Airports are becoming smart ecosystems where efficiency, security, and passenger experience converge. Every year, global rankings set benchmarks for excellence. In the Skytrax 2025 World’s Best Airports list, Singapore Changi Airport has reclaimed the top spot, followed by Hamad International, Tokyo Haneda, Incheon, and Narita.
What sets these top-ranked hubs apart is not only their architecture or hospitality, but also their integration of advanced technologies. From biometric security and AI-driven passenger flow management to autonomous baggage handling and accessible mobility systems, innovations are redefining the passenger journey. Often developed through partnerships with technology vendors and equipment makers, these systems directly enhance operational efficiency and passenger satisfaction, ultimately shaping how airports are recognized worldwide.
Patents as engine of air transport and airport transformation
Two megatrends are reshaping air transportation: sustainability and digitalization. These trends are driving a surge of patent activity across propulsion, automation, communication, and human-machine-interface technologies. Airports stand out as the operational hubs where these innovations converge. Their edge now depends on intellectual property portfolios that secure and deploy new systems, transforming terminals into data-driven, sustainable ecosystems. Examining recent patent activity among major airports reveals how these broader trends translate into concrete innovation strategies and partnerships shaping the future of air travel.
Incheon, Narita, and Changi Airports: Patenting Activity
The patent trends presented here focus on three leading Asian hubs, Incheon, Narita, and Changi, selected for their prominence in global rankings and their contrasting approaches to innovation.
Filings surged between 2020 and 2022, centering on automation, safety, and contactless technologies that made airport operations more resilient. During this period, Incheon International Airport emerged as the clear leader, appearing as co-assignee on most pending and granted patents, signaling its direct role in innovation.
Incheon’s filings spanned health security and operational resilience, featuring automated access control and intelligent screening systems that reduced face-to-face contact, a Smart Baggage Antivirus System with Enputech to disinfect luggage, and X-ray virtualization technology for remote screening. It also filed patents for smart parking, aviation demand forecasting, and NFC-based authentication with 3A Logics, reflecting the move toward touchless, digitally managed passenger flows. By 2023, patent activity eased from its peak but remained steady, showing that airports continue to invest in long-term innovation beyond the pandemic’s urgency.
Incheon stands out as one of the few airports that consistently appears as a patent assignee, often co-owning with major Korean conglomerates like LG Electronics, POSCO, LS Corp, and Kumho Petrochemical, as well as SMEs such as 3A Logics and Wooju Envitech.
Narita and Changi airports, meanwhile, show only modest filing activity. Narita acts mainly as an adopter, testing technologies from partners like NEC, while Changi Airport Group collaborates with AI startups and research institutions such as Palladyne AI and the National University of Singapore. Both focus on deploying advanced solutions rather than building large IP portfolios, underscoring how airports take different routes to innovation.
Incheon, Narita and Changi Airports: Top Technology Areas
While Narita and Changi Airports contribute to the region’s technological progress, their patent portfolios are relatively small, almost negligible in volume compared to Incheon Airport. Accordingly, the charts below focus only on Incheon Airport to illustrate the leading technology areas driving innovation.
Looking at the overall distribution of patent activity, three categories dominate the airport innovation landscape. Information and communication technology for management and operations (G06Q) lead the field, highlighting airports’ reliance on digital platforms for supervisory and passenger flow systems. Traffic control systems (G08G) follow, highlighting efforts to improve coordination between vehicles and aircraft, while ground and aircraft handling technologies (B64F) complete the top three with innovations in baggage handling, boarding bridges, and airfield support.
Secondary clusters include navigation and sensing technologies (G01S), electric data processing (G06F), and signalling/alarm systems (G08B), each contributing to greater resilience and safety in airport operations.
The yearly breakdown reveals clear shifts in emphasis. From 2015 to 2017, filings were modest but spread across several areas, including ICT (G06Q), traffic control (G08G), and ground handling (B64F), reflecting foundational work in both digital and physical systems. By 2018–2019, ICT-related filings began to climb, showing early moves into digitalization and operational integration.
In 2020, ICT-related patents (G06Q) spiked along with monitoring systems (G07C), and safety alarms (G08B), reflecting pandemic-driven priorities such as touchless access, workforce monitoring, and heightened security, as seen in Incheon Airport’s anti-viral baggage system. By 2022, the focus pivoted to infrastructure, with ground and aircraft handling (B64F), traffic control (G08G), and navigation (G01S) surged, surging alongside steady ICT activity. This marks a shift from short-term crisis measures to longer-term modernization.
Key patents on board
The following cases highlight key airport–partner collaborations, demonstrating how airports’ broader approaches to innovation and intellectual property are applied in practice.
Changi’s self-driving baggage handling
Airports face persistent challenges in ground handling efficiency, where traditional baggage tugs and dollies depend heavily on manual labor and tight coordination in congested apron areas. As passenger volumes rise and manpower becomes harder to scale, automation offers a path to reduce delays, improve safety, and maintain reliable baggage transfers between terminals and aircraft.
U.S. Patent No. 12,227,305 highlights a self-propelled baggage dolly capable of carrying a fully laden ULD or more than 1,000 kg, powered by its own drive system and processor. Central to the design is a set of deployable perpendicular wheels that allow the dolly to shift laterally in a precise “docking mode.” This capability makes it possible for the dolly to move sideways into loading bays and along baggage hall laterals, supported by advanced steering and independent wheel control that give it full maneuverability on the apron and in tight indoor spaces.
Under a multi-year agreement, Aurrigo, a division of the Richmond Design and Marketing Group Ltd (RDM) is deploying and testing its Auto-Dolly and Auto-Dolly Tug at Changi, autonomous vehicles that embody these patented features of self-propulsion, lateral movement, and precise docking. Supported by Singapore’s Airport Development Fund, the trials are part of Changi’s broader strategy to boost efficiency, address manpower challenges, and prepare Terminal 5 for the next generation of airport operations.
The patent, titled “Self-propelled airside dolly, baggage handling system, baggage handling facility, and related apparatus and methods”, was filed on December 16, 2019, and published on February 18, 2025. The patent, currently assigned to Richmond Design & Marketing Ltd, lists David Keene and Simon Brewerton as inventors. Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c. represented Richmond Design & Marketing Ltd in the filing.
Narita’s seamless biometric borders
Japan’s airports are turning to advanced biometric technologies to ease congestion and enhance security amid a surge in international travelers. With traditional immigration and customs checks straining under peak traffic, authorities are increasingly adopting contactless identity verification to speed up processing. Earlier this year, NEC announced new deployments of its biometric solutions across major airports, including Narita, signaling Japan’s deeper commitment to tech-driven passenger management.
By introducing new walkthrough gates and digital kiosks designed to make immigration and customs faster and more seamless, the company is helping airports prepare for a surge in international travelers. These advances are built on years of technical refinement, with patents offering a glimpse into how such systems are engineered for both efficiency and accuracy.
U.S. Patent No. 12,094,277 describes a gate apparatus that tightly integrates biometric verification with passport data. Its architecture includes an acquisition unit for capturing a traveler’s biometric information, a matching request unit that checks against a secure server linking biometric profiles to passport MRZ data, and a control unit that governs gate operation. By eliminating the need to physically open a passport and allowing authentication through its IC chip, the design envisions smoother, faster immigration checks while maintaining security.
U.S. Patent No. 12,039,817 outlines a gate system designed to improve biometric accuracy in high-traffic environments. A gate device guides passengers along a controlled path so an imaging device can capture the face or iris directly from the front. An authentication device then processes the data, while displays and an opening/closing member manage user flow and access. By optimizing both the imaging angle and the passenger’s movement path, the system ensures reliable authentication without slowing down throughput.
The NEC patents, titled “Gate apparatus, server apparatus, emigration and immigration examination system, control method of gate apparatus, and control method of server apparatus” and “Gate system”, were filed on January 7, 2020, and November 5, 2019, respectively. US12094277B2, published on September 17, 2024, lists Fumi Irie as inventor. Sughrue Mion, PLLC represented NEC in its filing. While US12039817B2, published on July 16, 2024, lists Yuka Ogino, Keiichi Chono, and Kazuya Matsumoto as inventors.
Incheon’s smart service robots on the floor
As airports continue to explore automation to improve efficiency and reduce passenger stress, Incheon International Airport became one of the earliest adopters of robotic assistance. When LG Electronics introduced its guide and cleaning robots at Incheon International Airport in 2017, travelers got an early look at how automation could improve efficiency. The guide robot, for example, could scan a boarding pass and escort a late passenger to the correct gate, while its cleaning counterpart kept terminal floors spotless. These early deployments proved that robots could ease the passenger journey and experience.
U.S. Patent No. 11,260,533 filed in the same year, describes an airport robot system that integrates a robot, a central server, airport-installed cameras, and passengers’ mobile terminals. The robot includes an image photographing unit and an image recognizer, which capture and process video feeds to identify travelers by matching faces against ticket records stored in the server. Once the server detects a gate reassignment or delay, it searches camera data for affected passengers, then issues a control command to the nearest robot. That robot, in turn, uses its controller to display updated flight details or to transmit them directly to the passenger’s mobile terminal through a communication unit.
The internal mechanism, shown in the figure, is divided into a microcomputer group and an AP group. The microcomputer group includes modules like the obstacle recognition unit and the driving driver to manage sensors, motors, and power supply. Meanwhile, the AP group handles higher-level functions through components such as the object recognition unit with 2D and RGBD cameras, the position recognition unit with LIDAR and a SLAM camera, and the user interface unit including a touch monitor and microphone board. Together, these systems allow the robot to navigate crowded terminals, interact with travelers, and deliver timely updates directly on its display or through connected mobile devices.
The patent, titled “Robot and robot system comprising same”, was filed on September 22, 2017, and published on March 1, 2022. The patent, currently assigned to LG Electronics Inc, lists Sunho Yang as inventor. Ked & Associates LLP represented LG Electronics Inc in the filing.
Incheon, Narita and Changi Airports: Top Law Firms
In terms of legal representation, the filings are handled by a relatively concentrated set of firms. For Incheon Airport filings, the leading representatives are Hanyang International Patent & Law Firm and Honesty & Jr Partners Intellectual Property Law Group, followed by a smaller share managed by Y.P. Lee, Mock & Partners.
For Narita Airport, Nishizawa Toshio, and Kisaragi Associates dominate their small portfolio, each handling three cases. In contrast, Changi Airport filings exhibit lower concentration, with representation varying depending on the co-assignee.
Although representation is largely handled by domestic firms, the dataset also records occasional involvement of foreign firms such as Schoppe, Zimmermann, Stöckeler from Germany and Gowling WLG from Canada, each appearing in two cases. Their presence suggests that in certain instances, applicants are extending coverage or seeking expertise outside their home jurisdictions.
Shaping the future of airports
Patents serve not just as legal safeguards but as strategic blueprints for the airports of tomorrow. As global travel rebounds and next-generation airports like Changi’s Terminal 5 or Incheon’s Phase 4 expansion take shape, patents will determine which innovations define the future passenger journey, and which airports lead the race.
