SITA (company)

SITA or Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques, was founded in February 1949 by eleven airlines in order to bring about shared infrastructure cost efficiency by combining their communications networks. The eleven original airlines were: Air France, KLM, Sabena, Swissair, TWA, British European Airways Corporation (BEAC), British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), British South American Airways (BSAA), Swedish A.G.Aerotransport, Danish Air Lines, and Norwegian Air Lines. SITA was the first company to handle data traffic in real time via a packet switched network over common carrier leased lines.[5]

SITA is owned by members of the air transport industry, who make up the SITA Board and SITA Council. The company has the remit of working with the air transport community for the benefit of all members. This includes cooperation with industry bodies, such as IATA, ACI and regional associations, aiming to solve common industry issues through the use of IT and telecommunication services, through development of community systems, industry standards and shared infrastructures for aviation. SITA also produces industry surveys including the Airline IT Trends, Airport IT Trends and Passenger IT Trends Surveys, as well as working jointly with IATA on the industry’s Baggage Report.

SITA's portfolio services include:

• Airport operations, including total airport management, safety and security
• Aircraft operations, including operational communications, e-Aircraft services * e.g. for EFBs), and in-flight communications
• Baggage processing
• Cargo operations
• Commercial management, including distribution, fares and pricing, revenue optimization, and voice and convergence
• Platform and Data services, including hybrid networks, airport operational communications, community messaging, and infrastructure management
• Passenger processing
• Border management

SITA's shared infrastructures include AirportHub, AirportConnect, CUTE and BagMessage Services, as well as systems for passenger processing, reservations and fares.

• support to the MSN ISP: Their internal communication network ( SITA-NET, IP range 57.0.0.0/8 ) was rendered publicly accessible for years by MSN (The Microsoft Network) ISP through the 800 (call for free) phone number which the users were to use to register an MSN account. The IP address which was assigned to the user during the MSN sign-up process was part of the SITA-NET.

The community systems provided by SITA for the air transport industry include:

• WorldTracer – baggage tracking
• CUTE : Common Use Terminal Emulator- Common Check-in and Boarding Services for passengers
• BagMessage – global exchange of IATA-standard baggage messages
• Type B – IATA standard messaging
• iBorders – border management solutions
• Cargo Community System – global electronic data interchange
• PassengerHandler — Multi Departure Control System common agent check-in, bag drop and boarding application

Aiming to simplify communications and processes for air transport, SITA works with around 20 industry bodies and standards committees to set standards. The company has approximately 40 participants in 55 different Standards Setting Working Groups. The organizations SITA works with include IATA, Air Cargo Inc, Airlines for America, ICAO and the FAA, plus AAAE, ACC, Association of European Airlines, CANSO, OpenTravel Alliance, ITU, the World Customs Organization and the World Trade Organization. The Working Groups SITA is involved in include IATA Type X, IATA Common Use, ATA e-Business, ICAO AFSG, ACI ACRIS and Eurocontrol SWIM. Examples of standards include:

• Messaging (ADS-B, Type X communications, Aero-ID and common-use self-service)
• Traceability (AutoID)
• Transportation security (Border Management data hub)
• Passenger Management (Common Use Passenger Processing System — CUPPS)

The company's achievements include:

• First iPad kiosk to sell tickets[10]
• First augmented reality application for an airline
• Social booking and check-in engine on Facebook with deep social network integration
• Managing passenger flow at airports through geo-localization
• In-flight mobile portal developed with OnAir
• World's smallest full-function check-in kiosk
• First passenger bag-drop solution (which allows a single bag-drop counter to be used to service passengers from multiple airlines)
• CUPPS (Common Use Passenger Processing System) technology, a replacement for the CUTE (Common Use Terminal Equipment) check-in and boarding standard used today. SITA worked with IATA and other bodies to introduce this capability, which will save the air transport industry millions of dollars.[11]
• First service provider to achieve CUPPS compliance certification and to successfully complete its CUPPS pilot program.
• SITA works with business partner Orange Business Services on joint projects, and is also involved with the industry research programs e-Cab, Total Airport, SWIM, and SESAR. Additionally, the company focuses on institutional and academic research through teams at MIT, Cambridge and Montreal Universities.