About the client
London Heathrow is one of the world's busiest international airports, handling over 80 million passengers a year and acting as the primary hub for British Airways and dozens of global carriers. The airside operation is one of the most complex ground environments in the world, with hundreds of vehicles from multiple operators moving continuously across runways, taxiways, and stands around the clock.
Value proposition
Background
Heathrow's ground operation involves hundreds of vehicles from multiple operators, each running their own telematics systems with different providers, formats, and update frequencies. The result was a fragmented picture of airside activity with no way to see the full operation in one place, in real time.
Without a consolidated view, safety monitoring, fleet efficiency, and sustainability reporting all relied on manual processes, incomplete data, and reactive responses to incidents. As Heathrow's expansion programme advanced, the need for real-time operational intelligence became increasingly critical.
Previous efforts to aggregate data across suppliers had been hampered by inconsistent specifications, limited supplier support, and no clear mandate on what telematics providers were required to deliver. The data quality gap was widening as the fleet grew.
Approach
Emu Analytics was selected through a competitive tendering process to deliver a Proof of Value: a real-time location intelligence system capable of ingesting, normalising, and presenting ground fleet data from multiple telematics providers simultaneously.
Flo.w connected to multiple telematics feeds, alongside aircraft position data and real-time traffic feeds from surrounding roads, normalising all sources into a single coherent operational picture. The system was delivered fully operational within the agreed timescales, giving Heathrow the first consolidated real-time view of its airside ground fleet.
Beyond the immediate operational view, the Proof of Value surfaced twelve distinct use case areas where real-time data could drive measurable improvements across safety, security, fleet operations, and the airport's long-term expansion programme.
Use Cases
Real-time ground fleet tracking makes it possible to detect safety-critical events as they happen, enabling proactive intervention before incidents escalate.
Continuous monitoring of vehicle movements across control points supports both real-time management and historical analysis of security and efficiency performance.
Better awareness of how the ground fleet moves across the airside footprint enables more efficient routing, parking, and passenger transfer services.
As Heathrow advances its expansion programme, real-time data provides the inputs needed for emissions reporting, construction impact assessment, and traffic planning.
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