Vancouver International Airport to sell Digital Twin platform to other airports

Vancouver International Airport to sell its "Digital Twin" platform to other airports

A screenshot of the digital twin of Vancouver International Airport. (Vancouver Airport Authority/GeoSim Cities)

An in-house created digital platform for improving Vancouver International Airport’s (YVR) operations to become more efficient and streamlined is now set to be commercialized.

Vancouver Airport Authority announced today it has reached an agreement with Unity to sell YVR’s Digital Twin platform to other airports around the world.

By using Unity’s video game engine, YVR’s Innovation Hub team created a virtual, real-time representation of the airport’s terminal building and airfield, offering training, optimizing, future planning, simulation, and testing capabilities. It combines historical and real-time data into the platform and can be presented through 2D or 3D visualization for data-driven decision-making and collaboration.

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The Digital Twin, launched in 2021, was the first major project by the recently created Innovation Hub division of YVR, which is tasked to create and test new processes and technology to improve the passenger and logistics processes of aviation operations.

During 2022’s busy summer travel season, the airport’s guest experience team used the Digital Twin to coordinate measures to relieve passenger congestion at security checkpoints.

The Digital Twin can also be used to monitor and calculate energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of the terminal building and airside operations.

vancouver international airport yvr digital twin geo simcities

Digital Twin of Vancouver International Airport. (Vancouver Airport Authority/GeoSim Cities)

The new commercialization partnership between YVR and Unity now has the potential to export such digital solutions to airport operations planning to other airports worldwide. By using Unity’s engine, the platform enables the ease of use, similar to a video game.

“In bringing our Digital Twin to the global aviation market, we look forward to working with other airports, and industry partners, to positively transform the way they serve their passengers through the possibilities this exciting technology offers,” said Lynette DuJohn, the vice president of innovation and chief innovation officer of the airport authority.

Ryan Peterson, the vice president of accelerate solutions at Unity, added: “The last three years have seen a tremendous amount of collaboration, boldness, and vision from both organizations, and I believe this Digital Twin platform can provide incredible value to airports around the world. Accelerating aviation’s digital transformation will have a massive, positive impact on our society, with the goal of driving efficiencies in the transport of people and goods.”

Digital Twin of Vancouver International Airport. (Vancouver Airport Authority/GeoSim Cities)

YVR is also known for its in-house created Borderxpress digital kiosks as a border control solution for customs halls at airports. This was originally created to help reduce the need to expand the physical footprint of YVR’s customs hall, while also improving processing efficiencies and reducing border wait times.

As of the end of 2019, over 1,700 Borderxpress kiosks by YVR have been sold to 45 airports and seaports around the world, providing the airport authority with an ancillary source of revenue.

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