Award confirms SITA as leading airport IT solutions provider in Asia Pacific

SITA, the air transport IT specialist, was today named Airport IT Solutions Provider of the Year at the 2011 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Aerospace & Defense Awards ceremony in Singapore. It is the second time in three years that SITA has received a Frost & Sullivan Aerospace & Defense Award, highlighting the strength of SITA’s position as the preferred IT solutions provider for airports in the Asia Pacific region which handle over 1.2 billion passengers and are experiencing 4.9% annual growth.

The focus of the award is the use of integrated IT solutions, which play a crucial role in the optimisation of airport processes, in particular recognising the development of SITA’s ’Intelligent Airport’ concept. Over the past year, SITA has secured a number of major contracts for integrated solutions with airports in the growing Asia Pacific region, including in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Taiwan and Thailand.

Damian Hickey, SITA Regional Vice President South Asia and India, said: “Improving the passenger journey is central to the SITA Intelligent Airport vision. By tracking, managing and sharing real-time information, we can help airports be proactive and predictive. It means passengers have access to better information, both through information display systems and their own smartphones. It also means the airport and airlines can manage staff more efficiently, to ensure they have the right resources in the right place, at the right time, which in turn means shorter queues, for example at check-in and security.”

The Intelligent Airport also involves a number of other elements, including further use of common-use self-service for check-in, bag drop and baggage tracing; the increased use of passengers’ mobile devices for a wide range of services, from car parking to special offer promotions in the retail areas, and guidance through the airport; and more sophisticated workforce mobility technology to ensure the entire workforce is used as efficiently as possible.

Frost & Sullivan examined a wide range of criteria, including SITA’s product suite and innovation, the suitability of the products for the market, as well as SITA’s position in the market. Its wide product portfolios have enhanced its position at the forefront of providing cutting-edge technology solutions to its growing global customers. Community initiatives by SITA have also resulted in products and processes widely used by various air transport communities, such as WorldTracer, iBorders Gateway Services, Cargo Community System and AirportHub.

Cheong Chern Wai, Senior Consultant with Frost & Sullivan’s Aerospace & Defense practice, Asia Pacific, said: “As Asia Pacific’s leading technology solutions provider in the airport industry, SITA has assisted many of its customers to improve their business efficiency through the use of cost-effective technologies. Their industry experience and strategic know how makes them one of the most highly sought after IT partners.”

SITA is one of the world’s most international companies. Its global reach is based on local presence, with services for around 550 air transport industry members and 3,200 customers in over 200 countries and territories. In Asia Pacific, SITA employs over 760 employees in 27 countries to provide services to the air transport industry.