Dubai Airport Now Using Self-Driving Tractors for Baggage

In yet another step toward automation at airports, Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) has verified its self-driving electric tractors to assist in the transport of baggage throughout the airport. dnata, the aviation services provider, has rolled out six of these smart vehicles, a Dh6 million investment to improve speed, safety, and efficiency at the growing airport.

 How Will They Work? 

The new electric tractors, which are made by TractEasy, are called EZTow and can pull up to four baggage containers at a time . Initially, these vehicles will work under human supervision, and dnata intends to have them fully autonomous by early 2026. The vehicles follow pre-set routes up to speeds of 15 km/h and transport luggage between the terminal and aircraft. Moving baggage has traditionally been done by human drivers with tight timing or deadlines to get aircraft out on time .

Increasing Efficiency and Safety

According to dnata, these vehicles will ultimately be able to not only improve airport operations, but also free up staff time to work on more sophisticated technical tasks than regular baggage handling.This is part of dnata’s vision for the future of Dubai World Central (DWC) as it develops into an airport that could become the world’s largest with future capacity of 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo a year.

Read Also : Emirates has a new milestone of 100,000 bags in one day at Dubai Airport

More Than Just a Bag Mover

This also serves as proof of concept for building smarter ground handling processes. Dnata will closely monitor the performance of the tractors to inform the company’s design of future autonomous airport operations.”It’s an important step not only for Dnata, but for the aviation industry in general,” said Jaffar Dawood, Divisional Senior Vice President, UAE Airport Operations, philosophically.”So many other countries are testing self-driving airport equipment; however, this is the first time we bring automation to ‘life’, not just prove it works.

A Growing International Trend

According to IATA (International Air Transport Association), approximately 15 other countries are testing similar autonomous ground support technologies; however, they are mainly at the very early stages of deployment. In comparison, Dubai is seen as the “big bang of automation.