Earlier this month, the OLGA – hOListic & Green Airports project reached its final stage with a closing event at the Maison de l’Environnement at Paris-Charles de Gaulle.
A big thank you to Groupe ADP and the OLGA coordination team for a very well-organised event, the warm welcome and the opportunity to bring the consortium together once again. After five years of collaboration, it was a good moment to look back at the work carried out across the project and to discuss how its results can continue to be used beyond the project itself.
OLGA brought together airports, industry, research organisations and other stakeholders to work on practical solutions for greener and more sustainable airport operations and infrastructure. Over 60 months, the project explored different aspects of the transition, from decarbonisation and energy to mobility, air quality, digitalisation and infrastructure management.
For Infra Plan Consulting, an important part of OLGA was the work carried out together with Zagreb Airport on UAV-based runway inspection.
Within the project, UAVs were used to collect high-resolution runway data, which was then analysed to identify pavement damage and support more targeted, risk-based maintenance planning. The approach was tested under real operational conditions at Zagreb Airport, providing practical experience in integrating drone-based data and AI-supported analysis into airport infrastructure management.
The work also addressed the methodology and operational workflow needed to use UAVs for airport inspections, with the aim of making maintenance more data-driven, efficient and less disruptive to airport operations.
The Zagreb Airport pilot demonstrates how digital technologies can move beyond the research environment and be tested in real airport conditions creating solutions that can potentially be adapted and transferred to other airports.
