Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday joined hands with global IT provider for air transport sector SITA to equip 25 airports across the country, including Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Tirupati and Madurai with its highly-advanced common-use passenger processing system to improve the experience of tens of millions of passengers.
AAI indicated that it had identified Chennai and Kolkata as holding huge potential to become hub for international airlines and that is the reason for this new technological leap.
The announcement comes close on heels of the successful implementation of SITA’s passenger systems at 13 AAI-operated airports, which was part the first phase of airports modernisation plan of AAI. In total, 38 airports managed by AAI will now enjoy the benefits of improved and technologically advanced check-in, boarding and new self-service facilities. The agreement will be for seven years and SITA will provide AirportConnect Open, the common-use passenger processing system which allows airports to maximise the use of check-in counters and gates.
Under the agreement, SITA will supply 700 work stations together with multiple common use self-service (CUSS) kiosks across the 25 airports.
SITA’s CUSS kiosks offer multiple services to the passenger and will allow these airports to increase capacity during surges in traffic. This flexibility avoids the need to invest in fixed check-in areas. With the CUSS kiosks, SITA will provide an end-to-end managed solution complementing other airport check-in services available at the 25 airports. As part of the above agreement, SITA has ensured the readiness of these systems before the inauguration of the new integrated terminals at Kolkata and Chennai airports.
“For more than 50 million passengers who use these 25 airports annually, this means that they will enjoy more efficient check-in and boarding and have self-service kiosks available. This strategic partnership with SITA is part of our airports modernisation plan which includes the state-of-the-art terminals at Chennai, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Ranchi, Indore, Chandigarh, Pune, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Bhopal, Rajkot, Indore, Leh, Silchar, Jammu, Patna and Raipur. We have identified Chennai and Kolkata airports as having great potential to become major hubs serving many international airlines,’’ AAI chairman, V. P. Aggarwal told journalists here at a press conference.
