The Europe airport asset tracking market is expected to grow from US$ 88.5 million in 2019 to US$ 233.7 million by 2027; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2020 to 2027.
In the aviation industry, asset tracking is an essential task for effective asset management. Assets are necessary at an airport at the time of departure. Presently, most of these assets are tracked either by standalone solutions, such as ULD tracking, or manually. Similarly, wheelchairs, if needed, in an aircraft are tracked either manually or by separate tracking solution. Many airports are in congested conditions due to complex slot sharing and swapping arrangements. It is complicated for tracking managements to have a comprehensive view of all required assets for each flight and evaluate them, there is always a possibility of delay to customer service or departure due to the unavailability of an asset. For example, portable step ladders are required for aircraft during both landing and takeoff. Any delay in obtaining these ladders may result in a delay in flight operations. Also, there are numerous other portable assets such as wheelchairs, luggage trolleys, catering trucks, and fuel trucks. Seamless tracking of such assets helps operators avoid delays and optimize asset operations. Moreover, it results in faster gate turnarounds, offering enhanced customer experience. As compared with manual tracking process, automatic tracking helps save time and money, as well as assists management make better planning and decisions. Therefore, planning, moving, tracking, and managing assets through a unified solution help airports, airlines, and service providers become more efficient. Growing air traffic due to increasing number of airports is among the other factors expected to positively influence the demand for airport asset-tracking solutions.
Air traffic in Europe is likely to double in the next two decades, which would trigger new challenges in the management of a vast range of assets, such as the unit load devices (ULDs); maintenance, repairs, and overhaul (MRO) spare parts; and tractors. This will boost the airport asset tracking market. Based on asset type, the mobile assets segment led the Europe airport asset tracking market in 2019. Over the last few years, many companies have designed and developed asset tracking and management solutions to track airport assets and enhance efficiency of ground handling operations and maintenance routines. Ground handling normally involves the use of several types of ground support equipment (GSE), which are utilized to service the aircraft between flights. Airport assets come in several sizes and shapes. Sometimes a general divide is made between motorized GSE and non-motorized equipment (NME) for the airside operations. Tractors and tugs are utilized to move several equipment, such as bag carts, air starters, mobile air conditioning units, and lavatory carts. Other assets include belt loaders, container loaders, pushbacks, passenger boarding stairs, and airport buses. Additional asset types found on airports comprise de/anti-icing vehicles, portable water trucks, lavatory service vehicles, and catering vehicles. All these mobile assets are outdoor equipment and are usually integrated with GPS solutions for real-time tracking.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting Europe. Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK, and France are among the worst affected countries in the region. Businesses including airport asset tracking market across Europe are facing severe economic difficulties as they have either suspended their operations or reduced activities significantly. Owing to business shutdown, the region is witnessing an economic slowdown in 2020, and it is most likely to continue in 2021. Air business is one of the important businesses in the European countries, and the COVID-19 crisis across the region has disrupted the entire business including airport asset tracking market. The revenue generated from airports contributes a significant share in the GDP of every European country. As regular passenger flights have been suspended since the last few months, along with the temporary discontinuation of airport infrastructure development in several countries, airports in the region are witnessing continuous fall in revenues. Also, owing to the temporary termination of airport operations (except cargo business and repatriation), the revenue generation for end users has fallen drastically, which would take a longer time to normalize. However, it is expected that with the start of construction projects, the demand for technologically advanced systems and software will rise thus bolstering the airport asset tracking market in Europe.
The overall Europe airport asset tracking market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources. To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the airport asset tracking market. The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the Europe airport asset tracking market with respects to all the segments pertaining to the region. Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data, as well as to gain more analytical insights into the topic. The participants who typically take part in such a process include industry experts, such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managers, along with external consultants, such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders specializing in the Europe airport asset tracking market. Abeeway, Adveez, Asset Fusion Limited, Ctrack, Geotab Inc., indoo.rs GmbH, Steerpath Oy, Targa Telematics S.p.A., TracLogik, Undagrid, and Unilode Aviation Solutions are a few players operating in the Europe airport asset tracking market.