Aurrigo International – a Partner of the FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group – is accelerating its ‘Ramp Ready’ project at East Midlands Airport, a member of Manchester Airports Group (a Corporate Partner of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub). This will see Aurrigo deploy two of its Auto-Cargo® autonomous vehicles and one eight-passenger Auto-Shuttle®. Aurrigo has secured nearly £700,000 of funding from The Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Pathfinder – Enhancements programme to extend its work at East Midlands Airport.
The objective is to refine a multi-vehicle fleet framework for airside logistics over the next nine months, enabling simultaneous cargo and aircrew transport.
Innovations include improved environmental testing, expanded simulation capabilities, and modular, low-volume manufacturing to reduce costs and accelerate scalability. The project supports the commercial readiness of both cargo and passenger autonomous vehicles, while generating critical operational data for ongoing development.
“Auto-Cargo® is our largest aviation vehicle to date and is set to transform airside logistics by autonomously carrying a total payload of 16,500kg,” said David Keene, CEO, Aurrigo International. “The vehicle is a fully electric, zero-emission alternative to existing diesel-powered models. The latest funding will allow us to accelerate deployment at East Midlands Airport, as well as integrating our Auto-Shuttle® to cater for short distance passenger and staff transport. It’s about proving out a multi-fleet approach, as well as gaining valuable insights into real-world situations that we can build into our solutions as we scale.”
Ramp Ready is one of four Aurrigo International projects that have been awarded a total of £1 million of funding to accelerate sustainable airport and transport innovations.
“These awards reflect our commitment to building the next generation of intelligent, sustainable, and scalable transport systems that operate in both urban and airside operations,” said Keene. “From immersive VR for airside training to real-world AV deployments and rural mobility innovation, we’re proud to be working with exceptional partners across the UK to bring transformative change to both aviation and ground transport.”
Hear more from Manchester Airports Group and Aurrigo at FTE Global – the “CES of Aviation” taking place in Long Beach, California, on 9 to 11 September 2025. Mike Hardaker, Chief Asset & Development Officer, Manchester Airports Group, is participating in a session titled ‘The future of business & commercial strategies for airports – are we at the threshold of airports evolving to become digital companies that run experiential businesses, and what would the new business models and organisational structures be behind that? Meanwhile, Miles Garner, Director of Sales and Marketing, Aurrigo, will deliver a joint presentation alongside Brian Cobb, Chief Innovation Officer, Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport, titled ‘Insights and recommended practices from CVG on planning and scaling autonomous vehicle use at airports (Mapping, Testing, Modeling, Simulation, Testing, Deployment, Scaling. Rinse and repeat).
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