Thomas Xu, President of Huawei’s smart Aviation Business Unit, spoke to IAR Head of Content Ian Betteridge at MWC Barcelona 2026 about breaking down silos, the AI turnaround revolution, and why the airport of the future is really a city.
c: Huawei
Anyone who has spent time talking to airport operators will recognise the central paradox of modern aviation infrastructure: airports are awash with data, yet still struggle to make the best of it. Cameras, sensors, ground support systems, security platforms and passenger flow monitors all generate torrents of information – but too often that data sits in isolated pockets, inaccessible to the people who need it most.
This is one of the challenges that Huawei’s smart aviation Business Unit was created to address. Thomas Xu, the unit’s President, has spent many years working in transforming transport through technology, and he has a clear-eyed view of what the industry needs.
“There were so many isolated systems,” he says of the situation Huawei encountered when it first began working with Shenzhen Airport approximately eight years ago – a project he describes as one of the first serious attempts at airport digital transformation. “One operation centre for airfield operation, one for terminal operation, one for landside, one for security etc. And different centre has different system with different data. What was needed first was a platform to accommodate the data generated by all those different systems, and then to share it.”
That platform concept – the Integrated Operations Centre, or IOC, based on Total Airport Management (TAM) – has become something of an industry standard, and Huawei has been instrumental in its adoption. But Xu is keen to correct a common misconception. “The screen wall is not important,” he says. “The screen wall is only a display. What matters is the data sharing behind it.” It is a good reminder that the technology is only ever a means to an operational end.
AI on the apron
When the conversation turns to artificial intelligence (AI), Xu’s enthusiasm is apparent – and well grounded in experience in deployments. He describes two solutions that illustrate how AI is beginning to reshape the day-to-day mechanics of airport operations.
The first is what Xu calls “AI turnaround”. Aircraft turnaround is a time-sensitive and complex process, involving perhaps 40 discrete milestones from the moment a plane taxi into stand – doors opening,
Baggage load started, cleaning crews boarding, refuelling commencing – through to the moment it pushes back again. Traditionally, these milestones have been logged manually, using handheld devices and bespoke software. Huawei has replaced this process with computer vision, achieving an accuracy rate of 98% and reduce the abnormal flight 80%
The second solution, Digital Apron, addresses a challenge that is less glamorous but equally important, the management of unpowered ground support equipment – the tugs, baggage trailer and service vehicles that populate every busy apron. By combining GPS localisation of both equipment and personnel with AI-powered task assignment, the system ensures that the nearest available resource is always deployed first, reducing both idle time and the risk of safety incidents.
The capacity conundrum
Expanding physical airport infrastructure is, in most of the world, a slow, expensive process. Xu is pragmatic about this reality. The answer, he argues, lies in using AI to do more with the space that already exists – and passenger flow analytics are central to that effort.
We can analyse passenger trajectories, identify where bottlenecks form, and understand which areas of the terminal are underused.
“We can analyse passenger trajectories, identify where bottlenecks form, and understand which areas of the terminal are underused,” he says. Crucially, this analysis can be conducted with privacy preserved – faces are blurred, and only movement patterns are tracked. The commercial implications extend beyond operational efficiency. Understanding where passengers stop and dwell can help airports optimise their retail layouts and increase non-aeronautical revenue.
Looking further ahead, Xu foresees a role for AI agents in operational decision-making that goes well beyond current deployments. He points to now the IOC system has already monitoring the normal airport operation and the impact of typhoons on airport operations and to simulate the knock-on effects of APM disruptions on passenger flow. “Before, this kind of scenario planning was carried out by human beings using their experience,” he says. “Now we have trained the AI to help the airport duty manager make wiser decisions, based on that historical experience combined with the algorithm.”
Learning from the ground up
One topic which comes up consistently in any airport digital transformation is predictive maintenance. Working with Chinese carriers whose maintenance records stretch back decades, Huawei’s predictive maintenance system has already demonstrated its ability to accurately predict requirements. But Xu adds a caveat: “The most important thing is clean data,” he says. “Data governance is essential. Clean historical data is what makes the difference.”
The most important thing is clean data. Data governance is essential. Clean historical data is what makes the difference.
That emphasis on data quality underpins his broader message for airport leaders considering AI adoption. He draws an analogy to Huawei’s own internal transformation, in which the company put more than 50,000 employees through an intensive AI training programme. Here, participants were required to pass an examination before being permitted to work on AI-related projects. “You don’t need to be an engineer to understand AI,” he says. “You just need to know how to get the best use of it, how to make it help your daily management. One or two weeks of training for leadership teams would be largely enough.”
The airport city
But where is all this heading? Xu’s answer reframes the airport itself. “We always say we are transforming the city airport to become the airport city,” he affirms. Singapore’s Changi as the benchmark – a destination in its own right, where passengers arrive hours early not because they have to, but because they want to.
It is an ambitious vision, and one that places Huawei firmly at the centre of a transformation that extends well beyond the runway.
“To date, Huawei has served more than 210 airports and airlines across the globe”. He said, “Looking ahead, Huawei will continue practicing the “platform + ecosystem” strategy for the comprehensive transportation and logistics, and Huawei is committed to “driving mobility and logistics into the intelligent world.”
Thomas Xu is President of Huawei’s smart aviation Business Unit. This interview was conducted at MWC Barcelona 2026.
