Ground Handling Optimisation puts cameras, sensors, and edge processing on every stand. Fifteen turnaround events are detected, time-stamped, and written to one operational record — shared across airport, airline, and ground handler. Plus real-time apron FOD monitoring. Production-tested. Deploy at a new airport in weeks.
An apron turnaround is run by three different companies — the airport, the airline, the ground handler. Today they reconcile from three different systems, often after the fact, often in dispute. Ground Handling Optimisation gives all three the same operational record, in real time, with the same time-stamps and the same evidence behind every event.
Each event is detected from camera vision + sensor signal, time-stamped at the edge, and written to the shared turnaround record. Every event carries an evidence clip and a confidence score. Aligned to IATA / EUROCONTROL A-CDM milestone definitions where they map.
Apron FOD — fuel spills, dropped tools, loose ground-equipment parts, lost baggage hardware — is the runway-incursion cousin that doesn't get the same attention. It damages aircraft, fouls engines, slips ramp staff, and starts fires. Most airports check for it at shift change. Ground Handling Optimisation watches continuously.
Runway FOD is covered by a separate product — AeroFOD — which uses dedicated runway-side cameras and sensors with 1–2 cm detection.
Existing apron cameras are the primary feed. Where coverage gaps exist, NorthSky-supplied cameras and sensors fill them — proximity, motion, fuel-spill optical sensors. No requirement to rip out existing CCTV.
Detection runs on edge boxes deployed at the stand or pier. Inference happens where the camera is — not in a distant cloud — so latency stays sub-second and bandwidth stays low. Stand-level resilience: a tower outage doesn't blind the apron.
Events stream to the NorthSky platform. Airport ops, airline ops, and the ground handler each see their own view of the same record. Audit trail by design. Read AI governance →
Ground Handling Optimisation is the marquee opt-in pack inside ATOMS. ATOMS is the end-to-end turn-cycle product. The pack adds the apron hardware (cameras, sensors, edge boxes) plus the 15-event catalog and apron FOD monitoring. Most ATOMS customers begin here.
No. Runway FOD lives in AeroFOD — a separate product with a dedicated runway-side device and 1–2 cm detection. Apron FOD (fuel spills, small objects on the stand) is covered here.
Existing apron CCTV is the primary feed where coverage is adequate. NorthSky supplies cameras and sensors where there are gaps, plus an edge box per stand or pier. A stand-by-stand survey precedes deployment.
The configuration template ships with the pack — procedure book, event catalog, per-stand camera mapping. Pilots are typically scoped in days and live in weeks. The first stand is the slowest; subsequent stands replicate quickly.
The handler themselves, the airport ops centre, and any airline whose flights they handle. Sharing is governed by the deployment contract; the audit trail is preserved across all parties.
No. It feeds A-CDM where it exists — TOBT updates, milestone time-stamps, hand-offs to the network manager. If you're not yet A-CDM aligned, the shared turnaround record can be the operational record that gets you there.
Production-tested. The configuration template ships with the pack — procedure book, event catalog, per-stand camera mapping. Pilots are typically scoped in days and live in weeks. Active design partners welcome on any stand class.
A 30-minute walkthrough on your stand layout, your current CCTV coverage, your top three turnaround frustrations, and your top three apron safety concerns. We can pilot inside a quarter.