Australia’s Busiest Airport Implements Secure & Scalable Ignition Solution With Zero Downtime

Project Overview

Sydney Airport, Australia’s busiest airport, undertook a major Digital Transformation of its legacy Airport Management System (AMS) to a secure and scalable Ignition-based solution, achieving cutover with zero downtime.

Designed and delivered by SAGE Automation, the project involved replacing aging SCADA and historian platforms with a new system that integrates with more than 630 field devices. The result is a unified, intuitive system that improves operational visibility and enhances cybersecurity.

Challenges

Sydney Airport is one of Australia’s most important pieces of infrastructure, welcoming more than 44 million passengers through its three terminals each year. In a fast-moving airport environment, operations must run smoothly to ensure passengers have a positive experience. As such a busy and recognizable destination, the airport needs to manage operational delays or disruptions effectively.

Although it is one of Australia’s busiest transport hubs, Sydney Airport relied on a legacy AMS that controlled critical infrastructure, including lighting, aerobridges, pumping stations, and energy management.

The system’s SCADA platform and historian had reached end-of-life, leaving Sydney Airport to use outdated technology with limited vendor support.

As operational demands grew, the AMS struggled to keep pace. It lacked modern capabilities such as web-based access, mobile support, and IoT integration. The system could not meet the Essential Eight Maturity Level Three cybersecurity standards mandated by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). Reporting was cumbersome, causing the data team to rely on third-party tools and external support to generate insights. Additionally, a fragmented SCADA structure inherited from multiple systems created inconsistencies in operator experience, alarm settings, and data management.

A secure, scalable, and standardized platform became critical to ensure the airport’s operations remained efficient, resilient, and future-ready.

The migration of a live, mission-critical system in a 24/7 operational environment presented several challenges:

• Ensuring zero downtime during cutover to avoid any disruption to airport operations.
• Seamlessly integrating over 630 devices across various protocols, including Siemens PLCs, GE/Emerson PLCs, Modbus RTUs, and Kingfisher RTUs.
• Aligning the new system with stringent cybersecurity standards, including the integration of OT threat detection, application control, and SIEM tools.
• Addressing unknown legacy issues that could impact the reliability of the new system.
• Standardizing operator interfaces and alarm configurations, replacing the inconsistent, fragmented structures inherited from the old system.

Solution

Sydney Airport and SAGE Automation worked collaboratively to design and implement a modern AMS built on Ignition. This partnership approach ensured smooth project delivery, and a system tailored to Sydney Airport’s specific needs.

Key components of the solution included:

• Deployment of a redundant Ignition SCADA platform, integrated with Sydney Airport’s Azure environment for seamless data flow and reporting.
• Parallel system operation: Low-risk systems ran in tandem across both SCADA environments to allow for a staged cutover. Sydney Airport transitioned critical systems after hours, ensuring no operational disruption.
• Cybersecurity enhancements: Hardened infrastructure, encrypted communications, and integration with Active Directory improved system security and compliance.
• Operator-focused design: A unified, standardized interface replaced fragmented layouts, offering consistent navigation, alarm settings, and visual elements across all screens.
• Template-driven engineering: User Defined Types (UDTs) and reusable UI templates streamlined development, reduced errors, and simplified future expansions.
• Proactive issue resolution: As legacy issues surfaced, such as disabled alarms or wiring faults, SAGE and Sydney Airport worked together to resolve them,  improving the integrity of the entire system.

One standout example was the discovery of legacy lift alarms that had been disabled for years. When reactivated, these alarms revealed wiring issues that required investigation and repair.

"There were lifts in the car parks where the wiring for door opens and closes was tripping the emergency alarm. They had disabled all the alarms from those lifts, which was never picked up until we brought it into the new system," noted Esteban Suarez Castellanos, Project Manager at Sydney Airport.

Result

The project delivered a step-change in functionality, security, consistency and usability for Sydney Airport.

Operational teams now benefit from a consistent, intuitive interface with standardized layouts and alarm configurations, significantly improving day-to-day workflows. As Castellanos highlighted, "One of the main benefits was the interface itself … everything has become standardized."

Real-time data access empowers teams to troubleshoot and analyze issues directly within the AMS, reducing reliance on external reporting tools. The system’s integration with Azure enables the data team to generate tailored reports independently, enhancing agility and insight.

The Ignition system has transformed alarm monitoring with dynamic PLC status indicators and standardized alarms, allowing teams to preemptively address issues. This has led to faster resolution of potential faults, such as PLC health status concerns that were previously difficult to track.

Thanks to a phased rollout and close collaboration between SAGE and Sydney Airport, the cutover process was executed without disruption, bringing both systems online in parallel for testing and feedback before full migration. Running the systems in parallel allowed SAGE and Sydney Airport to identify and resolve legacy issues, including hidden faults and wiring inconsistencies, as part of the transition, improving overall system reliability.

The new AMS platform is scalable, allowing for easy integration of new systems and modules post-project. As Castellanos reflected, "It’s easy to work with, scalable, and we’ve been able to integrate new systems easily with it … even after the project has finished."

Building on the success of the AMS project, SAGE developed an interface between Sydney Airport and its ticketing systems to streamline predictive and corrective maintenance activities. Discussions are underway to further integrate Ignition with Sydney Airport’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system, enabling automated maintenance scheduling and further improving operational efficiency.

Project Team

This successful transformation was driven by a dedicated team from SAGE Automation who worked closely with Sydney Airport’s operational staff across all shifts. Their embedded approach ensured seamless communication and issue resolution throughout the project lifecycle.

• Mike Ziegler (Project Manager)
• Tomasz Jankowski (Technical Lead)
• Sophie Kordbacheh (Senior Systems Engineer)
• Prashant Sharma (Systems Engineer)
• Daniel Hobby (Systems Engineer)
• David Crisanto (Systems Engineer)

The SAGE team’s proactive engagement, deep technical expertise, and commitment to collaboration were central to the project’s success. Castellanos described the SAGE team as "an extension of our own," highlighting the hands-on approach and support across both technical and operational aspects.

Start Date: April 2022

Deploy Date: November 2024