What is the difference between airside and landside?

Airside is the secure area beyond security screening, including aprons, stands and runways. Landside is the public area, including terminal entrances, car parks and roads.

Why are airport utilities hard to manage?

Airports have large, old networks serving many tenants across secure and public areas. Without detailed metering, losses and tenant use are hard to pin down.

How do airports recharge tenants for utilities?

They meter tenant consumption and bill it through their own processes. Accurate sub-metering makes recharging fair and reduces disputes.

Can Aqueduct use existing airport meters?

Yes. Aqueduct reads existing meters and BMS points over standard protocols and adds new meters through installation partners only where gaps remain.

Glossary

Airports

What is Airside and landside utilities?

Definition

Airside and landside utilities are the networks that supply an airport with electricity, water, chilled water, heating, wastewater and other services. Airside covers the secure area with aprons, stands, airfield lighting and hangars. Landside covers terminals' public areas, car parks, roads and commercial buildings. Each has different owners, access rules and meters.

What it is

An airport works like a small city. It has its own substations, water mains, chilled water plants, sewer and drainage networks, often spread over a large site with many tenants. Airside and landside are separated by security, so access to inspect or fix utilities differs.

Airside utilities include airfield ground lighting, stand services such as PCA and GPU, hydrant fuel systems, de-icing facilities and hangars. Landside utilities include terminal public areas, car parks, rental car facilities, hotels, offices and retail.

Because so many parties connect to the same networks, airports often struggle to know who uses what and where losses happen. Tenant recharging, leak detection and capacity planning all depend on good metering.

Who it applies to / where it is used

Airport operators, their utility and facilities teams, concessionaires, airlines, ground handlers and other tenants all depend on these networks. Larger airports may run their own utility department with billing for tenants.

How it is measured / what evidence it needs

A clear picture needs a metering hierarchy across both sides, with each network modeled as a balance.

Bulk supply meters for power, water and gas
Zone and tenant sub-meters airside and landside
Water balance by network to locate losses
Chilled water and heating delivered to each building
Tenant consumption for recharging

How Aqueduct helps

Aqueduct models the airport's utility networks as connected digital twins across airside and landside.

aQ WaterGuard balances water supply against zone and tenant meters and flags losses
aQ EnergySmart tracks power and cooling by zone, building and tenant
Tenant consumption supports recharging through the airport's billing process
aQ Core ingests existing meters and BMS points, with new metering through partners