Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 3, December 2009

Other news

SITA & Orange Business Services conclude major deal

SITA and Orange Business Services have signed a seven-year US$ 2 billion agreement, broadening the existing partnership and covering an extensive range of Orange Business Services' communications services.

The new agreement promotes joint innovation that will accelerate business development in enhanced convergence services and real-time business services, allowing greater operational efficiency and cost optimization.

Lufthansa becomes world's first CUPPS compliant airline

Lufthansa has become the first airline in the world to achieve CUPPS (Common Use Passenger Processing Systems) compliance following recent pilot testing at Orlando International Airport. SITA is the only Compliance Testing Entity (CTE) presently available to airlines wishing to become early adopters of the breakthrough industry standard.

CUPPS technology will gradually replace the CUTE check-in and boarding standard, and will make a significant difference to airlines as it eliminates the need to develop separate applications to work with different platforms, resulting in major cost savings.

Catherine Mayer, SITA Vice President for Airport Solutions, said: "The successful use of CUPPS technology by Lufthansa on transatlantic flights is a major milestone for the delivery of this new technology to the air transport industry.

"It has taken us four years of R&D to get this far but Lufthansa's pilot tests for flight preparation out of Orlando International Airport were welcome news in the run-up to the release by IATA of the CUPPS technical specifications."

In November, Continental marked the 25th anniversary of CUTE technology debuting in the US, becoming the first US airline to achieve CUPPS certification.

The development of CUPPS is an official IATA, Air Transport Association and Airports Council International sanctioned process and marks the first time that all three organizations have come together to mandate the development of a new standard for the industry.

CUPPS migration

SITA became the first platform provider to achieve CUPPS compliance certification and to successfully complete its CUPPS pilot programme, in August 2009. The pilot started in January 2009 at Orlando International Airport. SITA's platform has been accepted as fully compliant with the pre-released version of the IATA CUPPS Technical Specification.

SITA's AirportConnect Open provides a low-risk migration path to CUPPS when compared against both new platforms that may be introduced by other companies, and existing platforms where CUPPS, CUTE, and CUSS kiosk capabilities are not integrated as a single system.

SITA is working with several airlines to test their applications to ensure CUPPS readiness.

CUSS kiosks go into action

South America's busiest airport, São Paulo Guarulhos International (GRU), has become the first airport in Brazil to use common use self-service (CUSS) kiosks, speeding up check-in for its annual total of 21 million passengers.

Provided by SITA, the kiosks allow passengers to check in for flights on Air Canada, Air France, KLM or LAN from any kiosk.

The GRU CUTE CLUB, an organization of 32 airlines operating at the airport, has already put six of the SITA CUSS kiosks in place and over the next few months the airport will install a total of 20, facilitating check-in and reducing queues at check-in desks. It is expected that many more of the 32 CUTE CLUB airlines will soon be using the kiosks.

The second phase of project will include the new SITA S3 kiosk, which has the smallest carbon footprint in the industry. Two S3 kiosks fit in the space of one conventional model. They can print bag tags for self-tagging to speed up the bag-drop process.

They are also fitted with passport and document scanners allowing the fast collection of advanced passenger information and Electronic Travel Authorization Service data for visa validation.

Geared up for F1

Meanwhile, with a target of 40 million passengers by 2012, the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) has simplified check-in by installing SITA's CUSS kiosks at Abu Dhabi International Airport. The service was introduced in time for the final World Championship Formula One race of the 2009 season.

In the five-year, US $2.2 million deal, SITA has installed 24 kiosks across Abu Dhabi International Airport's three terminals. SITA is also providing an end-to-end managed solution complementing other airport check-in services available at Abu Dhabi International Airport, which is experiencing significant growth. Passenger traffic was up 30.2% in 2008 to 9.02 million, from 6.9 million in 2007. Recent figures have shown that traffic volumes increased 8.1% in first six months of 2009.

Tanzania welcomes $multi-million upgrade

Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) has launched self-service check-in, baggage reconciliation, sophisticated flight information displays and other major improvements to services for passengers who use the country's three major airports.

SITA has led the US$ 20 million, multi-airport systems integration project, which will bring many world-class services to Tanzania for the first time.

In a seven-year deal, SITA is providing systems for Terminals 1 and 2 at Julius Nyerere International Airport and at Mwanza and Arusha airports. These include Tanzania's first common use self-service kiosks (CUSS), which will allow passengers to check-in with any airline from any kiosk.

TAA is upgrading the baggage handling equipment and airport communications network at Julius Nyerere International Airport Terminal 2. At Arusha and Mwanza Airports, SITA's Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) and local Departure Control System will provide more speedy passenger check-in.

Tanzania will also be one of the few African countries to use SITA's Baggage Reconciliation System, which has been proven to reduce mishandled baggage rates by on average 5-15%.

In Brief

Norwegian meets deadline

Norwegian Air Shuttle has signed a five-year contract with SITA to provide ACARS services for their new fleet of 58 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the last of which is due to be delivered by 2014. SITA's AIRCOM service will allow Norwegian to meet the European Union's Single European Sky requirements for all new aircraft supplied after 2011 to be equipped with Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC).

Software from Letterkenny

SITA has expanded its software development site at Letterkenny, Republic of Ireland, with new offices and a doubling of staff to 150.

SITA's Letterkenny staff are part of the trans-national teams working on the development and installation of e-commerce and online systems for airlines, as well as the development of SITA's airport management system. Border management solutions are also managed in Letterkenny, including the convergence of biometric and biographic security solutions.

Cost savings for SriLankan

SriLankan Airlines is to deploy an advanced global IP network to cover 44 sites across 19 countries, in a five year agreement with SITA. The hybrid network will save the airline US$ 4.5 million, or 25%, on communication costs each year. The service will cover Sri Lankan's reservations, departure control services, cargo, finance, email and corporate intranet services to all their town offices, airports and cargo sites.

Oman Air goes hybrid

SITA has signed a five-year, US$ 4.6 million contract to implement and maintain a hybrid network solution for Oman Air, as the airline migrates from legacy connections for all its business operations. The project is expected to enhance productivity and deliver cost savings for the airline across its expanding route network, which will reach 40 destinations by the end of 2009.