ACR’s CEO on the transformation to an Air Mobility Management Company

Wilhelm, ACR is having a new web appearance and giving itself a fresh “look”. What is behind all that?

I believe that every now and again, a company needs to re-invent itself. In these dynamic times, you need to challenge and ask yourself, if you are still giving the customers what they need most and now the time has come for ACR to re-adjust.

When we started to be successful and took over the first airports from LFV in 2011, we were considered and also felt like a market disruptor and – first and foremost – a “no frill ANSP”.

We were focusing hard on maintaining a low overhead and cost structure, while providing the airports with a tailored ANS product that was satisfying all safety and quality needs of them and the regulatory framework. Since then we have grown considerably and today we operate 17 airports and are waiting for  number 18 (in the fall 23) to join the ACR family.

However, during this growth and consolidation period of ACR, the physiognomy of the aviation industry in general and the regional airport segment specifically, has changed. These changes alter the customer- and market needs and demand as well that the service providers adjust their service portfolio. Therefore, we have now started to transform ourselves from being “just a lean T-ANSP” to an Air Mobility Management Company.

Can you say something about the mentioned new market needs and their significance for the service portfolio of an ANSP?

The entire aviation industry is confronted with some high-impact developments.

We are currently in a post-pandemic period that is characterized by an industry recovery in a fragile geopolitical situation resulting in  high energy- and fuel costs and disruptions in the labour-resource and many other supply chains. This general situation requires a strong focus on scalability of services, the development of robust cost-and risk sharing models and a strong grip on cost-efficiency and cost control. 

At the same time, digitalization, high-level automation, and an increased utilization of AI-applications are offering new ways of improving the service quality and breaking down traditional ways of thinking regarding how a service can be delivered in the most efficient way.

Additionally, we are now seeing a new group of airspace users entering through the door. The manned and unmanned aerial systems come not only with a new view on infrastructure needs  but also with a new set of operational needs that differ very much from the needs of traditional airspace users. How successful business models can be integrated into the existing aviation architecture is one of the key issues especially considering that the charging framework valid for aircraft is not applicable for this user-segment. This leaves us with the question: how can a business model be successfully operated ?

Finally, all of the above developments happen in the context of a societal imperative, to be as sustainable as possible and work towards zero-emission wherever possible.

Combined, we believe that these on-going developments demand from a service provider to transform and become something that we termed: an Air Mobility Management Company.

So, what is an Air Mobility Management Company and how does it distinguish itself from a traditional T-ANS provider?

Today, a Terminal-ANSP provides ATC or AFIS to an airport as a(sub-)supplier and beyond that, there is usually no further interaction with the airport and the ANSP. You agree on a Service Level Agreement and shake hands on it.

We understand the role of an Air Mobility Management Company to be much broader. Yes, the provision of ATC/AFIS to airports in a lean and cost-efficient way is still the main service we want to provide to our customers, but in addition to that, we believe that we need to be able to provide additional and value -adding services to the airports to support them in developing their business models and their operations given the changes in the technology and user-landscape. In other words, we need to become an “ANSP-Plus” to distinguish us from our competitors and add real value to our customers.

What kind of services do you have in mind?

We are currently having lots of discussions internally and with our airport partners to define and scope these services.

What we know today is, that these new services are related to the entry of the new airspace user groups and also embrace the on-going technological development.

A few examples of how ACR`s services can contribute to futures airport efficiency:

• When an airport wants its airport inspection done by drones, .

• When an airport considers integrating a Vertiport and drone operations – manned and unmanned – in its operational framework,

• When an airport wants to review the way it is providing ANS to its customer base, maybe in a more digitalized way, 

• When an airport wants to utilize its infrastructure as a testbed for research on sustainability related technologies and concepts, be it related to SAF or electrical propulsion

These are just some examples, that demonstrate along which lines we believe our service portfolio should expand.

By being able to provide an airport with such a contemporary portfolio of competence and related services, we will also develop from being a “just another sub-supplier” to what we really want to be: a real partner to the airport.

These are high ambitions. How do you believe it is possible to provide airport customers with these kind of services in a competent way and still maintain a lean and efficient organizational structure? Is that at all possible?

That is a very central question for us, as it is absolutely mandatory for ACR to maintain our key competitive advantage – our focused and efficient organizational structure, which allows us to provide ANS to our customers with optimal cost-efficiency.

In order to be able to develop and expand our offer  credibly towards our customers   two separate processes are being rolled out. On the one hand, some key competences we simply need to recruit and employ, and we are on the constant lookout for hungry and motivated talents. Just some weeks ago we were very happy to welcome Henrik Bergdahl into the ACR family. With his wide experience in the provision of digitalized ANS and general management backpack, he is a strong add-on to our team. Others will follow and strengthen our in-house capabilities.

At the same time, we strongly believe  in a network of like-minded, competent and innovative companies that join forces for certain customers and markets always with the main goal in mind, to provide the customer with exactly what they need. The network we are currently developing does not only consists of technology providers, drone-companies and research institutions, but extends also to competitors!

I believe that it is  possible to compete with another company in certain tenders and markets, while at the same time cooperate with them, whenever a mutual win-win opportunity is presenting itself or when it is opportune to share risk and, or investments!

We have experienced that some organizations are putting considerably more energy and resources into the protection of their monopoly market position rather than asking themselves what the market and the customer really needs. We don’t believe that such attitudes are sustainable in the long run.

Part 2 will follow on in the fall and there Wilhelm will talk about the planned and on-going expansion of the ACR Group and some of the ACR partner organizations.