The Story of Fraport: Achieving Digital Transformation Across Airports

Fraport AG is a global airport group operating the Frankfurt Airport, the largest airport in Germany. Fraport aims to be innovative and achieve digital transformation through its Digital Factory, which is a process framework they introduced in 2020 and has gone on to successfully complete 15 projects with startups sourced by Plug and Play.

Photo: Fraport AG

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Travel
Vertical
2020
Year they joined the platform
Germany
Frankfurt
28
Dealflows
15
PoCs with startups sourced by Plug and Play

Strategizing Digital Transformation to Improve Digital Readiness

At Fraport, digitalization is more than just technology, but primarily a process and mindset change. The company set up the digital factory as a process framework to drive innovation and digital transformation across Fraport Group airports. It serves as a solution partner for business units with the aim of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) contribution and an increase in digital maturity.

Partnering with Plug and Play has helped the company build strong connections with the startup ecosystem and harness the power of open innovation. This has aided Fraport to maintain a high speed of solution implementation and sustainable transformation.

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Fraport Corporate Education Program

Fraport Corporate Education Program is the first bootcamp offering formal training to Fraport’s innovation leaders with the objective of increasing their knowledge about collaborative value creation and corporate-startup collaboration.

Plug and Play created two bootcamps consisting of multiple modules on topics such as innovation strategy, capability, venture design, POC deep dive, and change management.

Working with Plug and Play

"I like the speed and the mindset of the startups when they approach our topics and we jointly solve the problems we are facing. If you are looking for a partner to enlarge your global ecosystem, there is no better partner than Plug and Play. They bring in different verticals and a global view on startups."
Claus Grunow, VP Corporate Strategy & Digitalization, Fraport AG
“The open innovation process and in particular, working with startups has been such a great experience. What surprised me and many team members the most has been the professionalism and the dedication with which the startups that we have worked with, have joined our projects, and have really wanted to make it a success for us.”
Jennifer Berz, Senior Project Manager Corporate Strategy & Digitalization, Fraport AG

Timeline

September, 2020: Selection Day 1 | Fraport announces the Ecosystem partnership with Plug and Play Vienna in the Travel vertical
December, 2020: EXPO Day 1 | Fraport presents pilot projects
June, 2021: EXPO Day 2 | Fraport awarded the Corporate Innovation Award for Travel & Hospitality EU 2021 | Pilot project presentations
November, 2021: Strategy Workshop in Frankfurt
November, 2021: Silicon Valley Winter Summit | Fraport participates on a panel with Airbus, Mariott, and Cloverly on Sustainability
May, 2022: Fraport Corporate Education Program I in Vienna
June, 2022: EXPO Day 3 | Fraport presents a pilot project on "Customer Voice Analysis"
June, 2022: Silicon Valley Summer Summit | Fraport presents its digitalization strategy and initiated pilot projects
November, 2022: Fraport Corporate Education Program II in Paris

Sharing successes in Silicon Valley

The Silicon Valley Summit is the largest innovation event organized by Plug and Play, presenting cutting-edge technologies uniquely curated by our network of leading corporations, startups and speakers.

At our 2021 Winter Summit, we had the opportunity to listen to Claus Grunow, VP of Corporate Strategy and Digitalization at Fraport, while he participated on a panel with Airbus, Marriott, and Cloverly on Sustainability. Similarly, during our 2022 Summer Summit, we welcomed him again to hold a keynote speech about Fraport’s digitalization strategy and the initiated pilot projects.

How Fraport Collaborates with Startups

Neticle & Fraport
AiSight & Fraport
Blickfeld & Fraport
Arivo & Fraport
iBoardings & Fraport

Re-thinking Travel & Hospitality

We connect digitally-minded travel suppliers, such as airlines, hospitality brands, airports, TMCs, and leisure travel agencies, creating an ecosystem that fast-tracks innovation.

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