Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 3, December 2009
100% BCBP by 2010. How SITA is helping the industry get there
Michael Attar, Senior Director
Infrastructure Services, SITA
SITA has over 250 airports using its common-use systems, which adds up to 500-600 airlines with check-in and boarding applications running on our global infrastructure. That is why SITA has a fundamental role to play in achieving 100% BCBP by 2010.
It is also why we have been involved in the project since its inception, working closely with IATA and other stakeholders to define the bar code standards and ensuring their compatibility with the common-use infrastructure that many airlines rely on for check-in and boarding of passengers.
In terms of achieving the 100% target, the airports that run our common use systems are well ahead of the 72% global average. Seventy-nine percent of our deployed common use systems are now capable of reading and printing the IATA standard 2D BCBPs.
Compatibility
The biggest challenge has been ensuring compatibility of 2D BCBPs on a global scale. Tickets are issued all over the world on many different systems, but they all need to interoperate with airport equipment regardless of which airport the passenger is travelling to and from. It presented us with two major constraints:
- First, the 500+ airline-written applications running on our common use systems needed to be modified because they were written for magnetic stripe boarding passes both for printing at check-in and reading at the boarding gates. While some airlines had the resources and know-how in-house to make the necessary changes and move to the BCBP standard, there were many others that did not. So this was a challenge - how do we go ahead and implement the changes when there are a subset of airlines who are not capable of addressing the required development to implement the BCBP standard?
- The second constraint was the sheer physical amount of legacy devices that needed to be replaced across our 250+ airports. And by this I mean the magnetic stripe printers at check-in and boarding card readers at the gates.
We had to come up with a solution for these problems and a key part of that was the development of a '2DBC translator'. It's been a major success story and was a unique solution for SITA customers when it was first developed.
The translator is essentially a piece of software that can convert a magnetic data stream into a bar code data stream for printing at check-in and performing the inverse operation for reading at the gates. This enabled legacy applications to still be usable by avoiding airlines having to rewrite their common-use applications. As our systems are shared, all users could now participate in the cost savings offered by the BCBP migration.
About 80% of SITA-deployed magnetic stripe printer devices can be upgraded using the translator solution to be 2D bar code compatible. The remaining 20% of devices are at the end of their natural life and due for replacement when the contract terminates.
With the boarding pass readers deployed at the gates it is more complex. While the BCBP migration is in progress, these devices need to be capable of processing both magnetic stripe boarding passes and bar coded passes concurrently. Additionally, there are also the different variants of bar code in use, which may be 1D or 2D.
Therefore, in most cases, the bar code reading devices need to be upgraded to work in dual-mode and to the IATA BCBP reading standard. That is they will work with both magnetic stripe and bar codes. As a result only about 20% of SITA deployed boarding card reader devices could be 2D-enabled using the translator.
With the translator, we have been able to support the carriers that were actively implementing 2D BCBP, while also bringing along the others.
There are a number of benefits with this solution. The main one being that the cost to the airlines is significantly lower. Basically, bar code equipment is much more cost effective than the traditional magnetic stripe equipment. For example, on the hardware side, there are now some new printer models on the market that have just been certified for use with our airline applications that will realise savings of around 75% on upfront purchase costs.
These new printers can also be configured either as a boarding pass printer or a bag tag printer. So a few years ago it would have been around $4,000 to put a bag tag printer and boarding pass printer out there for check-in, but now with the cheaper, next generation bar code printers we are heading towards $1,300.
60% TCO savings
There are also significant savings on the maintenance costs. For example, Bar code printers are thermal, which means fewer moving parts than the magnetic stripe printers, so wear and tear is lower.
And with the latest bar code printers able to replace both boarding pass and bag tag printers, there are benefits in terms of spare parts, number of printers needed, and synergies in configuration management. In total, we are looking at TCO savings of more than 60% over 3-5 years.
On the boarding gate side, the bar code readers are enabling greater automation, which in turn is driving down costs. The standard data structure and ease of operation is also inspiring further automation.
For example, we have tested automated self boarding gates with Lufthansa at Frankfurt Airport using 2D BCBPs readers that are attached to secure entry gates for self boarding. Based on this success we are currently working with IATA, Association of European Airlines and other interested airlines to formalize the solution and create a common global standard.
These new developments and the cost savings are keeping the interest in bar codes high. From what I'm seeing, as more airlines and airports change to BCBP the greater the pressure on the others to follow, so we are seeing a snowball effect with the migration almost driving itself now.
This leaves the industry in a healthy position to meet the 100% target by the end of 2010.
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