Airports Still Run on 1980s Software: Why the Industry Is Moving Beyond AODB-Centric Operations

From the Travel Tech Podcast newsletter for episode 7, Airports Still Run on 1980s Software: Why the Industry Is Moving Beyond AODB-Centric Operations.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, also streaming on Spotify and YouTube.

Hot on the heels of Heathrow Airport’s decision to use AIRHART as its digital backbone and with the Passenger Terminal Expo in London next week, in this episode, I speak with Martin Bowman, Chief Strategy Officer at Smarter Airports.

Martin’s career spans more than two decades across airport technology leadership roles at Amor Group, Lockheed Martin, Deloitte, and now the team behind the AIRHART operations platform. We discuss why legacy AODB-centric architectures have struggled to keep pace with modern airport operational demands and why several major airports are beginning to shift toward platform-based operations orchestration. Martin explains the economic, technical, and organizational forces behind this transition, including Heathrow’s recent decision to adopt AIRHART as a core operational platform.

Key Takeaways from the Episode

• Legacy Architecture Constraints: Most airport operational systems still reflect design assumptions from the 1980s, even where interfaces and technology stacks have been refreshed.
• Platform Operating Model: A platform approach shifts control from vendor roadmaps to airport-led configuration, allowing faster adaptation to local operational priorities.
• Organizational Capability Requirements: Platform adoption changes the role of the airport technology function, requiring tighter alignment with operations, stronger governance, and internal delivery capability.
• Capacity Margin Economics: At airports operating near full capacity, the difficulty of system change is driven less by technical replacement work than by the operational consequences of any failure or delay.
• AI Foundation Integrity: Scalable AI in airport operations depends less on isolated use cases and more on reliable data, model governance, auditability, and interoperability across the wider operational ecosystem.

We hope you enjoy the conversation. I'll be at PTE next week, so come find me!

Alex Brooker, Host of the Travel Tech Podcast, Founder of Airside Labs