daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports, has chosen Esri Ireland's ArcGIS technology to build a digital twin of Dublin Airport, giving it a single view of priority assets and systems across the campus. The project matters to the sector because it consolidates planning and asset data ahead of a major expansion towards 40 million passengers a year.

Esri Ireland provides geographic information systems to organisations in Ireland and Northern Ireland, while daa also has airport retail and consultancy businesses in 13 countries. The twin supports a capital investment programme of €5bn to €6bn, with the airport targeting 40 million passengers annually, up from its current 32 million cap.

The platform will combine data from CAD, BIM and IoT sensors into one record covering assets from 307 kilometres of water pipelines to more than 8,500 airfield ground lights. It will also provide a shared foundation for the new runway, terminal extensions, additional car parking and a transport hub linked to Metro plans.

Bringing planning and asset data together should help daa sequence projects and allocate capital spending, with earlier visibility of maintenance needs speeding repair decisions. The twin is also intended to flag pressure points around security queues and escalators so managers can deploy staff to cut waiting times.

ArcGIS is already used across the airport for manhole surveys, crane inspections, fire hydrant mapping, energy monitoring and a shift handover tool used by more than 40 team leaders. San Francisco and Hong Kong were cited by daa as other early airport adopters of the approach.

Michael Earley, BIM and Digital Manager, daa, said: "It means our teams can work from the same information and have a clearer picture of what is happening across the airport."

Padraig Quinn, Senior Account Manager, Esri Ireland, said: "Digital twins will play an increasingly important role in helping airports build more resilient and passenger-focused operations."

The structural driver is information fragmentation, as capital-intensive airports with rising passenger demand need one authoritative record across CAD, BIM and sensor feeds before sequencing construction and maintenance.

For the sector, the project shows geospatial platforms moving from asset mapping tools into capital planning infrastructure for large operators, with airports among the first to test the model.

Source: infrastructurenews.ie / travelextra.ie / businessfirstonline.co.uk