, are there better options to determine how air traffic patterns influence the development of a safety incident?
2. How can safety events be predicted considering both aircraft and external factors?

Members of the jury

Real data and real user-cases

Partners for this event will challenge participants to solve real and pressing technological and business problems and will provide them with real-life data and resources.

We’d have had an endless amount of words for describing the innovative solutions that were presented at the final demo session of the Digital Sky Challenge, however, there’s only that much one can fit in a short article.

Two participants from the Netherlands

Winners gala

The winners’ announcement took place during the SESAR Innovation Days conference and the Airport Chief Executives’ Symposium (ACES) at Stavros Niarchos Foundation in central Athens. More than 400 people, all of whom had played a role in bringing this fantastic event to fruition, were in attendance and ready to celebrate the winning teams and solutions presented.

The atmosphere at the ending ceremony was magical

The evening could not conclude until all of the team mentors, event partners, and sponsors, without whom this event could not have succeeded, were acknowledged and thanked properly. These included;

Air France, Airports International Council (ACI), Athens Airport, SESAR JU, Lufthansa, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), The International Air Transport Association (IATA), SITA Online, Météo France, OpenSky Network, Metsafe ATM, Météorage, Innaxis Foundation, and Research Institute.

Until next time!