Airport construction programs involve more disciplines, more regulatory frameworks, and more operational constraints than almost any other building type. Solibri provides rule-based BIM model checking that helps airport operators, engineering firms, and contractors validate complex aviation infrastructure models before work reaches the construction site.
Airport programs present a concentration of risk factors that make model quality control essential, not optional. Construction timelines are constrained by operational requirements. Airside work happens within active environments where program delays carry direct commercial consequences. Structural systems, MEP, civil infrastructure, airside operations, baggage handling, and security systems must all be coordinated within models maintained simultaneously by multiple design teams across extended program timelines.
The risk is compounded when Asset Managers are responsible for receiving lifecycle-quality data at handover. A model validated only for construction-phase coordination may not meet the data requirements of the organization that will manage the asset for decades. Issues that surface only at handover are expensive to resolve and may never be fully corrected in the as-built record.
For airport operators managing capital programs across many concurrent projects, the ability to automate quality checks against consistent standards is what separates reactive issue management from structured, scalable BIM governance. Copenhagen Airport runs approximately 100 projects annually. The BIM team converts Asset Manager quality assurance standards directly into Solibri rules, which are then distributed to all project participants.
As Michael Ørsted, Head of Department Technical Knowledge at Copenhagen Airport, describes it:
"We are automating quality checks in Solibri by creating the Asset Managers' quality assurance standards into rules."
Quality requirements are no longer interpreted differently by each contractor or design team. They are encoded into the model checking process, applied consistently, and reported systematically across every project in the portfolio.
Solibri applies rule-based model checking to IFC and other model formats, validating models systematically against defined standards rather than through manual review. Rules can be configured to reflect airport operator requirements, project-specific data delivery standards, or national and international compliance frameworks.
Rather than replacing coordination tools or authoring software, Solibri operates as an independent quality checkpoint. Models produced in Revit, Archicad, or other authoring tools are validated in Solibri before they are shared with the broader project team or delivered to the asset owner. Issues are identified, logged, and tracked through to resolution.
Airport terminals are large, occupied buildings with complex fire compartment requirements applied across expansive floor plates, mixed-use public spaces, and vertical interfaces between terminal levels. Compartment boundaries must be maintained across structural elements, MEP penetrations, curtain wall systems, and service runs throughout the federated model.
Gaps in fire-rated assemblies that appear in the model but are not caught before construction create compliance failures that are both costly to rectify on-site and potentially life-critical. Identifying them through visual model review alone is not reliable at terminal scale.
Solibri can be configured to check fire compartment boundaries systematically across the full model, identifying:
This level of checking is not achievable through manual coordination review and is not visible in 2D construction drawings.
One of the defining coordination challenges in airport construction is the interface between airside and landside environments. Structural systems, MEP services, civil works, and building envelopes must all be coordinated across an operational boundary that carries both physical and regulatory significance.
In the BIM model, errors at this interface, such as misaligned structural grids, MEP services crossing zone boundaries incorrectly, or civil and building models that do not reconcile, create conflicts that are expensive to resolve once work has begun on either side. Beyond geometry, elements must carry the correct IFC classifications and property sets to reflect which operational zone they belong to and what maintenance, access, and safety requirements apply.
Solibri validates federated model coordination across airside and landside models, checking both geometric consistency and data accuracy across zone boundaries. This is particularly important on phased programs where airside and landside packages are delivered by separate contractors working to different timelines.
Airport models include systems with no direct equivalent in standard commercial construction. Passenger boarding bridges must dock correctly within defined tolerances at terminal gates. Baggage conveyor systems must route through technical spaces with specific clearance requirements for maintenance access and equipment replacement. Aircraft fueling systems and ground support equipment areas impose spatial constraints that affect both construction sequencing and long-term operational access. Security systems, including access control zones, screening areas, and blast mitigation provisions, must be correctly positioned and separated within the model.
These systems are frequently modeled by specialist contractors and added to the federated model late in the design process. When they arrive without proper IFC classification, with incomplete spatial parameters, or in conflict with earlier-stage structural and MEP designs, the errors are difficult to detect through coordination meetings alone.
Solibri identifies exactly these classes of failure. A corner on a baggage handling route that appears unobstructed in plan view but prevents maintenance equipment from passing through is the type of operational coordination failure that produces no visible geometric clash but causes significant remediation cost on-site. Copenhagen Airport identified this issue on a baggage handling project and corrected it before construction began.
"We have saved more than 400.000 euros in this project, by finding issues we wouldn't have recognized before,"
said Michael Ørsted.
"We have found issues and problems our Asset Managers wouldn't have been able to find without Solibri."
Airport terminals must meet accessibility requirements across an exceptional area of public-facing and operational space. Corridors, gate lounges, sanitary facilities, boarding areas, and retail zones must all comply with applicable standards. Verifying this through manual drawing review is neither reliable nor efficient at terminal scale.
Model-based accessibility checking allows compliance to be verified systematically across the full model at any point in the design and construction process. Copenhagen Airport identified during a program that multiple accessible toilets, not just one, failed the required size specifications. The failure was not visible in standard drawing review and was found through model-based checking before any construction work was affected.
Solibri supports accessibility validation by checking spatial parameters, dimensions, and element classifications against defined compliance rules, enabling project teams to identify and correct failures at the stage where they are still low-cost to resolve.
Airport construction rarely happens in isolation from live operations. Terminal expansions, runway upgrades, and infrastructure renewals take place alongside continuous passenger movements, cargo operations, and aircraft servicing. This creates a BIM coordination requirement distinct from ground-up construction: the proposed model must be validated not only internally but also against the existing as-built environment.
Solibri can compare proposed design models against as-built IFC models, identifying where new construction conflicts with existing infrastructure, active operational zones, or safety requirements. This capability is particularly relevant when laser-scanned data of existing conditions is converted to IFC for import into Solibri, enabling accurate as-built representation for comparison against design intent.
As programs progress through phases, maintaining model quality at each handover point — between design phases, between construction packages, and at practical completion — requires a consistent checking framework. Solibri applies the same rules at each stage, producing a traceable quality record across the full program timeline regardless of how many concurrent construction packages are active.
Model quality at handover determines the long-term value of the BIM investment for organizations that manage airports over decades. A model that coordinated construction effectively but does not contain the data required for asset management, maintenance planning, or lifecycle replacement decisions fails to deliver what was specified at project inception.
Auckland International Airport has embedded BIM quality assurance into its client-side strategy for technology adoption across the full asset lifecycle. For Auckland Airport, Solibri validates model data continuously, not only during construction phases. Karl Fitzpatrick, BIM Manager at Auckland Airport, describes Solibri as the organization's primary tool for reviewing model data:
"Solibri is our main tool for viewing and making sense of the data. It is much easier than working in the native files, when we don't need to edit data."
Solibri validates that IFC models contain the correct property sets, asset classifications, and data parameters required for facility management at handover. Airport operators define their data requirements as rules and verify compliance at each stage of model delivery, ensuring that what is received at handover reflects what was specified at project inception. Auckland Airport's approach to BIM governance across the asset lifecycle was recognized in the Asset Owners category at the buildingSMART International Awards in 2020.
Airport programs vary in scale and governance maturity. The right Solibri product depends on program size, the number of concurrent projects, and the level of standardization required across the portfolio.
Solibri Advanced is suited to multi-project airport programs where formal BIM governance is in place and where project teams need to apply consistent model quality standards across multiple concurrent design and construction packages. It supports rule-based model checking, issue management, and IFC-based workflows across teams working in different authoring environments.
Solibri Premium supports airport operators managing portfolio-level BIM governance across a large number of concurrent projects, with high compliance exposure and executive-level risk control requirements. It provides the governance structure needed to apply consistent quality standards from design through construction and into asset handover.
For organizations with security-sensitive infrastructure or controlled data environment requirements, Solibri Security+ provides model validation in controlled deployment configurations.
Solibri is used across complex building, infrastructure, and digital permitting environments in more than 100 countries. Airport operators, engineering consultants, and general contractors working on aviation infrastructure programs use Solibri to validate models against operator standards, coordinate multidisciplinary designs, and deliver lifecycle-quality data at project handover.
Copenhagen Airport identifies and resolves model issues that 2D drawings and manual coordination review would not reveal, with a documented saving of more than €400,000 on a single project. Auckland Airport uses Solibri as its primary model review platform across the full asset lifecycle, a practice recognized at the buildingSMART International Awards.
Airport construction programs involve long timelines, complex stakeholder structures, and model quality requirements that span design, construction, and asset management. Establishing the right model checking workflow early in a program, before standards need to be retrofitted and before quality issues accumulate across packages, is the difference between quality assurance and quality recovery.
Airport projects combine building and infrastructure systems across multiple disciplines within models that must meet construction-phase coordination requirements, regulatory compliance standards, and long-term asset management needs simultaneously. The scale of programs, the complexity of airside and landside coordination, and the presence of aviation-specific systems make systematic model quality assurance a governance requirement rather than an optional process step.
Airport operators encode their quality assurance requirements as Solibri rules, which are distributed to all project participants. Models submitted by design teams and contractors are checked against these rules automatically, producing consistent, traceable reports across every project in the portfolio without manual review.
Solibri identifies geometric coordination failures, fire compartment integrity gaps, airside and landside zone boundary errors, operational clearance failures, missing or incorrect IFC classification and property data, accessibility compliance failures, aviation-system coordination problems, and deviations from project-specific data delivery standards — all before they reach the construction site.
Solibri compares proposed design models against existing as-built IFC models, identifying conflicts with live operational infrastructure. The same rule-based checking framework applies at each phase handover point, providing a traceable quality record across the full program timeline regardless of how many concurrent construction packages are active.
Clash detection identifies geometric conflicts between model elements. BIM quality assurance covers a broader set of checks including data completeness, IFC classification accuracy, fire compartment compliance, operational clearance validation, accessibility requirements, and lifecycle data quality. Many of the most costly airport coordination failures have no geometric clash but are identified through data and rules-based checking.
Solibri Advanced supports multi-project airport programs with formal BIM governance requirements. Solibri Premium supports portfolio-level governance for airport operators managing large volumes of concurrent projects. Solibri Security+ supports organizations with controlled or security-sensitive infrastructure requirements. A full feature comparison is available at solibri.com/our-offerings.
Airport operators define their data delivery requirements as Solibri rules applied at each stage of model delivery. Solibri verifies that IFC models contain the correct property sets, asset classifications, and maintenance-relevant data required for facility management at handover, ensuring that what is received reflects what was specified at project inception.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA.
