At Haneda Airport, which receives more than 60 million passengers a year, Japan Airlines began testing humanoid robots to operate directly in ground activities. It is not a demonstration, it is an operation.

The robots used are Unitree's G1 models, designed to perform tasks that require mobility, strength and adaptation, they load luggage, move equipment, help clean cabins and operate structures that previously depended entirely on human teams.

All of this is a real, dynamic and unpredictable environment and that detail is crucial because an airport is not a factory, the constant flow, time pressure, variation of tasks and need for precision. If a robot works there, it works practically anywhere, the figures help to understand the scenario.

Each unit is about 1.30 cm tall, weighs 35 kg, moves up to 7 km/h, operates for about 2 hours per charge and costs about $13,500 in the basic version, but the reason for this implementation is not just technology, it is necessity, because Japan faces a growing labor shortage driven by the aging population and the reduction of the active workforce. At the same time, tourism continues to increase, resulting in more demand with fewer people available to work.

This type of robot was not designed for a single function, it was designed to adapt, today it carries luggage, tomorrow it can operate equipment, then it can perform completely different tasks with just one software update, this completely changes the logic of operational work, because instead of hiring different professionals for specific functions, the company trains a machine to turn on several.

And there is another important point, Japan Airlines is not replacing employees en masse, at least not now, it is trying to keep the system working in the absence of people, but what happens when this technology stops being an emergency solution and becomes a strategic choice? Because working is just the beginning, the next step is much more complex, living together.