Ground handler dnata is adding four fully electric apron buses to its fleet at Rome Fiumicino Airport, with the Cobus VEGA vehicles scheduled to enter service by mid-November. According to dnata, it will be the first ground handling company to put this new model into operation.
The buses are purpose-built for airport aprons and carry passengers between terminals and aircraft. dnata says they offer higher passenger capacity than conventional airport buses, while redesigned doors are intended to speed up boarding and alighting and improved air conditioning to raise comfort on board. The company did not disclose battery capacity, range or charging power for the vehicles.
Fleet and modernisation context
The four additions take the Fiumicino bus fleet beyond its current 40 vehicles, of which 23 are already electrically powered. dnata says the new buses are meant to make apron handling more efficient and to help keep aircraft turnaround times as short as possible.
The purchase sits within a wider modernisation programme in which dnata has invested more than €30 million over the past three years. In that period it has taken on more than 550 new ground handling equipment 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, over 60 per cent of which are now electric. Where full electrification is not yet operationally feasible, the company is gradually converting diesel-powered equipment to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO).
Charging infrastructure as a constraint
dnata says that further electrification depends on the expansion of charging infrastructure at the airports, and that it is working with the respective airport operators to achieve this.
The announcement did not specify the cost of the four buses, the energy or emissions savings expected from them, or how they will be charged at Fiumicino. dnata presents the deployment chiefly in terms of operational capacity and turnaround speed rather than stated environmental targets.
In Italy the company employs around 5,000 people and serves more than 60 airlines. At its three locations it handles over 150,000 flights, 46 million passengers and nearly 18 million pieces of baggage each year.