Northstar

PEOPLE www.travelweeklyweb.com A chat with… Ilya Gutlin, SITA president, Asia-Pacific What does it take for an IT and communications provider to deliver the latest passenger processing and self-service technology for the World's Best Airport, in just five months? We speak with Ilya Gutlin, SITA president for the Asia-Pacific, on this major partnership with Changi Airport Group and the challenges he and the team faced to implement 450 check-in counters and 111 boarding gates with SITA AirportConnect Open. Can you tell me more about the new SITA AirportConnect Open (APCO) that's being used across all three terminals at Changi Airport? AirportConnect Open is the industry's leading common-use system, which uniquely supports both agent-assisted and self-service passenger processing. It provides a common platform that enables airlines from around the world to easily check-in and board their passengers using any counter or gate in the airport. This makes the best use of the airport's existing infrastructure. For example, during peak times, the airline can easily allocate additional counters/check-in desks to airlines or allow check-in of any passengers at any counter. This flexibility helps the airlines and airport provide worldclass service, while facilitating passenger flows and reducing overall infrastructure costs for the airline community. AirportConnect Open is the only system to incorporate CUTE/CUPPS/CUSS standards on the same platform, making it much more efficient to run and manage the system. Are GDSs affected by the new technology? What are the major changes that GDSs or airlines have to make to embrace it? No they are not. GDS's work with the airlines to distribute available seats to passengers, mainly through the travel agents. AirportConnect Open enables the airlines to check in and board their passengers using their DCS on all workstations and common use self service kiosks and boarding gates in the airport. When it comes to airports and travels, the first thing that comes to mind is safety and security. How does technology in the system used by SITA, ensure that security is not compromised with the ease of self- www.travelweeklyweb.com service checking-in, for example? AirportConnect Open provides a very secure IT and network environment between airline agents and passengers and to airline Departure Control Systems. It is works alongside the airport security processes as passengers are checked in through the AirportConnect Open platform. The normal security checks involving passports, visas and physical security are handled separately throughout the airport. In addition, selfservice check-in and boarding processes need to adhere to the relevant government security regulations. We work closely with the individual airport and the airlines to address their specific regulations when we deploy self-service technologies. We can't deny that part of the Changi Experience has largely to do with the technology behind the fuss-free, seamless processing for the ease of every traveller. How would you describe the Changi Experience? From our experience, Changi works incredibly hard at making sure that the processes and the people in the airport are focused on the passenger. The infrastructure, processes and systems then blend seamlessly to provide a transparent and stress-free environment while enhancing overall efficiency and safety. Was it challenging to keep to the fivemonth delivery target, for the World's Best Airport? Was there a specific need for the completion, in time with any particular launch for the airport? A project of this size and nature typically takes 8-10 months to deliver, but we at SITA were committed to completing it within the five-month delivery target. The deadline was due to the expiration of the contract with the previous provider. We now have a platform for future innovations in passenger processing, mobile technology and other areas, and we are looking forward to working with Changi on these areas. How is SITA different from other IT companies that deal with airport technology? SITA is the world's leading specialist in air transport communications and IT solutions, and our technology enables almost every airline and airport in the world to work with their passengers. We are 100 per cent owned and operated by the air transport industry, so we are true experts in our field. SITA is the only airport IT provider who has the systems that address the end-to-end needs of airport operations and management. More than 400airports around the world chose SITA as their provider because of our unmatched knowledge and experience across the chain of airport operations. In addition, we provide the air transport industry's broadest portfolio of services, including managed global communications, infrastructure and outsourcing services, as well as services for airline commercial management and passenger operations, flight operations, border management and many other areas. F o r t h e f u l l i n t e r v i e w, v i s i t www.travelweeklyweb.com JUNE 2013 | TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA ■ | 7

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