Ground handler dnata is preparing to add four fully electric apron buses from Cobus to its operation at Rome Fiumicino Airport. The VEGA-model vehicles are scheduled to begin carrying passengers between terminals and aircraft by mid-November, the company said. Dnata added that it expects to be the first ground handler to deploy the new model.
The buses were developed specifically for airport apron duty. Compared with conventional airport buses, dnata says the VEGA offers higher passenger capacity; redesigned doors are intended to speed boarding and alighting, while improved air-conditioning is meant to raise passenger comfort. The company did not disclose battery capacity, range or charging power for the vehicles.
Fleet growth and turnaround aims
The four additions will take the bus fleet at Fiumicino beyond its current 40 vehicles. Of those, 23 are already electrically powered. Dnata expects the new buses to improve the efficiency of apron handling and help keep aircraft turnaround times as short as possible, although it did not provide quantified targets or performance data for the new vehicles. Dnata did not specify the charging arrangements for the four new buses.
The order sits within a wider modernisation programme. Over the past three years, dnata has invested more than €30 million in its Italian ground-handling operations, acquiring more than 550 new equipment units across Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate. The purchases include passenger buses as well as baggage tractors, conveyor belts, passenger stairs, aircraft loaders and pushback tractors.
Electrification across Italian airports
Across the three Italian airports, dnata operates more than 1,000 motorised ground-handling equipment units. More than 60 per cent of that equipment is now electrically powered, according to the company. Where full electrification is not yet operationally feasible, dnata is gradually converting diesel-powered equipment to run on hydrotreated vegetable oil, or HVO.
The company frames further electrification as dependent on the availability of charging infrastructure at airports. It says it is working with the respective airport operators to expand that infrastructure, indicating that vehicle procurement alone does not determine the pace of fleet conversion. The company did not provide a timeline for further bus replacements at Fiumicino.
Dnata’s Italian business employs around 5,000 people and serves more than 60 airlines. At its three locations, the company says it handles more than 150,000 flights, 46 million passengers and nearly 18 million pieces of baggage annually. For Fiumicino, the four new electric buses therefore represent a small but visible addition to a much larger ground-support fleet that is being gradually converted away from diesel.