Hot on the heels of Heathrow Airport’s decision to use AIRHART as its digital backbone and with the Passenger Terminal Expo in London next week, in this episode, I speak with Martin Bowman, Chief Strategy Officer at Smarter Airports. 

Airport operations are still largely built on systems designed decades ago. Many of the technologies coordinating flights, gates, stands, and turnaround processes trace their lineage back to architectures conceived in the 1980s. They solved a critical problem at the time—distributing flight data across the airport ecosystem—but they were never designed for the integration depth, operational complexity, or rate of change airports face today.

That gap is becoming harder to manage. Modern hubs operate close to capacity, depend on dozens of interconnected stakeholders, and need to respond to disruptions in real time. Yet many still rely on tightly scoped operational systems whose development cycles, data models, and vendor roadmaps reflect a much slower technological era.

Martin Bowman argues the industry is approaching a structural shift. With Heathrow selecting the AIRHART platform to underpin core operations, the conversation moves beyond replacing legacy systems toward something more fundamental: building a configurable operational control layer that allows airports to orchestrate data, rules, integrations, and future automation—including AI—without waiting for vendor roadmaps to catch up.

What You’ll Learn

• The limits of the traditional AODB model: Airport Operations Databases were designed to distribute flight data efficiently, but their architecture and vendor delivery model have struggled to evolve alongside modern operational demands.
• Platform architecture as an alternative to point solutions: Instead of deploying fixed-function products like AODB, ACDM, and AOP separately, airports can configure reusable components around shared data, rules, and integrations.
• A shift in ownership of operational logic: In a platform model, the airport—not the vendor—controls configuration, development pace, and prioritization of new capabilities.
• Why Heathrow’s decision matters for the industry: Replacing multiple core operational systems through a platform approach signals growing confidence in a new operating model for airport technology.
• Operational credibility built through real deployments: Copenhagen Airport and Munich Airport served as early proving grounds for the platform model before expansion to Heathrow.
• The operational realities of running Heathrow: Operating close to full capacity every day means the margin for disruption during technology change is extremely small.
• The difference between AI hype and operational AI: Many aviation solutions labeled as AI are advanced analytics or rule-based optimization rather than generative or learning systems.
• Operations orchestration as the next phase of airport technology: Future airport platforms will coordinate data, business rules, alerts, integrations, and AI models as part of a unified operational control layer.

Time-Stamped Highlights

• (00:10) Heathrow’s New Operations Platform and Why This Decision Matters
• (01:28) Martin Bowman’s Career Across Aviation Software, Strategy, and Operations
• (07:47) What Changes When You Move Between Vendor, Advisory, and Platform Roles
• (10:31) Why Legacy Airport Systems and AODBs Are Starting to Break Down
• (22:09) Platform vs. Product: The Real Difference in Airport Operations
• (27:18) Why Heathrow Backed the Platform Approach
• (31:10) From Copenhagen to Munich to Heathrow: How the Model Gained Credibility
• (38:12) What Makes Heathrow So Operationally Complex
• (42:45) AI in Aviation: Hype, Mislabeling, and the Real Challenge Ahead
• (48:42) Passenger Terminal Expo and Munich’s Push Toward Orchestration

Guest

Martin Bowman — Chief Strategy Officer, Smarter Airports
Martin Bowman is Chief Strategy Officer at Smarter Airports, a joint venture between Copenhagen Airport and Netcompany focused on airport operations technology. He has spent more than 25 years working across aviation and technology, with leadership roles spanning software, airport systems, strategy, and advisory work.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinbowman/

About the Podcast

Travel Tech Podcast features long-form conversations with leaders across travel and technology. The show explores how software, data, operations, and distribution come together in real businesses, with an emphasis on tradeoffs, incentives, and lessons that transfer beyond any single company or role.

Host

Alex Brooker — Founder, Airside Labs
Alex is an engineer, technology leader, and founder with deep expertise in mission-critical systems and AI oversight. He leads Airside Labs, an AI business that applies aviation-grade testing and compliance rigor to enterprise AI systems, helping organizations build and test AI agents in regulated environments. Before founding Airside Labs, Alex built and scaled complex software in aviation and safety-critical domains, blending product innovation with disciplined engineering practices. He also invests in early-stage technology ventures and advocates for thoughtful, real-world AI deployment strategies.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-brooker-2280002/

Links & References

• Netcompany – Airport Solutions: https://netcompany.com/private-sector/airports/
• Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) – EUROCONTROL: https://www.eurocontrol.int/concept/airport-collaborative-decision-making

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