SITA and Airports Authority of India embark on major IT transformation for 13 non-metro airports

SITA, the global aviation IT specialists, today announced that ten years after first introducing CUTE common-use check in systems to India, it will spread the latest version of the technology, AirportConnect Open, to 13 major airports around the country in partnership with the Airports Authority of India.

Passenger traffic through the 13 so-called non-metro airports is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 37% over the next five years. Last year 7,350,000 passengers passed through the 13 airports which are: Ahmedabad, Goa, Trichi, Calicut, Trivandrum, Combatore, Amritsar, Varanasi, Srinagar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Dabok and Lucknow.

Speaking at a press conference today in Delhi, Dr. K. Ramalingam, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) said: “CUTE (Common Use Terminal Equipment) is a facility providing passenger convenience and ultimately helps both Airports and Airlines in discharging their designated functions in an effective manner. This facility allows optimum utilization of the available resources and its significant implementation, particularly at a time when the passenger traffic in India is growing at an unprecedented rate, and is a major step in delivering on AAI’s commitment towards upgrading civil aviation infrastructure.”

He added: “AAI and SITA pioneered CUTE introduction in India in 1998 with its first implementation at one of AAI’s gateway airports in Mumbai, followed by its improved versions in 2003 at Delhi and Chennai Airports. AAI, in continuation of its partnership with SITA, has now undertaken active implementation of CUTE at 13 of its non-metro airports, which I am sure will help in the transformation of passenger facilitation at Indian Airports. It will further help AAI to create best-in-class passenger-friendly airports through automation of the check-in and boarding process which includes provision of bar-coded boarding passes in compliance with industry standards.”

SITA’s CEO, Francesco Violante, said: “The deployment of AirportConnect Open to these 13 airports will make them more attractive to airlines as it will streamline the process of passenger management as the market grows. Airlines will be able to operate in a secure and robust IT environment and to share gate and counter resources as a major feature of AirportConnect Open is that it allows airlines to run their own proprietary applications on common-use work stations.”

Maneesh Jaikrishna, SITA Senior Director for India, said: “The installation of AirportConnect Open will improve the passenger journey for all airlines using these airports and facilitate the arrival of new airlines wishing to use them. Passengers will benefit from reduced check-in times.”

SITA currently manages some 30,000 CUTE workstations for 285 customers in more than 200 airport locations worldwide, checking-in an estimated 580 million passengers a year.