Designing Smarter Boarding Bridges for Future-Ready Airports

In modern airports’ design and operation, passenger boarding bridges occupy a unique position. More than just standard equipment, boarding bridges present intricate challenges and opportunities for infrastructure planning, spatial configuration and long-term operational strategy. Over the past decade, evolving airline business models, stricter regulations and rising environmental priorities have reshaped the role and design of passenger boarding bridges.

Four Design Foundations

As consulting engineers, Deerns helps airports navigate these changes through multidisciplinary expertise to create adaptable, future-ready infrastructure by bringing together:

• Simulation
• Layout planning
• Sustainability
• Tender advisory services.

System Complexity at the Apron Interface

Passenger boarding bridges are located at one of the most complex and regulated zones in an airport: the aircraft stand. Here, a range of activities take place concurrently, often within tight spatial constraints – fuelling, catering, baggage handling, cleaning and technical servicing. The bridge must integrate seamlessly into this environment, while maintaining operational reliability, passenger comfort and safety.

3 Key infrastructure challenges include:

• Stand configuration and aircraft diversity: Parking areas must accommodate a wide range of aircraft types, requiring flexible bridge positioning, length and movement arcs.
• Integration of ancillary systems: The installation of equipment such as PCA (pre-conditioned air), air conditioning, and electrical power units adds technical layers to what was once a standalone structure.
• Movement coordination: The dynamic nature of apron operations requires careful modelling to avoid conflicts between mobile assets and fixed infrastructure.

Deerns uses advanced simulation tools to model equipment positioning and movement around aircraft stands. These tools support decision making on optimal layouts, collision avoidance zones, and the feasibility of infrastructure upgrades in legacy areas with accumulated technical constraints.

Boarding Bridges in an Operational Context

The use of boarding bridges directly affects turnaround times, passenger experience and how infrastructure is used. In full-service models, bridges contribute to perceived service quality and operational predictability. By contrast, low-cost carriers increasingly explore alternative boarding configurations – combining front bridge access with rear door stair boarding – to reduce turnaround times and operational costs.

As a result, boarding strategies are no longer static. The future will likely see hybrid models, where passenger boarding bridges operate alongside stair-based boarding, tailored to each carrier’s preferences and the airport’s capacity goals.

Sustainability and Infrastructure Innovation

While the boarding bridge has seen limited technical change in recent years, its role within airport sustainability strategies is becoming increasingly significant. Electrification, energy reduction targets and renewable integration are influencing how bridges are powered and operated.

3 Emerging solutions for passenger boarding bridges include:

• Solar integration on bridges to offset power requirements for bridge operation and associated equipment like preconditioned air (PCA).
• Battery storage systems that allow surplus solar energy to be stored and discharged during peak usage.
• Lifecycle energy modelling to quantify the contribution of bridge systems to overall terminal energy demand.

Pilot projects, especially at major European hubs, are testing the feasibility of such configurations. Through its cross-disciplinary expertise, Deerns supports these efforts by guiding feasibility assessments and integration planning.

Regulatory and Safety Considerations

The placement and operation of boarding bridges fall under strict regulatory frameworks designed to protect personnel, passengers and aircraft assets.

Changes to airside infrastructure typically require coordination with national civil aviation authorities and adherence to European safety standards. Ensuring regulatory compliance, particularly in projects involving retrofit or operational changes, demands close collaboration between engineering teams, airport operators and regulators.

To remain effective advisers in this space, Deerns’ engineers continuously update their knowledge of evolving regulations and standards. Initiatives such as targeted safety training or participation in aeronautical regulatory programmes support this need. This year, Deerns engineers are attending civil aviation safety programmes to strengthen our compliance and design advisory capabilities.

Procurement and Market Dynamics

The market for passenger boarding bridges is highly consolidated, with only a small number of global manufacturers. This can constrain competitive procurement and limit technological diversity.

In such contexts, the role of the consulting engineer becomes especially important. Independent advisory services can:

• Assist airports in drafting performance-based tender specifications
• Evaluate proposals based on functional, technical and lifecycle criteria
• Benchmark vendor performance based on past deployments
• Support technology comparisons in a transparent manner

These services contribute to more informed procurement decisions and help avoid design lock-in or early obsolescence.

Bridging Today with Tomorrow

At Deerns, we approach each passenger boarding bridge project as a system challenge, not just an engineering one. By combining multidisciplinary knowledge with operational insight, we help airports turn constraints into competitive advantages – optimising flows, reducing costs, increasing safety and moving toward greener operations.