London Heathrow Airport served as the prestigious host for a very special edition of Airport Labs' biannual Airport Community App Forum on June 5th, 2025, this time celebrating the 10th anniversary of the app. This milestone celebration brought together (online and in person) representatives from across the global airport community to commemorate a decade of transformative innovation in aviation operations.
From Physical Forums to Always - On Community
The journey began in 2015 with the launch of the Airport Community App itself - a purpose-built, cloud-based workforce communication and collaboration mobile platform designed to optimise both collaboration and operational performance in the airport environment.
In 2019, recognising the power of collective innovation, the biannual Airport Community Forums were established. These twice-yearly gatherings function as aviation's first collaborative innovation laboratory, where airport representatives gather to share operational challenges and co-create solutions within the App. The forums emerged from user initiative - airports themselves recognised shared challenges and took the lead in collectively shaping the platform's roadmap.
Now, in 2025, at this special anniversary celebration, the evolution reached a new milestone with the launch of the Airport Community Space, extending this collaborative model online and creating a year-round digital hub where the same airport professionals can connect, share insights, and continue innovation between physical gatherings.
This evolution reflects ACA's core philosophy: that the best solutions emerge from the frontline workers who face operational challenges daily. The 120+ features now in the platform all originated from these community discussions, transforming real airport needs into practical solutions.
Beyond Technology: Building Operational Excellence
After ten years and 400,000+ active users generating 20M+ monthly interactions, the Airport Community App has proven that real-time access to operational information creates stronger, more resilient airports. Trusted by over 60 international airports worldwide, the platform addresses aviation's most pressing challenge: fragmented communication and disconnected teams. By connecting everyone from ground crew to security teams with real-time operational intelligence, the platform has transformed not just efficiency, but workforce wellbeing and confidence.
Event Highlights: Showcasing a Decade of Innovation
This special 10th anniversary forum presented the latest functionalities and development updates, allowing airports to see if new features align with their interests, understand their benefits, and choose to activate them for their own operations. Key novelties unveiled included:
- Lost Property Reporting with photo capture
- Real-time Crew Transport tracking from aircraft to terminal
- Comprehensive Baggage Performance KPIs across all operational metrics
- Instant Taxi Time monitoring with 13-minute delay alerts
- Enhanced incident reporting with asset-specific follow-up capabilities
The Strategic Roadmap
The product management team shared their forward-looking strategic roadmap, emphasising AirportLabs' commitment to customer-driven innovation through geographical expansion, enhanced data integration capabilities, and ecosystem development to serve increasingly complex operational landscapes.
The Grand Finale
The forum’s final sessions brought a sense of shared achievement and forward momentum. Participants exchanged practical tips and real-life experiences using the app, showing how different airports are putting the platform to work in their daily operations. These peer insights helped others see new ways to get even more value from the tools already at their fingertips.
By learning from each other's successes and challenges, airports can unlock the full potential of the platform’s 120+ community-developed features - shaping implementations that truly fit their unique environments.
The event concluded with an exciting milestone: the launch of the Airport Community Space - an online collaboration platform built specifically for Community App users around the world. This digital hub extends the spirit of the forum into everyday operations, enabling year-round knowledge exchange, best practice sharing, and peer support among aviation professionals.
At Heathrow, we saw firsthand how powerful it is when airport teams come together and share openly. Thanks to the new Community Space, that collaboration doesn’t end when the forum wraps - it continues online, helping airports tackle real challenges together, one conversation at a time.
Special thanks to Heathrow Airport for hosting this milestone celebration and to every airport professional who contributed to this decade of transformation.
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