Airport operator AGS (Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton) Airports has won two awards at the Scottish Transport Awards.
Aberdeen International Airport in Scotland was named airport of the year and Project CAELUS (Care and Equity – Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland), led by AGS Airports in partnership with NHS Scotland, won the Excellence in Technology and Innovation award. Part of CAELUS’s recognition was due to the £10.1m (US$11.3m) of funding secured from the Future Flight Challenge at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in July to deliver a drone-operated medical distribution network.
Jenny Gilruth, Scotland’s Minister for Transport, and Grant Scott, the event’s host, welcomed 450 industry professionals to the event to celebrate the people and organizations working in transport across Scotland.
Derek Provan, chief executive of AGS Airports, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to win the Airport of the Year Award and delighted to see Project CAELUS recognized for all its hard work to deliver the UK’s first medical distribution network using drones. We put our passengers at the heart of everything we do, so it’s fantastic that the hard work of everyone at Aberdeen International Airport has been recognized at the Scottish Transport Awards. Despite a challenging period for the airport and the wider industry over the last two years, we continue to strive to deliver for our passengers and Scotland.”
Fiona Smith, head of aerodrome strategy at AGS Airports Group and project director of CAELUS, said, “We were delighted when we heard we had been shortlisted in the Scottish Transport Awards earlier this year so to win is a fantastic achievement. The CAELUS project is set to revolutionize the way in which healthcare services are delivered in Scotland. A drone network can ensure critical medical supplies can be delivered more efficiently, it can reduce waiting times for test results and, more importantly, it can provide equity of care between urban and remote rural communities. This award is a testament to the hard work by all the partners involved in this consortium and I thank them all as we continue onto the next phase of work.”
