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Copenhagen Airport (CPH) is aiming to be the “architect of future airports” according to its CEO Christian Poulsen.

Speaking to Airport Technology Poulsen said the Danish capital’s airport was showing the positive effects of combined IT and operations systems across the entire “ecosystem” with its AIRHART technology.

The connected and collaborative system was produced by a joint venture called Smarter Airports with Danish (and more recently international) tech firm Netcompany.

The DKK300m ($43m) IT infrastructure and joint venture was created after a more traditional process of tenders and external implementation failed, Poulsen explained.

The joint venture is now looking to expand, and according to Smarter Airports CEO Mehdi Motaghiani, conversations with other airports are at advanced stages.

Dubai’s ruler Mohammed Al Maktoum has approved plans for a $34.8bn replacement for Dubai International Airport at Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), otherwise known as Dubai World Central Airport.

The site, which opened in 2010 for freight traffic, will be extended with a new passenger terminal to accommodate 260 million passengers annually.

The airport is planned to be the hub for “Dubai South”, a new city built from the ground up in the Emirate. 

When completed DWC will be five times the size of the current hub, Dubai International (DXB). 

Aviation features heavily in Dubai’s growth plans, and the expanded airport – which will have a footprint of at least 70 square kilometres – will be built with an eye on future technologies and environmental goals. 

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) developer Joby Aviation has signed a wide-ranging Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with authorities in Abu Dhabi to “lay the groundwork” for a scaleable air taxi service in the Emirate. 

Signed at an event in the UAE, the MoU is intended to show the “breadth of support available to Joby” from the Abu Dhabi Government. 

The signatories along with Joby were the Department of Municipalities and Transport – Abu Dhabi (DMT), the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (DED) and the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). 

Joby holds exclusive rights to develop an air taxi service in Abu Dhabi, and the new agreement could lead to the first inter-emirate agreement to provide the service between the region and Dubai, the neighbouring emirate south of Abu Dhabi. 

Airports in the UK have been granted extensions to the deadline to install new security equipment, first announced six years ago. 

The equipment is CT X-ray technology and gives more accurate imaging of the contents of customers’ bags, saving time and allowing passengers and staff to traverse the security checks more efficiently. 

They will also allow passengers to take liquid of more than 100ml through airport security, which they have not been able to do since 2006. 

However, despite the two-year deadline for the upgrades, “some UK airports” have failed to install the technology and have been allowed another 12 months to achieve the new standard. 

Not every airport in the UK is part of the plan with only “major” airports instructed to upgrade by June 2024 (now 2025). 

The UK Department of Transport (DfT) refused to state which airports were given an extension, citing unexplained “national security” issues.

Etihad Airways CEO Antonoaldo Neves has apparently confirmed previous reports suggesting the Abu Dhabi-based carrier is considering an IPO. 

The joint-UAE flag carrier’s boss said it was aiming to improve transparency by publishing its 2023 and previously unseen 2022 profits. 

After several years of losses, Etihad reported a $143m profit in 2023 and a $25m profit the previous year. 

“We are working very hard so that whenever is the proper time to do an IPO, we are going to be ready,” Neves told Reuters. 

But the decision will not be for Neves and the Etihad board to make, and its owner, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ, has not yet commented on the market speculation. 

ADQ’s history of floating its portfolio companies, and Neves’s appointment, have sparked the rumours, as first reported by Bloomberg. The Brazilian CEO previously led the Azul airline through an IPO in 2017.