Filings buzz: tracking digitalisation mentions in the airport industry

Mentions of digitalisation within the filings of companies in the airport industry were 66% higher between October 2020 and September 2021 than in 2016, according to the latest analysis of data from GlobalData.

When companies in the airport industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports, and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years.

Digitalisation is one of these topics. Companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether digitalisation is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the airport industry, two measures were calculated.

Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies that have mentioned digitalisation at least once in filings during the past 12 months. This was 84% compared to 57% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to digitalisation.

Of the 50 biggest employers in the airport industry, ID Logistics Group was the company which referred to digitalisation the most between October 2020 and September 2021. GlobalData identified 45 digitalisation-related sentences in the France-based company's filings, 9% of all sentences.

Sinotrans mentioned digitalisation the second most. The issue was referred to in 4.2% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high digitalisation mentions included FedEx, XPO Logistics and Poste Italiane Group.

Across all companies in the airport industry, the filings published in the third quarter of 2021 that exhibited the greatest focus on digitalisation came from Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering. Of the document's 1,304 sentences, 25 (1.9%) referred to digitalisation.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on digitalisation and how important the issue is considered within the airport industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully.

For example, a company mentioning digitalisation more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into digitalisation have been successes or failures.

In the last quarter, companies in the airport industry based in Asia were most likely to mention digitalisation with 0.66% of sentences in company filings referring to the issue. In contrast, companies with their headquarters in the US mentioned digitalisation in just 0.38% of sentences.