Ground handler dnata is adding four fully electric apron buses to its fleet at Rome Fiumicino Airport. The Cobus VEGA vehicles are due to begin carrying passengers between terminals and aircraft from mid-November, and dnata says it will be the first ground handler to put the new model into service. The company describes the purchase as a continuation of its investment in electrifying its vehicle fleet in Italy.
The buses were developed specifically for work on the apron. According to dnata they offer a higher passenger capacity than conventional airport buses, while redesigned doors are intended to speed up boarding and alighting and revised air conditioning improves comfort. The company did not disclose battery capacity, range or charging power.
Four more electric buses in a 40-vehicle fleet
The four vehicles take the bus fleet at Fiumicino beyond its current 40 units, 23 of which are already electrically powered. dnata frames the addition as a way to make apron handling more efficient and to keep aircraft turnaround times as short as possible; it has not published figures quantifying the expected gain. On the stated numbers, the four buses would leave around 17 of the 44 vehicles in the fleet without electric drive.
Part of a wider modernisation programme
The order sits inside a modernisation programme in which dnata has invested more than €30 million over the past three years. In that period the company acquired more than 550 new ground handling units across Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate, covering passenger buses as well as baggage tractors, conveyor belts, passenger stairs, aircraft loaders and pushback tractors.
Across the three Italian airports dnata operates more than 1,000 motorised ground handling units, of which over 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).
Charging infrastructure sets the pace
dnata says further electrification also depends on the expansion of charging infrastructure at the airports, and that it is working with the respective airport operators to achieve this. The pace of conversion therefore rests partly on infrastructure outside the handler's own fleet budget. The company has not indicated how many of the remaining diesel units at Fiumicino are earmarked for replacement, or on what timetable.
In Italy, dnata employs around 5,000 people and serves more than 60 airlines. At its three locations the company handles over 150,000 flights, 46 million passengers and nearly 18 million pieces of baggage annually — the operational backdrop to a fleet renewal that is being phased rather than completed in a single step.