Brussels Airport tests self-driving shuttle bus for staff

Brussels Airport has started a pilot project with a self-driving shuttle bus, which will transport staff on the airport's tarmac from next Monday. This is a first for Belgium, according to the airport.

The self-driving vehicle, which is also fully electric, covers a fixed route of 1.5 km in about ten minutes and has three stops where staff can get on and off. It can reach a maximum speed of 25 km per hour and has room for eight employees per trip. There is also a security steward in each shuttle bus, who starts and stops the vehicle, monitors the situation and can intervene if necessary. With six cameras and sensors, the vehicle scans its surroundings for traffic and any obstacles.

In total, the vehicle drives around 48 times a day. A few hundred staff - who now often make their journey on foot - could be helped per day.

“The shuttle bus is completely safe,” stated Jeffrey Franssens, spokesman for Brussels Airport. ‘We carried out a thorough safety analysis beforehand: we mapped where the crucial points are on the site and developed a route based on that analysis.”

Plans for the future

The pilot project will run for three months. Afterwards, the airport will assess the experiences of the employees and whether - and in what ways - autonomous vehicles could be used at the airport. The intention would be to have several shuttle buses driving around in the future, controlled remotely by one person, which would make the initiative more cost-effective than at present.

The project is part of the European Commission's Stargate programme, which works towards more sustainable aviation. The bus itself has been developed by the New Zealand company Ohmio.

^{The first self-driving shuttle bus at Brussels Airport © BELGA PHOTO BELGA}