Ground handler dnata is preparing to put four fully electric apron buses into service at Rome Fiumicino Airport, adding Cobus VEGA vehicles to its passenger-transport fleet by mid-November. The buses are designed to move travellers between terminals and aircraft, and dnata says it will be the first ground handler to deploy this model.
The VEGA buses were developed specifically for airport aprons. According to dnata, they carry more passengers than conventional airport buses, while redesigned doors are intended to speed boarding and alighting. Improved air-conditioning is also cited as a comfort improvement. The company has not released battery capacity, range or charging-power figures, leaving the operational performance of the vehicles undisclosed.
Fleet electrification at three Italian airports
The four additions will take the bus fleet at Fiumicino beyond its current 40 vehicles. Twenty-three of those are already electrically powered. The new vehicles are intended to make apron handling more efficient and help keep aircraft turnaround times as short as possible.
The purchase forms part of a wider modernisation programme. Over the past three years, dnata has invested more than €30 million in ground handling equipment at Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate. More than 550 new units have been acquired across the three airports during that period, including passenger buses, baggage tractors, conveyor belts, passenger stairs, aircraft loaders and pushback tractors.
Across the three Italian sites, dnata operates more than 1,000 motorised ground handling equipment units. More than 60 per cent are now electrically powered. Where full electrification is not yet operationally feasible, the company is gradually converting diesel-powered equipment to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). That approach retains some liquid-fuel equipment while electrification is not yet feasible.
Charging infrastructure as a constraint
Dnata says further electrification depends on expanding charging infrastructure at the airports. The company is working with the respective airport operators on that requirement. The four new buses therefore sit within a fleet-conversion effort that extends beyond vehicle procurement to site infrastructure and operational planning.
In Italy, dnata employs around 5,000 people and serves more than 60 airlines. At its three locations, it handles over 150,000 flights, 46 million passengers and nearly 18 million pieces of baggage annually. Those volumes indicate the scale of ground handling at the three sites, although dnata did not quantify expected emissions or fuel savings from the four additional electric buses.