Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 2, September 2009

Integrating aircraft with ground business processes

A live demonstration of a paperless information and communication management system of the future - for improved passenger comfort, crew convenience, and airline and airport efficiency - was recently presented to members of the e-cab project at Airbus's premises in Hamburg.

The e-cab programme is a European Commission-funded process-oriented research and technology project, articulated around four areas:

  • People moving - offers information to the passenger to help them proceed to the gate; know when they are expected on the aircraft; and determine the amount of time they have left for business or leisure activities.
  • Passenger services - concentrates on services on-board by connecting the passenger to the outside world, both for entertainment and business in the sky, offering TV and audio/video on demand; e-mail and Internet access; audio and video conferencing; and IP-based 3G telephony.
  • Freight and baggage handling - addresses seamless, automated baggage and freight management solutions, mainly based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Airlines can obtain the tools for getting accurate information about luggage and freight.
  • Catering services - covers newly-designed RFID-supported logistic processes such as the pre-ordering of meals at the time of booking to trolley tracking. Workload for the cabin crew is reduced via new paperless content management applications.

Work based on Type X

Within the e-Cab programme, SITA has been leading a work package including:

  • The architecture, design and delivery of integrated data management
  • Gatelink based on WiMax technology to connect the aircraft to the ground at the airport
  • The ground network connecting to the servers running related applications

The integrated communications infrastructure developed in E-Cab aims to enable airlines, airports and service providers to efficiently gather all necessary traveller and flight-handling process related information. The key enabler is the seamless integration of the aircraft into the ground-based IT structure. This interconnects the different e-logistics chains and allows the developed service applications to talk to each other and exchange data on an integrated network platform.

This environment will be made massively more powerful by the use of Type X messaging through SITA's hub. This will make information seamlessly available to all stakeholders applications, from local business premises over the airport to inside the aircraft, during all phases of the service process.

For further information, go to www.e-cab.eu.

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