Beirut International Airport gets cute with SITA

Valued at US$4 million, the contract covers the delivery of advanced technology systems designed to maximize the efficiency of the airport's existing check-in and passenger handling infrastructure.

Under the agreement for the installation and management of its services, SITA will integrate the airport's existing Flight Information System with its Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE®) check-in service and Passenger Handler (common language facility) application.

The CUTE platform, which enables every airport check-in desk to be linked to any airline departure control system, will operate at 84 check-in desks and workstations and 23 boarding gates in the East & West wings of Beirut International Airport. SITA's Java-based and Internet-Protocol (IP) enabled CUTE environment helps increase operational effectiveness by up to 25 per cent while reducing passenger queues.

Beirut International Airport currently welcomes some 3.0 million passengers a year, with further growth forecasted for the coming years.

"We wanted to have state-of-the-art and proven IT systems in place to ensure that Beirut International Airport boasts a solid communication infrastructure offering high levels of support for the airlines using the airport's facilities," said Dr. Hamdi Chaouk, Director General of the Lebanese Directorate General of Civil Aviation. "SITA is the acknowledged leader in shared systems and we are confident that their services will provide us with the advanced capabilities we need. We now feel assured that we can maintain excellent standards for passenger handling and customer service for the foreseeable future."

"SITA's systems will not only optimize Middle East Airlines (MEA) resources, but they will also allow us and other airlines operating at Beirut International to deliver even better service to our customers, enabling us to share check-in and departure control systems throughout the airport. Most importantly, this will help us to minimize check-in queues and simplify the passenger journey," said Mr. Adib Chreif, Middle East Airlines' Head of IT.

PassengerHandler will provide a common language facility to ground handlers such as Middle East Airlines Ground Handling (MEAG) and Lebanese Air Transport (LAT), allowing them to handle multiple airlines on their respective Departure Control Systems (DCS) while using a common graphical user interface. For its part, the integration of CUTE with existing Flight Information Display Systems (FIDS) present at BIA, will give ground-handlers and airlines access to 'up to the minute' flight information throughout the terminal.

"We are delighted to support Beirut International Airport with technologically advanced solutions which are also cost effective and scalable," commented Jamal-El-Hoss, SITA's Regional Vice-President for Sales & Marketing, "Beirut International Airport is thriving and we can help them sustain momentum at a time when airports and airlines alike are seeking to enhance and optimize their existing facilities through the deployment of advanced IT systems. Beirut is one of SITA's principal offices and serves as the headquarters for our entire Middle East operation. BIA needs the latest technology to accommodate growth flexibly while offering further enhanced services."

SITA's solutions are designed to help airports maximize security, combat congestion, improve operating efficiencies and reduce costs. They provide airports with the technology architecture required to take advantage of a broad range of IP-based services which are vital to the future of the air transport industry. SITA currently manages some 30,000 CUTE workstations for 285 customers in more than 200 airport locations worldwide, checking-in an estimated 580 million passengers a year.