SITA, the market leader in the provision of IT applications to the world’s leading airports, today announced plans to establish a global network of partners to provide the company’s IT solutions to medium and small-sized airports which handle five million passengers or less per year.
This will make the company’s market-leading shared use passenger and baggage processing solutions such as baggage management, common use terminal equipment and kiosks, available to an even greater mass airport market. SITA estimates there is a worldwide market of over 1,000 airports in this category with an estimated value of $2 billion over the next five years. Five years is the typical length of an airport IT contract.
Francesco Violante, Chief Executive Officer, SITA INC (Information Networking Computing) said today, “We are very pleased to announce this new development in our business strategy. Small and medium-sized airports are coming under increasing pressure to upgrade their IT infrastructure fuelled by the on-going growth in the numbers of people travelling.
“SITA is now reaching out to these airports in an innovative way which will allow them to improve the passenger experience and to make better use of their facilities. We are making state-of-the-art technology available at affordable prices through Value Added Reseller Agreements,” he said.
SITA products and services will be offered on an Applications Service Provider-basis which will reduce the total cost of ownership to the airports, according to Violante, who also emphasised that SITA certified partners will deal face-to-face with the airports concerned bringing in local expertise and providing on-site support and maintenance.
Speaking today at a ceremony in Istanbul, Umar Khan, SITA Vice President for Indirect Channel, announced that the first partner identified by SITA is the Turkish aviation operations and airport construction company, TAV, which will be certified as an exclusive reseller of SITA’s CUTE, BagManager and BagMessage products in Turkey.
“TAV is an excellent example of the type of partner we are looking for at national and regional level across the globe. They have a deep understanding and commitment to air transport in Turkey and we are looking forward to providing the training and building the competencies necessary for TAV staff to work successfully with our products,” he said.
TAV is the operator of Istanbul Ataturk International Airport as well as other international airports. It now has an exclusive agreement to resell SITA’s products in Turkey.
The product set which SITA will make available under the Indirect Channel label includes market leading IT applications such as AirportConnect CUTE, AirportConnect Kiosk, BagManager and BagMessage.
SITA also announced today that the quality of its certification programme for indirect channel distribution and Value Added Resellers (VAR) will be guaranteed by Pearson VUE, the world-renowned computer-based testing business based in Minneapolis, which serves the IT industry and the professional certification and licensure markets. Pearson VUE’s clients include Microsoft and many other leading companies.
In addition to setting the qualification criteria, providing base solutions and specifications, SITA will provide training, build partner competencies and provide market intelligence and full remote support.
SITA INC (Information Networking Computing) is the world's leading provider of IT business solutions to the air transport industry. We are the market leader in the provision of common use services to airports and the main provider of air-to-ground communications to airlines. SITA INC delivers a comprehensive portfolio of e-commerce solutions for airlines and is pioneering new technologies in other areas such as flight automation and transportation security. Motivated by industry concern for lower costs, asset optimization and an improved passenger experience, we aim to simplify travel and transportation. We have two main subsidiaries: OnAir, which is leading the race to bring in-flight mobile telephony to the market in 2006, and CHAMP Cargosystems, the world's only IT company solely dedicated to air cargo. SITA INC is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and recorded revenues of US$642 million in 2004.
Further information can be found at www.sita.aero
