SITA

SITA, working with Indicio and the Aruba Tourism Authority, today announced the implementation of seamless travel to Aruba through the use of verifiable digital credential technology. This innovation will soon allow travelers to Aruba to fulfill government immigration requirements before boarding their flight with their ‘ready-to-fly’ status being confirmed invisibly in the background. Passengers arriving at Queen Beatrix International Airport can apply for their travel authorization using a simplified process that eliminates the need to manually enter information from paper travel documents. Using a Digital Travel Credential (DTC), passengers can consent to share any of their relevant data directly from...

SITA and Lufthansa have joined forces to explore ways to reduce mishandled baggage costs and improve the passenger experience by digitally automating baggage re-flight operations. Mishandled baggage between two flight connections is a major pain point for the industry, costing it billions of dollars each year. The ability to address the issue of staff shortages and baggage mishandling is of paramount importance post-pandemic. Aviation lost around 2.3 million jobs during COVID, while recording US$2.2 billion in the cost of mishandled baggage in 2022 – including over 4 million bags mishandled during transfer. SITA’s WorldTracer Auto Reflight reflights bags digitally, without...

Volocopter, the pioneer of urban air mobility (UAM), and SITA, the world’s leading IT provider to the air transport industry, have entered a partnership, with SITA selected as Volocopter’s preferred digital and IT systems partner for vertiports. Under the agreement, SITA has become the latest investor to join Volocopter’s Series E funding round, cementing the strategic vision espoused by this partnership.  UAM will offer a new form of sustainable aviation, replete with multiple mobility options to cities worldwide. The company’s launch product, the VoloCity electric air taxi, will operate routes in congested megacities to offer future passengers stable, quiet, and...

Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services, SMATSA LLC, has selected SITA as its primary datalink service provider to comply with a key European Union (EU) mandate that will modernize its air traffic control communications. SITA is only one of two providers that can provide compliant datalink services in the EU. Uniquely, SITA can also offer its services via the new pan-European network service (NewPENS), an upgraded telecommunications network used by many Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) today. SITA is the primary provider of datalink services to 24 EU Member States and a shared provider for a further EU country. Under...

Today’s major world sporting events such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar depend for their success on the ability of the host country to handle the sudden influx and exodus of tens of thousands of competitors, team support and equipment, officials, VIPs, media and, of course, spectators. It’s a testing time at the border and for even the largest of airports. For more than 35 years, SITA has been working alongside host countries and cities to help smooth the path for those involved in global sporting and religious events. We go right back to the 1984 Summer Olympic Games,...

With the easing of travel restrictions, China is now gearing up for a strong post-pandemic recovery of air travel. To facilitate this recovery and power the continued growth of China’s significant domestic air travel market, the region’s airlines and airports are investing heavily in IT to streamline the passenger experience and fortify operations against disruption. This is according to SITA’s newly published 2022 Air Transport IT Insights report, which shows all of China’s leading airlines and 86% of airports expect their IT spend to remain the same or increase from 2022 to 2023. Automating the full passenger journey Leading Chinese...

Beginning this year, passengers traveling through Frankfurt Airport (Fraport) can breeze through the various steps in the journey – from check-in to boarding – simply by scanning their faces at biometric touchpoints across the airport. This solution will be rolled out and available to all interested airlines at the airport. The implementation will see additional biometric touchpoints installed by spring 2023. From enrollment at a kiosk or counter, to pre-security automated gates and self-boarding gates, passengers can use biometric technology to seamlessly pass through each stage of the journey by simply scanning their face. The project breaks new ground in...

Faced with increased disruptions, baggage mountains, and staff shortages, airports and airlines are ramping up their investment in technology to digitalize their operations and speed up the passenger journey by offering more self-service options. SITA’s 2022 Air Transport IT Insights report, published today, reveals that with the post-pandemic recovery CIOs want to ensure operations are as agile and resilient as they are efficient, with IT solutions seen as central to their success. This has spurred an acceleration of digitalization, with airlines and airports looking to key technology solutions to fortify their operations against disruption while automating the passenger experience. The...

SITA is innovating with cutting-edge technology to strengthen its airline, airport, and border solutions in partnership with travel identity company Zamna Technologies. Zamna’s solution uses a decentralized blockchain based model to transform how passenger data, such as passport, visa, and health information, is verified and handled, bringing security, ease, and efficiency benefits for travelers airlines, airports and governments. The first deployment will be focused on AACO’s 30+ airlines. Instead of passengers presenting travel documents repeatedly to every touch point, each time they fly, Zamna’s ability to verify and securely persist such data will provide SITA customers with ongoing automation enhancements,...