SmartHUBPort: A Digital Twin for Simulating and Supporting Airport Development

Faced with the environmental, societal, and economic challenges that are currently transforming the aviation sector, airports must be able to adapt their operations while managing their environmental impacts. It is in this context that SmartHUBPort is being developed, a digital platform dedicated to analysis, simulation, and decision support for airports and their surrounding regions.

SmartHUBPort aims to build an operational digital representation of an airport, in other words, a digital twin, capable of cross-referencing different data sources to analyse the consequences of operational or development decisions. Its objective is not simply to visually replicate an airport. Above all, the platform seeks to represent the airport’s operations and environment across several dimensions: regulations, air traffic, geography and territory, the environment, safety, energy, air traffic, the economy, obstacles and efficiency.

To achieve this, SmartHUBPort enables data from various sources to be integrated and validated. Aeronautical data, flight paths, environmental information, spatial data and computational models can thus be utilised within a single environment. This approach enables a shift from the analysis of isolated data to a comprehensive and coherent view of the airport and its surrounding area. The data can be used to generate indicators, carry out simulations and compare different development scenarios. One of SmartHUBPort’s distinctive features is its ability to consider the assumptions made for a study and to adapt them. Business rules and associated parameters make it possible to test different configurations and observe their impact on the indicators under consideration.

SmartHUBPort is part of a balanced approach. When an airport is considering changes to its operations, several objectives may come into conflict: maintaining economic activity, minimising disruption to residents, complying with regulatory requirements, protecting the environment, and ensuring the efficiency and safety of operations.

The platform is therefore designed to enable the comparison of different scenarios using relevant indicators. Changes to operating hours, flight paths or the composition of air traffic can, for example, be analysed from various angles to identify potential trade-offs between operational performance, environmental impact and socio-economic consequences. This simulation capability serves as a valuable decision-making tool for airport operators, institutional stakeholders and local authorities. It provides objective data to inform development decisions and foster dialogue based on shared data and indicators.

SmartHUBPort has been designed as an open architecture, capable of gradually incorporating new data, new computational models and contributions from partners within the aviation ecosystem. This openness is essential in a context where technologies and uses are evolving rapidly. This approach helps to transform the airport into a genuine data hub, where information can be integrated, analysed and used.

In addition to the features already developed, SmartHUBPort serves as a platform designed to evolve in line with the sector’s needs. Future developments will include the integration of new impact rules, the enhancement of flight path data, the automation of certain processing stages, and the integration of new calculation models developed by CGX AERO or its partners.

Ultimately, SmartHUBPort is designed to provide an ever more comprehensive overview of the airport ecosystem and its developments. By combining data, modelling, simulation and indicators, the platform supports airport stakeholders in developing more informed and sustainable development scenarios. The platform is therefore fully aligned with the digital transformation of the aviation sector: using data as a tool for understanding, simulation and decision-making to build the airport of the future.