Mumbai, first Indian airport to install SITA's airport management system

Mumbai: India's first modern airport management system has gone live at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai, according to Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL). The CSIA is India's busiest airport.

The airport management system, installed by SITA, a global provider of airport IT solutions, marks a shift from reliance on manual systems to IT-driven automation. According to MIAL, this will enable end-to-end management of airport resources in real-time.

The CSIA has witnessed a huge growth of passenger and freight volumes over the last five years, particularly with regard to passenger traffic. For the period April 2006-March 2007, passenger traffic at CSIA was 22.25 million, up by 21% over the corresponding period in the previous year.

Sanjay Reddy, managing director, Mumbai International Airport, said, "In line with MIAL's vision of making CSIA a world class airport, we plan to invest in best-in-class technology and systems. SITA's Airport Management Solution will lead to improved performance across the whole spectrum of our activity including more efficient allocation of resources such as departure gates, aircraft slots, check-in counters and baggage carousels to airlines and creating a state-of-the art flight information display for the passengers. It will enable effective co-ordination and real-time availability of information to airport managers and ground-handlers."

Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, speaking in Mumbai today, said, "SITA has been very involved in the development of air transport in India. We are proud to be associated with India's aviation revolution through this landmark act of airport modernisation by MIAL.

"Airlines will immediately begin to reap the benefits of the SITA Airport Management Solution as it will give them real-time oversight of the billable services provided by the airport. It will also address any revenue leakage, which might otherwise be difficult to pinpoint. The solution provides efficiency and transparency for both airline and airport alike."

Violante, on his first visit to India since he was appointed CEO of SITA last year, added, "This development is just as significant as the introduction by SITA of the first CUTE or Common Use Terminal Equipment for airline check-in at Indian airports in 1998. We will also shortly be announcing details of a major expansion in the air-ground VHF communications network that we began building in India twelve years ago and which is now an important part of the shift from reliance on voice communications to datalink."

The full suite of SITA IT applications included in the airport management system for Mumbai International Airport comprises Airport Central, (Airport Operations Data Base); Airport Resource Manager (a Resource Management System); and Airport Vision (Flight Information Display System).

SITA is the world's leading service provider of integrated IT business solutions and communication services for the air transport industry.