SITA Taps Tech To Unlock Air Transport Growth Blocks

Exceptional growth in air traffic is putting airports and airlines under pressure to efficiently serve higher numbers of passengers, and nowhere is this more the case than in the Middle East, according to information technology group SITA. The company is prioritizing efforts to streamline every stage of the air travel process from check-in through security controls to baggage reclaim.

“We’re seeing the number of aircraft in the region about to double and passenger numbers growing more than planned,” Selim Bouri, SITA’s president for the Middle East and Africa, told AIN. “The reality is that airports are not going to grow as quickly in terms of size, and it will take five to 10 years to build new mega airports.”

Last week, Qatar Airways started using SITA’s Software-Defined Wide Area Network technology to better connect more than 350 bases and data centers around the world. This is the first large-scale deployment by a major airline of a system that SITA said will ensure fast and reliable high-speed data connections to support increasingly complex digital operations.

SITA’s solutions include hybrid check-in counters that can be run by ground staff or deployed for self-service. They can also be quickly increased or decreased in size as part of a flexible approach that Bouri said can increase processing efficiency by 30%.

With airports in Abu Dhabi and Dubai already using the latest biometric technology for border controls, SITA is now trying to use the same approach for the aircraft boarding process. Bouri explained that innovation like this not only improves the passenger experience but also increases airport capacity and indirectly reduces energy use.

Digital Twins Reshape Flight Trajectories

As part of SITA’s contribution to reducing carbon emissions from air travel, the company creates digital twins to collect flight data for specific aircraft on individual routes. From this, its Eco Mission system uses artificial intelligence to advise airlines on how they could adjust the trajectory of each flight, from takeoff through cruise to landing, to achieve fuel burn reductions of between 3% and 15%.

The Arab Air Carriers’ Organization has just launched a partnership with SITA and Amadeus to explore how data can be used to ensure greater accuracy and transparency in its members’ sustainability efforts. This combines the Eco Mission technology with the Amadeus Travel Impact Suite, which aggregates carbon emissions calculations.

Recent surveys conducted by SITA show that passengers have a strong preference for air travel to be more sustainable, and also for greater simplicity and trust over how their data is handled. Its Travelers Voice 2025 report shows that 66% of passengers would pay more for faster airport processing, and 78% would do so for end-to-end tracking of their baggage.

SITA is working to deliver the latter benefit through initiatives such as directly linking Apple Air Tags to each booking so that bags can be tracked in real-time by both passengers and their airline. This week marks the first time the company has exhibited at the Dubai Airshow.