The integration of solutions based on mobile phone applications and cloud services will help to create a modern and sustainable ecosystem to meet the impending boom in air traffic in India by 2030, a senior executive with a leading tech provider for the air transport industry has said.
Sumesh Patel, president of Asia-Pacific at the SITA, Geneva, Switzerland, said technology would play a defining role in the aerospace industry and commended the country for being a front-runner in this regard through biometric-focused facial recognition projects like Digi Yatra.
However, he was quick to caution, with increasing passenger volumes and fast industry growth a significant risk of operational instability leading to congested airports, flight delays and cancellations. The Indian aerospace industry needs to shift to a laser-focused focus on operational efficiency, agility, and delivering a modern, seamless passenger experience. Patel spoke at a round table in New Delhi that coincides with the upcoming greenfield Noida International Airport NIA selecting the company's airport management system AMS to automate and streamline operations Friday.
SITA was instrumental in assisting Digi Yatra's deployment with its tech expertise, with passenger experience at the centre of India's proposed $12-billion investment in new air transport infrastructure and 500 million passengers expected by 2030. The company successfully launched the country's first biometric boarding experience, with passengers flying with low-cost airline IndiGo out of Varanasi airport in December 2022, with the assistance of the US-based NEC Corp. and the Airports Authority of India AAI.
With BIAL, Bangalore International Airport Ltd. BIAL has teamed up with SITA to implement the state-of-the-art Smart Path biometric solution for a seamless passenger experience at over 280 touch points in Terminal 2 of the country's third-busiest airport. Touchpoints are expected to go live in the third quarter of 2023 for faster passenger processing, especially at check-in counters and self-service.
The other notable development was that Indian airports are transitioning to SITA's agile cloud-based passenger processing systems.
This prevented airports from investing in on-premise infrastructure, instead using common-use platforms for passenger processing, allowing airlines to share workstations at check-in and boarding gates.
Cloud computing allows airports no longer needing space to operate and maintain a core room full of hardware. The asset light approach eliminates the cost of servers and other equipment without compromising security or functionality while also helping airports towards their sustainability objectives, Patel said.
The solution enables airports and airlines to scale up or scale down their services on demand to support fluctuating workloads resulting from passenger volumes and pay only for what they use.
On July 10, SITA signed a landmark agreement with AAI to provide its technological solutions to 43 Indian airports.
In a statement, Patel said the company was committed to expanding its manufacturing facilities to support the Make in India programme and making incremental headcount additions through direct hiring as well as its partners.
We are committed to creating solutions not only for India but also developing solutions for the world from India, he said.