Hong Kong International Airport

Overview
As one of the busiest airports in the Asia Pacific Region, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), recognized in 2016 that its infrastructure was limiting growth and capacity potential.

This kickstarted a long-term vision and plan by the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) to transform HKIA into a Smart Airport City and Three-Runway System (3RS) that accommodates up to 120 million passengers and 10 million tonnes of cargo annually.
Underpinning these bold expansion plans was a digital transformation roadmap to make HKIA more autonomous, connected, and future-ready.
Core to this digital transformation was the joint development between the AAHK and the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) of a Digital Apron and Tower Management System (DATMS).
Searidge, together with our local partner Chinney Alliance Engineering, designed, tested, and installed DATMS at HKIA.
This is the industry’s largest digital platform for tower and apron management—and the first collaboration of its kind between an ANSP and an airport.

DATMS includes a Digital Apron Management System (DAMS) for the airport (AAHK) and Digital Tower Facilities (DTF) for the ANSP (CAD).
AAHK and CAD wanted a single digital tower and apron platform that met their large-scale expansion plans and operational needs to:
Improve visibility of distant areas of the airport under expansion

Enhance the out-the-window view for performing day-to-day duties in coordinating aircraft and vehicle movements on the aerodrome, particularly in low light and adverse weather conditions

Provide a contingency operation from a remote location
HKIA is now a future-ready Smart Airport City and destination in its own right—with the aviation technology and resources to be both an economic growth engine for the region and an international aviation hub.
“As the industry’s first collaboration between an airport and ANSP for a single Digital Tower and Apron platform, DATMS showcases how a common technology platform allows the sharing of data, creating extensive benefits for all stakeholders.
This collaboration is the way forward in airport digitalization, using a single platform to unite airport stakeholders, enhancing safety, operational resilience, interoperability, and collaborative decision making,” explains Moodie Cheikh, CEO and Co-founder, Searidge Technologies.

Challenge

The long-term traffic demands at HKIA coupled with AAHK’s vision and strategy to push the airport to the next level of efficiency, safety, sustainability, and profitability demanded a deep investment in aviation technology, construction, and land reclamation.

This investment and forward-thinking digital transformation roadmap allowed AAHK, CAD, and ultimately HKIA to find innovative solutions to their core challenges including:

Capacity Constraints: the two-runway system had reached its operational limit, leading to delays and limiting growth potential
Air Traffic Management: congestion and challenges with flow demanded more efficient air traffic management capable of handling more simultaneous takeoffs and landings
Economic Development: positioning HKIA as a destination airport and international aviation hub capable of facilitating economic growth in adjacent sectors
Future-Proofing: ensuring the time, resources, and economic investment positioned HKIA to accommodate future growth in air traffic and remain a competitive international aviation hub
Integration with Airport City: transforming HKIA from a city airport into a destination airport and landmark

Solution

Since 2022, DATMS has created an entirely new way of working—using a single platform to unite airport stakeholders around the common goals of enhancing safety, operational resilience, interoperability, and collaborative decision making.

Built on Chorus, our airside digital platform and powered by Aimee our AI framework—DATMS includes:

Digital Apron Management System (DAMS)
Digital Tower Facility (DTF)

The system features state-of-the-art cameras and advanced real-time camera view stitching technology to support operations at both the aerodrome towers and the new Integrated Airport Centre (IAC) at HKIA.

With more than 240 camera sensors, 120 working positions, and a 10 m² LED theatre video wall, DATMS delivers a new, automated digital experience for ATCOs and airport operations personnel.

Meet Chorus

Chorus, our open airside digital platform, is designed to break down operational silos, foster collaboration, and serve as the enabler for convergence and digital transformation.

Chorus ensures IAC personnel—including AAHK and CAD stakeholders—can easily access a continuous stream of data from multiple sources, such as optical sensors, radar surveillance systems, airfield lighting, and flight information data feeds, to track and manage aircraft and airfield movements.

The platform provides real-time situational awareness to support operations ranging from taxiway routings to stand management, aircraft turnaround, and ground handling services.

Meet Aimee

Aimee is our advanced neural network framework for developing AI-based solutions that enhance air traffic control and airport efficiency.

As the machine learning framework within DATMS, Aimee provides the computer vision, natural language processing, and flight data surveillance capabilities that enhance ATCO situational awareness:

Proactive safety alerts, including early detection of conflicting situations or intrusions in restricted airfield areas
Real-time activation and deactivation of traffic lights based on video analysis
Enhanced ATCO situational awareness through runway occupancy indicators, runway incursion alerts, and parking stand occupancy video analysis

Core goals of DATMS for HKIA:

Enhancing safety
Optimizing capacity
Improving the decision making process
Increasing HKIA efficiencies

Digital Apron Management System (DAMS)

DAMS is integral to the airport’s transformation and large-scale expansion plans, providing aerodrome surveillance and anomaly detection capabilities. This solution equips IAC personnel with real-time situational awareness across aprons and critical maneuvering areas supporting improved safety assessments and operational planning.

By providing a wide range of rule-based automated alerts monitoring KPIs and operational readiness 24/7, DAMS is a core tool in strengthening:

Operational resilience
Airfield safety
Collaborative decision making
Interoperability

Using 240 cameras to provide total coverage of the airfield, DAMS gives airport and airline personnel vital, real-time operational information.

“It’s more than just cameras,” says Chapman Fong, former General Manager, Airfield of AAHK.

“The system is proactively tracking the turnaround process for every aircraft on stand. If it registers that something is going off schedule, it will alert the IAC and allow the team to intervene.” (Inside The Hong Kong Miracle)

Digital Tower Facility (DTF)

DTF ensures the provision of safe and efficient air traffic control services by providing visual augmentation, situational awareness enhancement, and early alerts of conflicting situations.

The system addresses the limitations of traditional air traffic control tower sightlines by eliminating obstructed views of apron/taxiway areas and runway ends in all weather and lighting conditions—including low-visibility operations, heavy rain, fog, and ambient light.

DTF enhances CAD’s air traffic control services with in- and out-of-eyesight real-time, panoramic ultra-high resolution views of airport areas. This data is overlaid with real-time flight and operational data including:

Ground surveillance data
Parking stand information
Flight data
Intrusion detection

Benefits

Enhanced information exchange and real-time situational awareness between ATCOs and airport operations personnel
Eliminated operational and data silos for closer proactive collaborations
Real-time data sharing and access for improved decision-making processes
Improved the safety and efficiency across ATC and airport operations
More effective deployment and use of personnel to support long-term growth at HKIA
Increased visibility under low light or visibility conditions such as night time conditions or adverse weather

Improved safety with real-time predictive alerts of conflicting situations or intrusions on runways and restricted airfield areas
Innovative technology positions HKIA for expansion and continued economic growth
Preparedness for future contingency with Chorus capabilities and benefits
Eased the transition from a traditional tower to an advanced remote operations
Increased resilience and safety assurance through decentralization and remote operations
Enabled out-of-sight or out-of-direct-line of sight views with strategically located cameras, eliminating the barriers of traditional air traffic control towers

“We’re showing what’s possible when you share, enjoy, and make use of data. It’s a convergence of the entire airport operations, from ground handling to the airlines and air traffic control,” says Fong.

“This is just the beginning. It forms part of the airport’s 10-year technology roadmap, dubbed Airport 4.0. We’re harnessing technology not for show but because we want to transform the airport operation, to be more efficient, more environmentally sustainable and less reliant on manual intervention.” (Inside The Hong Kong Miracle)

DATMS won the 2023 ACI World-Amadeus Technology Innovation Awards for “Best Innovation in Airport Operations and Installations Management.”

“It is an honour to receive such a prestigious global award. DATMS is a core component of AAHK’s technology roadmap and will play an important role in the Three-Runway System operations.

The collaboration behind the project also shows the way forward: a single digital platform that brings airport stakeholders together in pursuit of safety, operational resilience and collaborative decision-making,” says Steven Yiu, Executive Director, Airport Operations at AAHK. (Digital Apron and Tower Management System at HKIA Wins Top Global Award)