Passengers are reaping the benefits of the air travel industry’s record spending on IT. At least, that’s the conclusion SITA has drawn from its 2019 Air Transit IT Insights report, which found that airlines and airports spent $50 billion on IT in 2018. Much of that money went towards technology to streamline the passenger experience,…
SITA has won a contract to expand its services at Kotoka International Airport in Ghana. The company’s new contract with Ghana Airports Company Limited will see SITA managing all airport passenger processing and baggage management in Terminal 3 over the next five years. SITA already began deploying its systems to the airport a year ago,…
Representatives from more than 125 different airlines met to discuss the industry’s agenda for the next decade at last week’s APEX Expo in Los Angeles. The gathered executives identified biometrics and sustainability as two of the most important priorities facing the airline industry. To that end, Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh delivered a keynote on…
Malaysia may be next in line to get a biometric passenger processing system from SITA, with Malaysia Airports having just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the company. The partnership took shape around the 21st anniversary of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, during which the country’s Prime Minister toured the main terminal and saw a…
SITA is celebrating its 70th birthday with the strongest year in company history. The air travel specialist brought in a record $1.7 billion in revenue in 2018, a figure that speaks to the company’s successful efforts to pivot its business in response to changes in the airline industry. “For the first time in our 70-year…
Athens Airport has become the first airport in Europe to adopt SITA’s Smart Path biometric identity verification platform. The new system is now in a trial phase for people flying with Aegean Airlines. To use the service, travelers must first scan their passport and have their photo taken when they check in at the airport.…
SITA has released the results of its 2019 Passenger IT Insights report, finding that air travelers are happier when they are able to use biometric technology to make their journey more convenient. That was particularly true for automated passport control. The usage rate for self-scanning passport stations more than doubled between 2017 and 2018, jumping…
A year after unveiling a biometric arrivals concourse, the Miami International Airport (MIA) is still working to improve the passenger experience. The airport has announced the launch of a biometric departure platform that will use facial recognition to eliminate the need for a passport and a boarding pass. The new system will confirm passenger identity…
Eight months after implementing a biometric passenger screening system provided by SITA, the management of Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) are reporting great success in its operation. Over 340,000 travellers have made their way through the biometric eGates so far, with SITA’s technology scanning their faces and matching them to the biometric data stored in…
Airport IT solutions provider SITA has acquired MEXIA Interactive, a passenger analytics specialist. The latter, a private company based in Canada, was founded in 2011, and has developed technology designed to predict passenger bottlenecks and queues in airport facilities. It also assesses metrics pertaining to passengers’ retail activities, helping airport administrators to find additional revenues…
New research data from SITA is further illustrating the ascent of biometric air travel. Based on surveys of more than 180 senior IT executives from airports and airlines around the world, the research found an industry busily working toward a biometric future. It found that 71 percent of airlines and 77 percent of airports “are…
“The effort to facilitate biometric passenger screening lines up with the Saudi government’s interest in biometric security more broadly…” Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is laying down a runway for biometric passenger processing through a new contract with SITA. The contract entails a broad modernization effort across 26 airports in the country.…
“The program is aimed at biometrically tracking everyone who enters and leaves the United States.” Orlando airport authorities are sticking with SITA as their key technology partner as they pursue a comprehensive biometric exit program. And to that end, SITA says it plans to fully implement biometric boarding at the Orlando International Airport (MCO) by…
SITA has won in Aviation Technology Achievement at the Air Transport World’s 2018 Annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards, in recognition of its work on a biometric boarding pilot project at the Boston Logan International Airport. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the US Customs and Border Protection agency and airline JetBlue, and was completed last…
SITA will soon bring its biometric passenger processing technology to the Hamad International Airport, in Qatar, with the parties having just signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on advanced passenger processing solutions. The agreement will see SITA implement 62 of its biometric check-in kiosks at the airport, as well as the deployment of biometric…
SITA is proclaiming the success of its Boston Logan International Airport deployment in collaboration with JetBlue and the US Customs and Border Protection agency. First announced this past spring, the pioneering program was meant to explore the use of biometric facial recognition technology – provided by SITA – as a replacement for passengers’ travel documents.…
Self-service systems significantly enhance the passenger experience, suggest results from a new survey from air travel solutions provider SITA. The twelfth edition of the SITA Passenger IT Trends Survey, conducted in partnership with Air Transport World, polled over 7,000 passengers from 17 countries around the world. Passengers who went through biometric screening at airports rated…
JetBlue, SITA, and the US Customs and Border Protection agency are working together to trial a new kind of passenger screening system that does away with both paper and device-based travel documents. It’s all replaced by biometrics, with interested passengers having the option to sign up with a photo of their faces. Facial recognition technology…
Riding the wave of this week’s Passenger Terminal Expo, air travel IT solutions provider SITA has announced the Secure Journeys Working Group, an industry initiative aimed at offering policy guidance to the Transportation Security Administration, the Customs and Border Protection Agency, and other relevant government groups. It’s an extension of the Border Automation User Group formed…