Airport Consultancy and Engineering
NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants), part of Royal HaskoningDHV, is a world-leading airport consultancy and engineering firm with over 65 years’ experience working in the aviation and air transport industry – from major landmark designs to smaller regional airports.
Since 1949, NACO has provided integrated and multi-disciplinary airport planning and design services for 600 airports in more than 100 countries. We work with our clients to solve the increasing complexities that come with developing world-class, future-proof airports.
Contributing to airport development is at the heart of our mission. From Strategic Development Studies and Airport Master Planning to Passenger Terminal Building Design and Airside Engineering, our aim is to provide innovative, sustainable, solutions tailored to meet the local requirements for our clients.
Our products and services are well balanced and comprehensive; considering different airport’s operational needs, technology, cost effectiveness, sustainability and passenger experience.
Airport Master Planning
Our airport master planning methodology is a critical tool in determining future requirements for airports, and provides the comprehensive vision for long-term development. We use that vision as a fundamental tool to establish a road-map to define short, medium and long-term measures towards that vision.
We understand the need to incorporate flexibility into your airport’s Master Plan – given the dynamic conditions of the industry. Our multi-disciplinary approach of integrating strategic development, functional airport planning (airside as well as landside) and financial planning results in efficient, feasible and realistic solutions.
Some of our key services include:
- Site selection & feasibility studies
- Peak and Annual Traffic forecasting
- Airside, terminal and landside capacity analysis and sizing
- Airport process optimisation studies
- Land use planning & master planning which integrates the strategic airport development objectives
- Airside and landside traffic simulations
- Financial planning (CAPEX, OPEX and Revenues)
Airport Building Design
Whether you’re looking to optimise your passenger terminal, expand your catering, cargo car parking capacity – we understand how the processes of an airport work best.
When moving through an airport, all passengers behave differently. We ensure your airport best addresses all of their needs. We are experts at determining the size of buildings required, identifying potential capacity issues, as well as ironing out logistics flows both airside and landside.
Wherever you are in the world, our holistic approach involves co-operation with local partners in order to provide regional context on regulations and compliance. NACO works closely with major architects on landmark airport projects, such as New Mexico City International Airport, but our experts can also handle design projects in-house from concept design to construction documentation. The historic benchmarking data and calculation tool which we hold in-house means that we always meet our priority of making sure that the airport design champions function over form.
NACO’s sole focus is on airports, meaning that our experts understand your challenges inside out and always take a tailor-made approach to determine the best design option for your airport. NACO’s design allows for the incorporation of advanced technologies such as self-service drop-off and passport control, as well as fully-automated baggage handling systems
Our specific services include:
- Airport facility programme of requirements and functional design
- Capacity studies
- Design and engineering – also incorporating IT systems, baggage handling systems etc
- Architectural design
- Airport building optimisation – including terminal buildings
- Simulations of passenger processes – using various types of industry standard software
Airport Civil Engineering
NACO provides complete airport civil engineering services for all airport facilities covering planning, design, tender support and supervision. Our scope can include tasks from ensuring that airside facilities interface with the design of the terminal building to pavement resurfacing and apron design. We get involved throughout the project lifecycle from concept design to the opening of a new airside facility.
We specialise in working at operational airports, hence safety and security are key considerations in all of our work. Because airside infrastructure often has to be built whilst the airport is still operational, our dedicated project managers ensure that your deadlines and targets are always met.
Some of our specific services include:
- Engineering of Airport infrastructure – aprons, runways, taxiways and landside infrastructure etc.
- Engineering of Airfield Special systems – apron systems, airfield ground lighting and navigational aids etc.
- Soil investigations and pavement design & engineering
- Drainage system design and engineering
- Preparation of tender documents
- Construction supervision and contract management
Special Airport Systems
Now more than ever, airports need systems that are reliable, efficient and cost-effective to optimise operations and to create a distinctive passenger experience.
Our consultants specialise in tackling the complexity of today’s Special Airport Systems and understand the difficulties this entails. By collaborating closely with clients and their stakeholders, we provide crucial insight into the capabilities needed to future-proof your airports.
Using our knowledge and expertise, we have developed the Airport IT HealthCheck; to support airports and their IT departments to understand the status of their systems and to ensure they are prepared for the future.
We offer end-to-end services for the following areas of Special Airport Systems:
- Airside (airfield ground lighting and control systems, apron systems, navigational aids, meteorological systems and auxiliary systems)
- Baggage handling and hold baggage screening systems and processes
- Airport-wide ICT infrastructure and systems (IT network architecture and terminal-related systems) – Airport IT Masterplanning / Airport IT Health Check / Airport IT Infrastructure Consultancy
Airport and aviation security (passenger screening systems, access control, video surveillance)
Our consultancy services include taking the role of the client’s engineer (general design consultant), delivering peer reviews, feasibility and cost-benefit studies, (reference) systems designs, budgeting, tender specification, asset management and maintenance support and operations optimisation.