KEEP UP THE FLOWSMARTER AIRPORTS

PAGE 6

THINK DIFFERENTLY VIRGIN ATLANTIC

PAGE 19

AIR TRANSPORT

ISSUE 3 - 2012/13

BIG DATA BIG INSIGHTS

PAGE 9

INTERVIEW

P 37WE TALK TO ONAIR CEO IAN DAWKINS

Air Transport IT ReviewAir Transport IT Review online and breaking news: www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

Publishers: Arthur Calderwood, Brenda Flinter

Managing Editor: Terence Tucker

Editorial: Gerald Oliver, Paul Brock, Scott Handy

Production Editor: Amarat Raval

Information is subject to change without notice. All trademarks acknowledged. ©SITA 2012/13

SITA 252-254 Blyth Road, Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1HA, UKTelephone +44 (0)20 8756 8000Enquiries to info@sita.aero

Printed by: Pureprint, using their environmental print technology. The material is made from mixed sources.

The carbon emissions from this publication equal 1.2 tonnes. The emissions are being continually assessed and reduced, with the remaining emissions offset in a carbon reduction project.

AVAILABLE ON WEB IPAD

ANDROIDFollow us on www.sita.aero/socialhub

INTERVIEW

P 13WE TALK TO SITA CEO FRANCESCO VIOLANTE

AIRLINE AND AIRPORT IT TRENDS SURVEYS

P 25RESULTS FROM THE LATEST AIRLINE AND AIRPORT IT TRENDS SURVEYS REVEAL THE DOMINANCE OF MOBILE AND WEB APPS, ALONG WITH NEW HOPE FOR THE NEW YEAR

CONTENTS

3ISSUE 3: 2012/13

NEWS Latest air transport industry news 4

FEATURE Keep up the flow – airport business and operational intelligence 6

FEATURE Big data, big insights – airline business intelligence 9

FEATURE Let’s build a new aviation app universe 16

INTERVIEW Think differently: David Bulman, Director of IT, Virgin Atlantic 19

FEATURE The march of mobility – re-engineering air transport 22

FEATURE Cloud’s tipping point – new ways to consume apps 31

FEATURE Checkpoint reality – game-changing border security 34

HEAR THE HIGHLIGHTS

When we ran the first Passenger Self-Service Survey seven years ago, the buzz was all about online check-in and self-service kiosks. Today, it’s all about mobile apps and social media.

But are passengers ready for these new channels of communication?

Can they improve the travel experience? If so, how?

Just released – download the webinar and the highlights booklet for SITA’s latest 2012 Passenger Self-Service Survey at www.sita.aero/surveys

Read the full report in the next issue.

JUST RELEASED – LATEST PASSENGER SURVEY...

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW4

NEWS

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW4

Mark your diary 19/20 June 2013 ...for next year’s Air Transport IT Summit, including our popular Industry Insight Sessions and SITA’s Annual General Assembly for members. If you missed out in 2012, read our Summit Highlights at www.sita.aero/content/download-center

Call for speakersIf you’re a senior member of the air transport industry with a strong story to tell industry CIOs and other IT professionals, we’d like to hear from you.

Please send your ideas to terence.tucker@sita.aero

AIR TRANSPORT IT SUMMIT

SITA has marked a major milestone in delivering on its Corporate Social Responsibility Charter with its signing of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

The Global Compact invites companies to embrace universal principles in partnership with the United Nations. It’s grown to become

SITA SIGNS UN GLOBAL COMPACT

a critical platform for the UN to engage effectively with enlightened global business.

Participation is a visible commitment to implementation, disclosure, and promotion of the UN’s 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. SITA will publish its first annual Communication on Progress in June 2013.

For more go to: www.unglobalcompact.org

WE VALUE YOUR FEEDBACK Please complete our Air Transport IT Review readership survey at

www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

The space-efficient system allows maximum use of space to ensure sufficient baggage points. As well as processing bags in record time, the new self-service bag drop devices are always open. During busy periods, the system can ‘eat the peaks’ while airline personnel focus on service and support.

BRISBANE ACHIEVES BAG DROP IN SECONDSCheck-in has become a lot easier for passengers with bags using Australia’s Brisbane Airport. Thanks to the latest bag-drop system from SITA, they can check-in at the kiosk, attach the bag tag then drop the bag at the self-bag drop station where it’s automatically processed – in less than 25 seconds.

All the trends,at the Hub

SITA’s new online resource – the Air Transport IT Trends Hub – lets you download multiple data points from the SITA and Airline Business industry-leading surveys.

You can search key findings from the surveys and reports we carry out every year – including the Baggage Report and the Airline IT Trends, Airport IT Trends, and Passenger Self-Service Surveys.

You can find the Hub at www.sita.aero/ittrendshub

5ISSUE 1: JANUARY 2012 5ISSUE 3: 2012/13

SITA and travel distribution software and solutions company Datalex are co-operating in the launch of SITA’s new Horizon e-commerce platform, to provide a sophisticated airline sales and service portal.

Using the new system, passengers can carry out more complex and sophisticated searches and book their whole trip directly with the airline rather than through travel agents or Global Distribution Systems (GDSs). Being able to shop, book and manage their journey will enhance the airlines’ direct relationship with their passengers.

Brazil’s air navigation service provider is upgrading its technology ahead of the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016.

The Departamento de Controle do Espaço Aéreo (DECEA) will upgrade its air traffic management using SITA’s live aircraft weather data system.

The portal works in real time to provide flexible searching. It suggests relevant offers to passengers by monitoring their input into an airline’s website. They can see the right fare at the right time and purchase all travel requirements in one place.

Passengers will be able to shop not only by origin and destination but also by calendar, their desired experience, travel budget, or by using a map. They can also buy all travel requirements – including car hire, insurance and hotel reservation – in one transaction.

SITA’s technology will send up-to-date meteorological information, covering five flight information regions and 150 airports in Brazil, via data link to aircraft cockpit systems.

“As we prepare to welcome the world to Brazil, it is important we have the best possible technology in place,” said Brig Mendes, DECEA’s General Director.

NEW PORTAL TO REVOLUTIONIZE ONLINE SALES

BRAZIL PREPARES FOR FIFA WORLD CUP

STOP PRESSSATS, the leading gateway services and food solutions provider at Singapore Changi Airport, invests in the latest bag management technology from SITA.Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport becomes the 130th airport to embrace SITA’s AirportHub. All airlines at the airport can now connect directly to the airport’s local area and wireless network.

Go to www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

The agreement includes SITA Horizon Reservations and Inventory, fare pricing management, e-ticketing, Customer Journey and SITA’s newly-launched next generation e-commerce platform.

SMARTWINGS, SMART CHOICEPrague-based Travel Service has selected SITA Horizon to manage its migration to a hybrid business model as it expands to new hubs outside of the Czech Republic. The company carried 3.5 million passengers last year on its SmartWings scheduled services, charter and business jet flights.

As the London Olympics and Paralympics hit the starting blocks SITA announced that it had doubled the speed of its messaging services. With close to 100 million messages carried between airlines, airports, government regulators, suppliers and partners each day, the move came in response to continued acceleration in industry use of electronic messaging.

“Our messaging is the glue that enables the whole industry to communicate and operate effectively. We can now send more than twice the number of messages a second,” said Rukmini Glanard, SITA VP, Communications and Infrastructure.

SERVICE TEAMS: GETTING FIT AND READYPreparing for any major global event demands meticulous planning: data analysis, traffic trend projection, audits of airports and airlines,

engagement of partners and suppliers, modifying major incident processes, resiliency testing and enhancement, and much more.

SITA’s customer service teams faced an almost endless task list. Planning for this year’s Games began over a year ago. It meant:

• Being ready for the possibility of unprecedented huge data and traffic surges.

• Ensuring maximum performance and continuity.

• Minimizing risk.

• Building contingency plans, just in case...

Find out more at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

SITA has 25 years sporting event experience. For more go to www.sita.aero/world-sporting-events

DOUBLE SPEED IN TIME FOR OLYMPICS

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW6

Based on a robust infrastructure, the intelligent airport includes:

• Tracking aircraft to minimize delays, address fuel-shortage issues, ensure on-time turnaround.

• Providing real-time information to the mobile workforce to minimize disruptions to airport operations.

• Recognizing passengers, guiding them through the airport, notifying them of delays, gate changes and so on.

• Tracking and tracing baggage to improve transfers, even under tight schedules.

• Monitoring runways for safety issues.

• Tracking, allocating and routing vehicles to deal with on-the-ground scenarios as they arise.

These are just some of the dilemmas that airport stakeholders face on a daily basis. In the past, simulation models helped address these issues to help keep up the flow of passengers. Today, airports want to use real-time data and predictive analytics to make better and more proactive decisions.

Business intelligence tools can help by making the airport environment smarter and more location-aware, thereby improving situational awareness, leading to more efficient operations, higher revenues and lower costs for all parties.

SITA’s intelligent airport vision integrates these business intelligence tools into the airport environment to help stakeholders achieve the goals above while improving the passenger experience.

“Airports are at the heart of all air transport industry stakeholders’ processes,” says Matthys Serfontein, SITA Vice President, Airports.“They’re constantly sharing data and activating intelligence among them – to maximize efficiency, which is critical.”

COLLABORATE AND SHARE SITA defines an intelligent airport as one that can track, manage and share real-time information about its assets. At the same time, it optimizes the passenger journey, airport processes and decision-making capacities of all stakeholders.

This means bringing all events that impact operations – air side and land side – into a common view. It means collaboration and information-sharing among all players, including passengers.

KEEP UP THE FLOW

“ THE INTELLIGENT AIRPORT WILL PROVIDE EVERY STAKEHOLDER, INCLUDING PASSENGERS, WITH MEANINGFUL AND TIMELY INFORMATION TO MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS, LEVERAGING THE SAME INFRASTRUCTURE, PLATFORM AND TOOLS.”

MATTHYS SERFONTEIN VICE PRESIDENT, AIRPORTS, SITA

Should I deploy more resources to reduce passenger wait times at security? Should I off-load bags or wait for passengers? Do I have staff available with the right skill sets to assist with unplanned passengers or operational needs? How can I drive more passengers through retail to generate additional revenues?

7ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 7ISSUE 3: 2012/13

“By implementing real-time, tracking and location-based technologies, airports will see tremendous benefits in terms of customer satisfaction, productivity improvements, new revenue streams, and reduced operational costs,” says Serfontein.

CONNECT THE DOTSBusiness intelligence and operational information must be stored in a way that airports, airlines, ground handlers, government agencies, passengers, concessionaires and others can share a common view of the day-to-day situation. It means ‘connecting the dots’. This is SITA’s goal.

In short, the intelligent airport will provide every stakeholder, including passengers, with meaningful and timely information to make informed decisions. (See ‘Big data, big insights,’ page 9.)

Four vital areas to ‘connect’ are:

• Security

• Revenue

• Passenger processing

• Ease-of-use

Operationally, SITA’s revolutionary Airport Management Solution (AMS) connects these areas.

It enhances collaboration and provides easy-to-use modules for operational planning, optimization of mobile resources and equipment, and proactive control over operations. This gives airports the flexibility they need to plan and improve business results.

Pilot programs by SITA in airports all over the world are already delivering tangible benefits.

OPINION

AIRPORT FUTURE Customer intelligence is an integral part of our new vision for Sydney Airport: to deliver a world-class airport experience for our stakeholders and to foster growth for the benefit of Sydney, New Wales and Australia.

To do that, we determine what customers want and need. The data tells us. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google. The amount of data, and the velocity of that data, is huge.

Full article at: www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

MARK TYLERCUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE & ANALYTICS, SYDNEY AIRPORT

NFC AT THE AIRPORT – KEVIN O’SULLIVAN, SITA

To see the video, search YouTube for ‘NFC at the airport’

airport and get information on shops, restaurants and other services. It uses triangulation and signal strength from Wi-Fi access points to determine the location of individual mobile phones.

Copenhagen Airport can now give up-to-date information relevant to its passengers in their exact location. The airport is working with retailers to offer specific promotions to passengers, which will encourage more business.

Says Serfontein, “Copenhagen Airport’s use of business intelligence analytics to manage passenger flows while delivering retail information to the passenger via augmented reality is a clear win-win for all stakeholders: the airport, retailers and passengers.”

Looking ahead, harnessing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology holds great promise. Unlike Bluetooth, NFC works even when the receiving device is turned off.

It also limits the range of communication to within 10 centimeters, making it suitable for situations where data security is an issue.

AMS as it strives to make the intelligent airport a reality.

To keep up with its rapid growth, Quebec City needed a solution that allowed the airport to operate dynamically while enabling real-time decision-making.

One of the unique advantages of SITA AMS is its ‘action boards’. They present information in an intelligent and intuitive way, going beyond typical dashboards.

Quebec City is already seeing benefits in avoiding the mismanagement of gates, desks, lounges and other resources that is often caused by flight delays or other disruptions. The action boards show the results of alternative decisions, proactively considering the domino effect on airport service levels. They make quick and effective decisions possible with less training.

“SITA is turning the intelligent airport vision into reality with the launch of this next generation Airport Management Solution,” Serfontein says.

“We’ve incorporated the business intelligence and operational efficiency requirements of airports into a system that is intuitive, easy to use and easily configurable for individual airports. Huge amounts of real-time data are presented clearly but most importantly actions are proposed to ensure that airports can improve their service and run at optimum levels.”

Two years ago the intelligent airport was just a vision. Today it’s a reality. Tomorrow it will be commonplace.

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW8

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

BITE INTO SECURITY QUEUES: BLUETOOTH“Everybody who travels through the US knows it’s a painful process,” Serfontein says. “The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) knows this as well, and we are working with them to improve the situation.”

The TSA recently confirmed it will be using the Bluetooth queue management system provided by SITA and technology partner Bluelon.

This will automatically measure and display the wait time of passengers at TSA checkpoints in US airports. Over the next three years, the system will be implemented at 440 checkpoints in 179 airports.

It will provide immediate value for passenger queue and resource planning, easing one of the biggest pain points for travelers in the US.

DRIVE REVENUEGood intelligences drives revenue. The world’s first indoor augmented reality application was implemented by SITA at Copenhagen Airport in 2011.

Using indoor geo-location, the app allows passengers to plan their time inside the

PROCESS PASSENGERS … FASTERAs Serfontein says, NFC can improve passenger flow through the airport. In fact, research by SITA Lab indicates that NFC enables faster passenger processing than any other boarding processes available today.

Current 2D boarding passes can be sent in digital form and stored on the SIM cards in passenger mobile phones. By tapping the phone on an NFC reader, the boarding pass is authenticated and the passenger can complete the steps of their journey without human intervention.

This year, France’s Toulouse-Blagnac Airport became the world’s first airport to trial the SIM-based NFC approach sponsored by the GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association). The trial allows passengers to pass through the airport’s checks, controls and gates using only their mobile phones.

The phone effectively becomes the passenger’s pass, allowing access to car parking, the premium/fast track security access zone and premium passenger lounge.

Passengers also receive up- to-the-minute information such as gate changes, flight times, departure halls, and so on. This trial is a joint effort between SITA, Toulouse-Blagnac, Orange and BlackBerry.

The advantages of NFC are obvious, but more NFC-enabled phones are needed to justify widespread industry rollout. Things are changing rapidly. Some predictions say that all smart phones will have NFC by 2013. See also: ‘The rise of NFC,’ Issue 2.

EASE-OF-USEEase-of-use completes the picture. It’s an approach embodied by Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport, the first to fully adopt SITA’s

Find out how each of the airport’s stakeholders win with business and operational intelligence at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

OPINION

BACKSTAGE MAGIC At the airport, backstage is where the magic happens. Everything has to go perfectly backstage to enable on-time customer-facing events onstage.

One way Precyse introduces real-time intelligence to modern airports is called Entity Awareness. Few backstage entities carry communication devices. The first step is to add intelligence to backstage assets and people, providing airport operators with real-time visibility so they can be orchestrated to execute perfectly on time, every time.

Full article at: www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

ANDY MULLINSCEO AND PRESIDENT, PRECYSE TECHNOLOGIES

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

DATA IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. Harnessed properly, data can tell you how you’re performing as a business. It can help you make better decisions that impact your network, product, pricing, sales and service.

BIG DATA BIG INSIGHTS

9ISSUE 3: 2012/13

DATA IS NOTHING MORE THAN 1S AND 0S. IT’S WHAT WE DO WITH IT THAT MAKES IT POWERFUL.

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW10 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW10 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW10 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW10

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

For airlines the key is capturing and managing disparate sources of data. Then turning that into actionable intelligence for commercial and passenger operations.

HOW BIG IS BIG?Big data, known also as unstructured data, lies outside an organization’s existing systems or warehouses. It comprises 85% of all data. It can be anywhere: the Web, social media, text messages, videos, images, infographics, audio … you name it.

Eventually, airlines need to mine all this data, then marry it with their structured data using business intelligence to drive behavior and decision-making, especially across organizational silos.

The question is: how?

BIG CHALLENGE OR BIG OPPORTUNITY?The scale of big data is so massive it can be mind-numbing. Consider that, in a single day online1:

• Enough information is consumed to fill 168 million DVDs

• 294 billion e-mails are sent

• 2 million blog posts are written

• 4.7 million minutes are spent on Facebook

• 864,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube

• More iPhones are sold than babies born

What does all this data mean for airlines? According to this year’s Airline IT Trends Survey (page 25), investment continues to focus on improving customer service and supporting revenue opportunities.

1 Digital buzz blog (http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-24-hours-on-the-internet/)

One way to accomplish this is through business intelligence solutions. Not surprisingly, 53% of survey participants indicated they will make major investments in business intelligence over the next three years.

One of the big uses of business intelligence is personalization. 78% of airlines already offer personalized services to their passengers or are planning to by 2015.

Additionally, 97% of airlines recognize they need to do a better job sharing their data in-house and have plans to do so by 2015. Another 48-64% plan to start sharing data with partners such as ground service providers, airport operators and government organizations.

DATA INTEGRATION OR DATA SILOS?Airlines have no shortage of passenger data at their disposal. They have huge databases to deal with structured data, and countless channels from which to capture big data.

But having the data is one thing; using it is another. The good news is that airlines use data very well – operationally. They manage to get three billion passengers a year on and off planes and to their intended destinations.

“The problem,” says Helen Porter, Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy, SITA Passenger Solutions, “is that the data tends to be embedded within applications, making it difficult to pull out.”

The result is it ends up in silos specific to functions, making it not only difficult to access but prone to duplication.

11ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 11ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 11ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 11ISSUE 3: 2012/13

“An example,” says Porter, “is schedules that are duplicated between the operations systems and the reservations systems, which can cause challenges when trying to do analytics or when there’s a problem and you have to change behaviors.”

Again, the key to busting silos and using data in an integrated manner is the effective use of business intelligence tools and processes.

BIG USES FOR AIRLINESOther industries are ahead of ours in terms of capitalizing on the data-economy. Retailers leverage data to drive additional sales. Financial institutions leverage data to determine credit worthiness and inform product development.

Airlines can harness passenger data in several areas for use to influence business decisions:

• Revenue management

• Fares management

• Inventory management

• Ticketing

• Revenue accounting

• Loyalty

• Customer profile

• Customer history

SITA is helping one airline customer to take data out of silos to use for management purposes across the organization. It means pulling together a single datamart to create a dashboard that provides a holistic view of the data for managers to make better-informed decisions.

RETHINK YOUR OPERATIONS Every day we generate vast volumes of data. New generation aircraft are no different. What does that mean for airline operations?

How do you make sure a robust IT platform integrates multiple technologies? Accommodates their individual evolutions? And let’s you customize what you need to?

What’s the best way to deal with mixed fleets? And to bring on board Electronic Flight Bag programs?

Adding new generation aircraft to an airline fleet is a big and exciting step. It demands a rethink of operations.

Find our more in our full feature at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

“ IT’S JUST A MATTER OF PULLING DATA OUT OF SILOS AND USING IT TO DRIVE THE BEHAVIOR OF YOUR EMPLOYEES.”

HELEN PORTER SENIOR DIRECTOR, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY,

SITA PASSENGER SOLUTIONS

OPINION

ART OF THE POSSIBLE … REALITY OF THE DOABLEIf data availability was an Olympic sport, the airline industry would get a gold medal every time. We’re swimming in data. But if converting data to sales or operational efficiency were sports, we’d be lagging the field.

Airlines have countless sources of customer data at their fingertips: websites, email offers, advertising, kiosks, loyalty programs, social media, smart phones, tablets. The big challenge is how to take this information and make it meaningful.

How do you identify customer sentiments? What’s the importance of data harvesting? Full article at: www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

HENRY HARTEVELDTC0-FOUNDER, ATMOSPHERE RESEARCH GROUP

BIG DATAIN A SINGLE DAY ONLINE

4.7MVIDEO UPLOADED TO

YOUTUBE

MINUTES SPENT ON FACEBOOK

E-MAILS ARE SENT

2 MILLION BLOG POSTSARE WRITTEN

294bn

864,000 HRSMORE IPHONES ARE SOLD THAN BABIES BORN

ENOUGH INFORMATION IS CONSUMED TO FILL

168 MILLION DVDS

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW12 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW12 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW12

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

OPINION

OPINION

DERIVE MEANING FROM DATAOne way the air transport industry can derive meaning from shared data is by creating a common vocabulary. By adding a shared vocabulary to say XML or EDIFACT, you allow meaning to be derived from data points.

That enables a meaningful conversation between you and your customer, or you and your partner. So you can understand what they’re asking for and respond accordingly.

Find out how OpenTravel Alliance uses semantic data for targeted offers, including a real-time scenario, at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

VALYN PERINICEO, OPENTRAVEL ALLIANCE

BIG DATA, BIG APPETITEAirlines have a big appetite for data and business intelligence. Next generation passenger systems must satisfy it. But innovation for passenger systems must be on new foundations, not bolt-on short term functionalities.

“Advances in multi-channel distribution, big data, business intelligence – and innovations in airline product and customer service models – mean more than just putting a wrapper over the core systems or recreating the status quo in new technology. It means major transformation for a new era in travel.”

Find out more in our interview at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

ALLISON O’NEILLVICE PRESIDENT OF PASSENGER SOLUTIONS, SITA

“ WE’RE PROVIDING ONE AIRLINE CUSTOMER WITH A SET OF SHARED KPIS AND DASHBOARDS, BASED ON A SINGLE NEW DATAMART, TO HELP THEM MAKE MORE INFORMED MANAGEMENT DECISIONS.”

HELEN PORTER SENIOR DIRECTOR, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY,

SITA PASSENGER SOLUTIONS

“It may seem simplistic or obvious,” Porter says, “but in talking with our customers, we see this is a big challenge in their businesses.”

For example, one part of the business may decide to cancel a flight because the plane and/or crew is better utilized somewhere else. But if the flight is traveled by high-valued passengers, cancelling may not be wise from a customer perspective.

“We’re providing this particular customer with a set of shared KPIs and dashboards, based on the new datamart, to help them make more informed management decisions,” Porter says.

Airlines can go a step further, says Porter, and use data to create dashboards for frontline employees as well.

“It’s just a matter of pulling data out of silos and using it to drive the behavior of your employees.”

For example, a boarding-gate agent has a long queue with passengers waiting to ask questions about seat assignments, meals, onboard entertainment, and so on.

It could take 30 minutes or more to work through the queue. With a dashboard informing they were only 10 minutes from departure and that 15 passengers onboard were in danger of missing their connecting flights, and they were all frequent flyers, it could influence behavior. Instead of trying to answer each question in the queue, the agent could focus on getting the plane underway – because that would do more for passenger satisfaction.

GETTING STARTEDAirlines can use their expertise in managing operational data for commercial and passenger operations. To do so, they must figure out how to cross boundaries and pull data out of silos from disparate data streams.

Data is everywhere. It’s inside and outside of your existing systems. But until you turn it into useful information it’s just 1s and 0s. Harnessing it is a big challenge, but also a big opportunity.

FOR ATMOSPHERE, OPENTRAVEL & SITA VIDEO CLIPSwww.youtube.com/SITAOnline

TOMORROW’STRAVELERS

13ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 13ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 13ISSUE 3: 2012/13

SITA – INTERVIEW

A record crowd at SITA’s Air Transport IT Summit this year underlined the conviction that technology has a much bigger role to play in air travel. We sat down with SITA CEO, Francesco Violante, to get his take on where technology can help the industry and what tomorrow’s air travelers can look forward to.

Is there a strong appetite for technology investment in the current economic environment?

Many airlines and airports know that the sources of their competitive advantage are more and more connected to technology. I think that is something that came over clearly from the speakers at the IT Summit. And despite the downturn there are areas of the world where the industry is growing and the fundamentals are good.

The Middle East, for example, is seeing double digit passenger growth, while much of the Asian market is still profitable. Brazil and India are also doing well. This is what we’re seeing in our own figures with customers in industry hotspots still making technology investment, particularly in areas where there’s a clear route to lowering costs and increasing efficiency.

Given all the trends discussed at the IT Summit, which were the big three for you?

For me, mobility, cloud services and business intelligence (BI) stood out. The first two are consumer driven trends. Together they’re generating a large amount of new data points, which opens BI by providing an unprecedented opportunity to

extract useful information by analyzing and interrogating that data. This should radically improve the performance of the industry through better decision making and insight.

Mobility is all pervasive now in the consumer world. Where do you see the main impacts for air travel?

Nearly every passenger carries with them a mobile phone when they travel and increasingly that phone is a smartphone loaded with travel apps. This brings benefits on almost every level – self-service, customer service, sales and operations – so we’re seeing airlines in particular prioritizing IT investment in this area.

Ticketing and check-in are already widely available via a passenger’s mobile phone. But there is a lot more to come. For example, there are a number of projects underway using mobile devices with sensor technologies like Bluetooth and Near Field Communication (NFC).

Bluetooth is being used for location sensing of passengers to determine queue lengths at checkpoints. This is something we are working on with the Transportation Security Administration in the US. NFC will allow airlines and airport systems to exchange information automatically with a passenger’s mobile phone at prescribed points in the airport journey.

SITA – INTERVIEW

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW14

This could be for access to an airport lounge or for receiving flight information rather than searching for the nearest flight information monitor. Eventually the phone will allow the passenger seamless movement by being used for both biometric identity verification at checkpoints and access through the gate to board the plane.

Mobile brings big savings for the industry. For one thing the hardware for check-in will be the responsibility of the passenger not the airline or airport. A passenger’s mobile phone is their responsibility to fix it, so this is one less headache and cost for the airlines.

The second trend is cloud. What does it mean for our industry?

Cloud technologies will give the industry much greater speed and flexibility in deploying IT to run its operations. The traditional IT systems that the industry has depended on are struggling to cope with the increased demand on them from digital technologies.

For example, if airlines want to give a unified experience to their customers globally – whether it’s via their mobile phone, on the airline website, at a kiosk, or face-to-face with an agent – it requires a lot of synchronization of data and applications over a wide geographical area in real-time. And the agents will not necessarily be standing behind a desk. More and more they

will be using handheld devices to deal with passengers so they need the ability to move from using their desktop PC to a tablet or handheld without re-signing into applications.

So managing the IT environment is going to get far more complex, with more end-user devices, more data and more applications to handle. The way to manage all this complexity effectively across a route network will be through a cloud-based approach, of this I am certain.

It will also enable faster and more efficient deployment of new services and faster upgrades of existing services. For example, an airline will no longer need to make site visits to upgrade kiosk software at remote airport locations. It will be done centrally with the kiosk screen in essence being just a web browser displaying web pages of the services. So every passenger who uses a kiosk anywhere in the world is seeing exactly the same screens, with access to the same functionality.

What improvements can business intelligence bring and what can we expect as passengers?

Increased technology use, particularly mobility and wireless, are making our industry much more information-driven. This will give us a better insight into the dependencies and linkages in the industry’s operations. Big data techniques are creating new data sets and cloud infrastructure provides

the extra processing power to turn all that data into actionable information at a cost that brings it into the reach of normal businesses. This should lead to improved decision making and efficiency.

The technologies high on the list to achieve this are Collaborative Decision Making, along with techniques for tracking and location sensing passengers, baggage, and equipment used in turning aircraft around. The aim is to bring the aircraft and the passengers for that flight, together at the gate, at the optimal time. It sounds simple, but it’s a really powerful concept that needs airport systems to be much more integrated. This is a major thrust for the industry at the moment.

For example, we worked with Copenhagen Airport to use Wi-Fi signals from mobile phones to get a real-time picture of passengers as they pass through the airport. This information can be used to improve the flow of passengers or improve the efficiency at bottlenecks such as checkpoints. It can also be relayed to the passengers through mobile apps to alert them to services close by or help them find their gate.

Airlines are also looking at better business intelligence to get a more complete view of their customer. This will improve personalization and loyalty, as well as ancillary revenues. We already see online retailers such as

Amazon using the prior purchasing behavior to make recommendations. Airlines want to follow this path. And of course with most passengers carrying a mobile device, there’s now the possibility to engage with them throughout the journey.

You have not mentioned social networks, which are creating a huge buzz in every industry at the moment. Where do you see them fitting in?

Social networks provide another way for the industry to connect to its customer base and so we are seeing a lot of activity within the industry to understand how to get the most from this relatively new medium. In fact our latest IT Trends Survey shows that 90% of airlines intend to promote their services using social media in the next few years.

We’re already starting to see some leaders appear and use social media to engage with customers across a whole range of touch points from sales to marketing to customer service, and even crisis management as the 2010 European volcanic ash shutdown exemplified.

Today, I would say the immediacy of social media is driving improvements to customer service and it can be provided at a lower cost than some other channels, such as call centers. As social media strategies mature and become more sophisticated, it is going to evolve into an important – if not the most important – way for the industry to talk to its next generation of customers.

“ AS WE START TO SEE MORE SENSOR TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYED AROUND AIRPORTS BOTH TO CONNECT WITH THE MOBILE DEVICES OF PASSENGERS AND FOR AIRPORT OPERATIONS, THERE IS GOING TO BE A LOT MORE DATA WHICH CAN BE AGGREGATED TO PROVIDE A NEW SET OF SERVICES FOR AIRPORT-BASED BUSINESSES AND PASSENGERS.”

FRANCESCO VIOLANTE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SITA

they need. I believe we at SITA can help facilitate this process. We have a cross industry membership base, so we are in a good position to not only bring the different technologies to work together but also bring the different parties – the data owners – together to develop a common approach.

So I captured this as a key point and the second point that was very clear was that business changes are happening now at a very fast pace, so projects need to have a positive return on investment in a shorter period of time – a faster payback.

I think the new technologies, such as mobile and cloud, can really make a difference here. If you look at the investments we are making in cloud infrastructure, for example, it allows our customers to turn IT resources on and off, quickly and easily, and just pay

Some of the speakers at the IT Summit were customers of SITA. What did you draw from their presentations?

Something that really came across from the presentations was this great desire to work together, to make the industry perform better. I think it shows there is a shared mindset across the industry and a much greater recognition that the next big leaps in operational efficiency will be achieved by working together.

If we want to optimize the airport environment, then a lot of the source data is owned by different entities at the airport. No one has the overall picture. So there needs to be good collaboration in order to put the puzzle together. The key is sharing information to create a single view from which everyone can take feeds to generate the information

for what they use, so projects can be completed in less time and with less risk than was previously the case.

To wrap up, what do you see as SITA’s role within the industry of the future?

Technology can help lead the way for the industry. So I think a big part of our role is anticipating where the industry is going and ensuring that the capabilities are in place when they are needed. Our cloud infrastructure is a good example of how we are doing this in practice.

We’re also in a great position to serve as a change agent for the industry. SITA is at the center of much of the industry’s data flows so we can integrate IT systems and share data to bring about efficiencies and new services.

Very few organizations in the world can do something like that for our industry. Having

the vision to connect the dots and the ability to deliver the solution is something that we bring to the industry table.

The other thing I think is important for us is building on the relationships we have across the industry – spanning all sectors, including government entities such as border management.

We can bring people together to develop common blueprints for business processes and foster collaboration to extract the greater scale and efficiency benefits of technology at the industry level rather than the individual level.

More online at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

15ISSUE 3: 2012/13

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW16 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW16

Stand by for even more game-changing developments in the app universe – powered by aviation itself.Air transport will see ever more powerful apps built specifically for the community’s benefit, thanks to SITA Lab’s new developer.aero platform for API (Application Programming Interfaces).

Now in beta, the platform gives developers focused on aviation access to data and processes and the potential to create powerful new app features for the industry.

When Apple launched its online App Store just over four years ago, the game changed. As a new way of finding applications, app growth was set to burgeon, from 500 or so apps at the outset to 750,000 today for iPhones, iPads and iPods.

Google Android, Amazon Kindle, Microsoft Marketplace, Ford, Toyota and even televisions – they’re all

embracing apps as a new way to engage. A report in July 2012 (http://tcrn.ch/NSrcZt) found that more mobile customers are now using apps than web browsers (51.1% versus 49.8%).

AIRLINE APP TRENDSThe air transport industry is responding rapidly: 95% of airlines rate mobile services for passengers as a key investment priority (see page 25), says the latest Airline IT Trends Survey. That means an immediate need to harness data for reuse within apps – or to access reliable sources of data or processes.

UNLEASHED“The unleashing of creativity in the mobile sector has been extraordinary,” says SITA CTO and Head of SITA Lab Jim Peters. “I’ve been watching recent innovations in mobility, apps, social media and other emerging technologies.

“I wanted to see how innovation in the air transport community could better mesh with high-speed change in the wider world. The best apps pluck data from a range of

While on the portal, developers can:

• Learn about APIs, read documentation and contract to request an API key to access API content for use in their projects.

• Gain secure access to web service APIs with the API key. This dramatically reduces the time and complexity in gaining web service access.

• See roll-ups from multiple apps or granular breakdown of API use by individual apps, thanks to robust reporting and analytics.

Developer.aero aims to become a convenient and powerful resource for airlines needing access to their own operational data handled by SITA, or for developers needing access to general purpose APIs to power common feature.

different sources. So it was clear that open application programming interfaces – or APIs – can help.”

STARTING POINT“The best apps on the market have shown us the power of distributed architecture. And they’ve shown us how to scale technology to different platforms and devices. Developer.aero is a starting point for the air transport community.”

The platform will enable airlines, airports and other industry players to extend existing IT processes through mobile apps. Critically, it opens the door to solutions that companies may not have the resources to develop – or for which they might not have even anticipated a consumer need.

COMMUNITY PLATFORMDeveloper.aero is for use by API-focused app developers. Designed as an air transport community platform, it’s also open to SITA customers needing to expose their data in a controlled manner for their own app creations.

INNOVATION

LET’S BUILD A NEW AVIATION APP UNIVERSETHE SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS CHANGING OUR LIVES ARE POWERED BY A NEW UNIVERSE OF MOBILE APPS.

17ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 17ISSUE 3: 2012/13

“ CRITICALLY, DEVELOPER.AERO OPENS THE DOOR TO SOLUTIONS THAT COMPANIES MAY NOT HAVE THE RESOURCES TO DEVELOP – OR FOR WHICH THEY MIGHT NOT HAVE EVEN ANTICIPATED A CONSUMER NEED.”

JIM PETERS CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND HEAD OF SITA LAB

JOIN THE TRIALJack Loop of SITA Lab says: “On the back of the positive industry response our developments continue, with more data and processes to expose, and more investments to make.

“Remember, sharing is a two-way process. Why not get your development teams to join the beta trial? Exploit what’s there today and shape what’s there tomorrow?

“Together, we can wow customers and staff with amazing app innovations that will bring about lasting changes and improvements for everyone in aviation.”

Go to www.developer.aero for more.

BUILDING GREAT APPS – JACK LOOP, SITA

To see the video, search YouTube for ‘Developer.aero’

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW18 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW18 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW18 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW18

Areas of potential: bringing data and APIs together will create powerful new apps for aviation

POWERFUL WAY FORWARDAPIs are simply how one application process or data set interacts with another. Each feature within an application is typically powered by its own API.

But airlines and service providers tend to have limited IT resources to dedicate to API development – especially when these need to be created and shared in a secured and controlled way among development teams.

Increasingly, developers find it cheaper to shop for APIs, to power design features.

For aviation, developer.aero provides a powerful way forward.

BAGS AND BOARDING ...TO GET STARTEDThe first API to be made available is BagTrac. It exposes data on the location of individual checked bags as they are scanned during the journey. These include more than 400 million bag processing messages that give details of the exact location of a piece of luggage.

By exposing the data, SITA allows developers to quickly and easily create niche solutions. An app might allow passengers to file a report from their mobile if something goes wrong, for example. It can provide updated routing instructions – a passenger self-service feature with potential huge cost savings for airlines.

Another SITA API is the Mobile Boarding Pass. Today, 73% of passengers would like to use 2D bar-coded boarding passes. Yet only the major airlines with considerable IT resources have been able to deploy mobile boarding passes.

Other airlines are left struggling. This API gives airlines the opportunity to offer passengers the same service. This is a community offering that will work with any check-in system. It’s also compatible with upcoming technologies such as Apple’s Passbook for iOS 6.

The APIs are available to trial by airlines directly or developers who are authorized by that airline. You can access the platform and register to use it now.

INNOVATION

DEVELOPER.AERO IS A STARTING POINT FOR THE AIR TRANSPORT COMMUNITY. IT PROMISES TO DELIVER NEW INNOVATIVE INDUSTRY APPS.

Tablets Gate Staff

Partners

Browsers Flight Crew

Kiosks

Cloud Services

ServiceProviders

Cloud Services

In-flightEntertainment

Customs &Immigration

ConnectedAircraft

ConnectedAircraft

SocialNetworks

Bag Handlers

Smart Phones KiosksOEMsAPI

CUSTOMER FACING

APIWORKFORCE

SEE ALSO:

Watch the Apple Passbook Demo

To see the demo, search YouTube for ‘Mobile Boarding Pass API - Apple Passbook Demo’

SEE ALSO:

Watch BagTrac in action

www.developer.aero/page/ watch-bagtrac-action

VIRGIN ATLANTIC – INTERVIEW

“ IN DESIGNING AND BUILDING APPS, A LOT OF NEW THINKING IS GOING TO BE CRITICAL.”

DAVID BULMAN DIRECTOR OF IT, VIRGIN ATLANTIC

19ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 19ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 19ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 19ISSUE 3: 2012/13

THINK DIFFERENTLYOur industry must think differently about how it applies IT. So says David Bulman, Director of IT at Virgin Atlantic.

What would you say Virgin Atlantic’s approach to innovation is?

Virgin Atlantic is passionate about innovation and loves to think differently. We see ourselves as drivers of change. Our airline strives to pioneer in many different areas. I could cite numerous examples, from having what we believe to be the best flat beds and innovative in-flight entertainment, to providing cocktail lounges in the aircraft.

In thinking differently, we also like to look at our customers across the whole journey, from their house to their destination, and we try to make that as painless as possible. That’s where innovation really comes into play.

What role is IT having in that innovative approach?

To date, most of our innovation has been on hard product. Part of my remit is to bring technology into the mix. How can we use technology to transform what happens in our business and the industry?

Most people today think innovation is a tablet device per se, like an iPad. I wouldn’t deny that, of course. But that’s not all innovation is about. Tablets are wonderful devices, yet people tend to think of them as important merely because they place a computer in your hand.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC – INTERVIEW

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW20

What tends to be forgotten is that the real revolution of tablets and other smart mobile devices is that they’re ‘kinaesthetic’ – they enable tactile learning, so users can learn quickly and easily as they carry out tasks.

They provide an interface to a computer where suddenly you can interact through touch, grabbing the interface and moulding it to your needs. You’re able to adapt that interface to suit tasks and processes in hand, interpreting them in totally different and far more efficient ways.

So the means are in place to be exploited, to bring about real change and innovation. Yet the number of times I see people put traditional apps onto these devices! All too commonly we see old, green screen-type applications transformed into an app for these incredibly smart devices, which is hugely disappointing.

So what approach should be taken?

You have to think differently about this. Go and see Virgin’s apps and look at our approach, in the Innovation Zone of our website. We have an app called the Virgin Atlantic App – the next generation of which is in progress now – that engages with customers in new and different ways.

As well as checking-in, selecting seats, keeping an eye on flights and linking to Virgin’s mobile website while on the move, our customers can interact with a spinnable, zoomable world globe showing near real-time location of our fleet of aircraft. And they can tap on a plane and get arrival and departure information.

“ BIG DATA IS ABOUT MORE THAN SOCIAL MEDIA. IT’S ABOUT HOW DO YOU GET MULTIPLE DIFFERENT DATA SETS TOGETHER AND TRY TO GET INTERESTING INSIGHTS OUT OF IT.”

Our customers love it because they see where they are in the world, potentially where their loved ones are, when they’re going to land, and much more. All of that sort of information is available in a highly interactive manner. So you do have to think about these things differently; in fact, in the area of designing and building apps a lot of new thinking is going to be critical.

What kind of new thinking do you mean?

Well apart from approaching the building of apps in a new way, you need to think hard about your users. When you’re building new sorts of apps, what you do for your crew is different from what you do for your customers.

For your internal applications, your total cost of ownership is critical. Think about training and support, as well as standardization, which becomes very important.

Security is paramount too. Think about your pilots. When you’re replacing their 40kg flight bag with a smart little app don’t forget that their bag almost never goes missing. It’s big, it’s heavy, they are constantly aware of it, so they don’t leave it behind. But they could forget a tablet easily. And of course there are things on the tablet that you don’t want anybody else to know about. So security becomes ultra-important.

And the architectural implementation that you carry out for an app for staff is very different from what you do for people in the outside world. You’ll need thick bandwidth for multiple highly complex transactions for thousands of staff users.

The apps you build for people outside of your organization are completely different. Forget thousands of users; we’re talking about hundreds of thousands, potentially even millions of users. How do you build for that? What bandwidth do you plan for? What is the interaction going to be? And how are you going to deliver the speed that people want? The challenge becomes very different. And it needs new and different thinking.

For an internal app your users may become slightly disconcerted if it takes 10 seconds for a transaction to complete, but they’ll live with it. For people in the outside world, if response time is less than a fraction of a second, you’ve lost them. So, again you have to think very differently about what you’re building.

.

Trying to have the same teams, the same architecture and everything else taking care of your internal versus your external world just will not work. Innovation is also about these kinds of approaches and decisions.

What is your thinking on the ‘big data’ trend?

We’re increasingly hearing the term ‘big data’, and of course it’s very important. But one thing that disappoints me is that when big data is referred to, it often has a slash (/) and then social media appended to it.

Big data is about more than social media. Big data is about how do you get multiple different data sets together and try to get interesting insights out of it. This could be transformational to our industry, but it will only be transformational for us if we take control of our data and do something with it.

Our industry has data that the ‘data miners’ like Google don’t have. If we can begin to pull some data sets together, looking at engineering logs on planes, for example; network status, activities in airports, and so on … then we can begin to get interesting insights into what’s actually happening. This is what we need to think about as we address the big data opportunity.

And remember, you can do this on-the-fly. You can serve up tests on big data very easily. A lot of providers do it, and some will have expertise that you don’t have. So think beyond just social media. Think about how this can be transformational to your business. And never forget, there’s nothing new in IT!

Another paradigm shift needed in thinking about customers, working as one industry, comes in the area of mobile device app development. I look at different airlines and airports and everybody is developing their own app.

Let’s work together and think of a different way! The technology is there to enable us to deliver web services and app services. We can think of ways to co-brand or rebrand the front-end so it looks different.

I, as an airline, need to provide an app that provides detail-rich information about all the airports we fly to. My passengers are not going to download an app for every airport they fly to.

But if airports could, in a standard way, provide us with some basic web service about geolocations, the maps of their sites, what’s happening with traffic around them, what’s happening in the airport – then we can provide that information to the passenger. It can be a profitable win-win for all, and it might make a difference to a passenger’s choice of airports.

Working as an industry, together, we can start doing it now and we don’t need to take five or 10 years to develop standards. Let’s do some emergent standard work. There are lots of models that we can follow that allow standards to go up from the bottom.

We cannot do it all alone, and that brings me back to tablets. They will transform our industry but not necessarily in the way we might at first expect, which is why we need to think differently.

For the full interview, see online at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

being home again. We’re talking to a lot of customers, learning about their experiences, and trying to figure out different ways of servicing them.

So in all of the transformations we do, process reengineering, looking at new devices, big data, any of the other technological trends – whether front or back office – we have to focus on a paradigm shift by always thinking about the customer first.

What are the implications of thinking differently about the customer?

Tablets are a great example of IT’s potential in this area. How can you use IT differently? Can you empower a staff member to step out in front of a desk, start a conversation and be enabled to know who the passenger is, what they need to do? How can you make their experience better, hold their hand, make them fear less?

Another area affecting customers, where we have to think differently, relates to GDSs. At the moment, we can’t sell extra services through the GDSs. We must work as an industry to rethink this.

“ ANOTHER PARADIGM SHIFT NEEDED IN THINKING ABOUT CUSTOMERS, WORKING AS ONE INDUSTRY, COMES IN THE AREA OF MOBILE DEVICE APP DEVELOPMENT.”

21ISSUE 3: 2012/13

What’s your view on the ability of innovation and IT to transform an airline’s business and the customer experience?

Business transformation, process re-engineering – whatever term we choose for it – we’re in a world where the price of fuel is killing us all, and we have to drive our internal costs down all the time.

The main way we can do that is by looking at our processes, looking at our people. Can we change the way things work? Business process re-engineering – and some of the tools around it – has transformed over the last 10 years. It’s not where it used to be. And going back to tablet devices, you have new ways of interacting with your staff that you never had before.

It’s an old theme but it’s absolutely relevant today. It just doesn’t get talked about and it should. We should be focusing

on this relentlessly, both within our businesses and within the industry.

How we interact with each other, and the process flows that occur between us, are going to become more and more important over the coming years. We have to look at this in a much different way.

And, of course, as we apply new thinking to our processes let’s not forget about the passenger and customer. We really do need a paradigm shift in looking at customers. We must remember that airlines and airports don’t own the customer, the customer owns us.

So when you’re thinking about customers, you have to think about how you can service them differently. ‘Customer experience’ is an approach that many companies use. We certainly use it very heavily within Virgin, trying to map out the whole customer experience from the point of booking to

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW22 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW22 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW22 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW22

NEW WAYS OF WORKING

THE MARCH OF MOBILITYMOBILITY IS RE-ENGINEERING THE AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY ON A BUSINESS, SOCIAL AND TECHNICAL FRONT.

ON THE MOVEThe air transport business is about moving people and goods. Airline and airport staff are always on the move. Paper-based and desk-based processes act as a drag on efficient and effective movement. But it’s not just air transport. The world – both social and business – is on the move.

As a result of mobiles and mobility, passengers spend less time talking to the airline, according to Paul Boyle, Portfolio Director Mobility at SITA. “Fewer passengers use check-in desks. They pass rapidly through to their gate.

“Couple this trend with online booking and the main interface airlines have with their customers is increasingly just on-board with the cabin crew.”

OPINION

AIR FRANCE’S PILOT PAD In 2008, Air France KLM introduced a standard laptop for the cockpit crew, based on a PC environment. In 2011, after feedback from crew and tests with a lighter laptop, we launched ‘Pilot Pad’, using the iPad – a decision backed by pilots eager to find a device that could offer good design, weight, autonomy and performance.

Find out more online at www.sita.aero/air-transport- it-review

CLAUDE MAILLARDDIRECTOR OF IT DISTRIBUTED SERVICES, AIR FRANCE KLM

23ISSUE 1: JANUARY 2012 23ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 23ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 23ISSUE 3: 2012/13

“ FEWER PASSENGERS USE CHECK-IN DESKS. THEY PASS RAPIDLY THROUGH TO THEIR GATE. COUPLE THIS TREND WITH ONLINE BOOKING AND THE MAIN INTERFACE AIRLINES HAVE WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS IS INCREASINGLY JUST ON-BOARD WITH THE CABIN CREW.”

PAUL BOYLE PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR MOBILITY, SITA

The convergence of massive trends brings huge potential to re-engineer air transport businesses and create better ways of working. As mobile devices, smartphones and tablets combine with the cloud, explosive app use and social media, they herald a new kind of relationship with customers.

OPINION

EASYJET’S MOBILE HALO We wanted to innovate, be in control of our costs and engage more with passengers at the airport. But there was no one doing what we wanted to do, so we had to think more creatively.

The end result is what we call our Halo Platform – linking staff to airline systems through airport networks and the cloud.

Find out how this has informed a new customer relationship, at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

SIMON LAMKINHEAD OF IT–OPERATIONS SYSTEMS, EASYJET

SEE ALSO:

Read our paper ‘Digital Cabin Crew’ to find out more.

Download from

www.sita.aero/crew-mobility

THE MARCH OF MOBILITY Mobile apps will dominate

passenger interaction by 2015. The latest Airline IT Trends Survey confirms that by then 70% of sales, 91% of customer services and 71% of passenger processing will be handled through smartphones (see page 25).

Traveler-mobility dominates the results of the latest SITA-ATW Passenger Self-Service Survey Passengers want access to travel information on the move, and more flight-related applications. They want to connect to free airport Wi-Fi. And 20% are prepared to pay for real-time information relating to their journey.

The story is similar in the 2012 Airport IT Trends Survey (page 28). Investment in mobile device-based services continues to ride at the top of the list of airport innovations.

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW24 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW24

RECENT RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT AS MANY AS 80% OF COMPANIES (AS HIGH AS 90% IN SOME ASIAN COUNTRIES) ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO USE THEIR OWN DEVICES.

BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE CHECKLISTBring your own device (BYOD) brings huge potential. SITA Chair Paul Coby talks about BYOD and cloud as ‘The next big thing’ (see page 32) as they re-engineer processes. But some issues still need resolving:

• How do you control data on devices that tend to be changed every 18-24 months?

• How can you control network vulnerability?

• What changes will be needed to existing internal IT support services?

• What policy do you have on pass codes?

• How do you handle automatic updates of apps?

• How do you use geolocation without compromising the individual’s right to privacy?

• How should users interface with the corporate infrastructure?

• What do you want or need to control on the device?

CHASE PAPER AWAY“This means cabin crew are becoming more important in terms of customer focus and experience,” says Boyle. The challenge is, crew still have to handle a phenomenal amount of paperwork.

“One airline we’re working with manually processes 360,000 forms every year from its cabin crew. This is a massive area for re-engineering processes.”

SITA is working closely with this airline and many others as they take steps along the mobile journey. They’re addressing the challenge of mobility through apps hosted in SITA’s Air Transport Industry Cloud and distributed through iPads for use by cabin crew in-flight.

It’s now possible for crew to carry with them on each flight an up-to-date electronic passenger manifest. This offers crew details of passenger names and where they are seated, their previous travel preferences, frequent flyer status and so on.

For more than 18 months, so-called ‘Changi Experience Agents’ have been walking through Singapore Changi Airport, helping resolve passenger queries and problems.

They carry a range of information on iPads, from flight updates to luggage. It provides more resource without the accompanying need for desks and deskbound infrastructure.

Air France and easyJet (see boxes) are among the list of airlines re-engineering their processes and services to take advantage of mobility. The list is growing by the day. And it doesn’t end there.

YOUR OWN DEVICEAs individuals, we’re also increasingly running our lives around the assumption of mobility, of access anywhere, anyhow.

Recent research suggests that as many as 80% of companies (as high as 90% in some Asian countries) allow employees to use their own devices. “We’re going from a model in the past that was PC-based and very push orientated,” continues Boyle.

“IT departments pushed out updates, they controlled. But now we’re moving to a new world, where the user may own the device. Increasingly we rely on the user to pull down updates, and install applications themselves.

“Most applications will be hosted in the cloud. The two technologies are going to grow in parallel, so when you’re thinking about cloud, think about the march of mobility as well.

“And accept that in two or three years’ time, you probably won’t own the devices your employees are using. That transition will have major implications right the way across the IT industry.”

NEW WAYS OF WORKING

25ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 25ISSUE 3: 2012/13

AIRLINE IT TRENDS – MOBILITY

TRANSFORM AND DELIVER MOBILITY IS TRANSFORMING AIRLINES, SAYS THE 2012 AIRLINE IT TRENDS SURVEY.

“ THE ADOPTION OF MOBILE APPS ACROSS SALES, CUSTOMER SERVICES AND PASSENGER PROCESSING TRULY SHOWS THAT AIRLINES ARE COMMITTED TO TRANSFORMATION.”

FRANCESCO VIOLANTE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SITA

The way airlines do business is fundamentally transforming. And a lot of that is down to mobile apps as they permeate every step of the journey. So says the Airline IT Trends Survey 2012.

Nearly 95% of airlines place mobile services for passengers at the top of their investment priority list for the next three years, says the survey.

The annual survey, the 14th so far, represents the views of more than half of the world’s top 100 carriers. It finds airlines focusing their IT investment in the key areas of:

• Improving passenger service

• Reducing the cost of business operations

• Revenue generation

MOBILE’S GRIP Top priority goes to passenger service. Mobile services for passengers head the list: 58% of airlines plan major programs in the next three years.

Another 35% are investing in R&D. Mobile’s grip is in sales and distribution too: over half of airlines already sell tickets via mobile devices; nearly 90% of airlines plan to by 2015.

REVOLUTION SPREADSIt’s not just about sales. The mobile revolution spreads across the business. Almost nine out of ten airlines plan to use mobile for core services by 2015.

They include flight search, check-in, boarding passes, ticket purchase, and flight status notifications. Customer complaint handling and missing baggage management follow close behind.

Half of airlines have already implemented mobile services for flight search and check-in. Close to half provide boarding passes, ticket purchase and flight status notifications.

NEW! IT TRENDS HUBSITA’s new online resource the Air Transport IT Trends Hub makes available for download multiple data point that can be shared from SITA’s and Airline Business’s industry-leading surveys.

Use the Hub’s highly interactive environment to search key findings from the surveys and reports we carry out every year, including the:• Airline IT Trends Surveys• Airport IT Trends Surveys• Baggage Report • Passenger Self-Service Surveys

Visit us at www.sita.aero/ittrendshub

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW26

AIRLINE IT TRENDS – MOBILITY

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW26

71%BELIEVE MOBILE APPS AND WEBSITES WILL DOMINATE PASSENGER PROCESSING BY 2015

93%INVESTING IN PASSENGER SERVICES VIA MOBILE DEVICES BY 2015

49%BELIEVE TOTAL IT&T SPENDWILL INCREASE IN 2013 (COMPARED TO 66% IN 2011, FOR 2012 SPEND)

57%SEE SOCIAL MEDIA WITH SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN COMMUNICATING/MARKETING OF SERVICE OFFERS

63%WILL BE SELLING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA BY 2015

74%EXPECT TO SEEFULL SELF-SERVICE BAG-DROP BY 2015

54%EXPECT TO SEE SELF-BOARDING GATES BY 2015

70%BELIEVE SMARTPHONES WILL BE DOMINANT SALES CHANNEL BY 2015, ALONGSIDE DIRECT SALES WEBSITES

MOBILITY RULES – AIRLINE IT TRENDSThe domination of mobile appsThe 2012 Airline IT Trends Survey confirms what’s become increasingly apparent: mobile and web apps are transforming how airlines do business.

Source: Airline IT Trends Survey 2012

27ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012

BE SOCIAL“This is the second year that mobile services for passengers top the list of investment programs,” says Francesco Violante, SITA’s CEO.

“It’s the adoption of mobile apps across sales, customer services and passenger processing that truly shows that airlines are committed to transformation.”

The remorseless rise of social media is allied to the use of mobile and web apps. Social media provides the greatest value as a marketing channel, according to 57% of the airlines surveyed.

• Nine out of ten airlines are investing in social media over the next three years.

• Four out of ten already promote flights via social media. Almost 90% plan to by 2015.

REALITY CHECKBut upbeat messages about mobile and social media are tempered by the reality of the global economy. We need to exercise some caution in reviewing strategic issues, says the survey.

As the year progressed pessimism increased as global economic recovery remained broadly elusive. The reality of IT spend may be different for 2012 as pressures on profitability increase once again.

Even so, airlines surveyed reported operational IT and Telecoms (IT&T) spend as a percentage of revenue as broadly stable in 2012, rising to 1.65% from 1.57% in 2011.

Airlines’ outlook for 2013 is guarded – the percentage of airlines anticipating growth in IT spending compared with the previous year has decreased over the last three years, from 66% to 49% for 2013.

TOP PROGRAMSAs a top investment program, mobile is closely followed by upgrading the core passenger management system and improvements to customer relationship management, both at 55%. Each is, of course, closely connected to the mobile and web agenda.

The impact is seen in the changing face of travel distribution, as airlines take greater control of distribution and expand the use of direct channels.

Nine out of ten airlines plan to sell tickets via mobile phones by 2015; 70% expect smartphone apps to be one of the two dominant channels. On top of that, 64% plan to have direct connections to selected third party travel agents.

RICH DATAMobile doesn’t just deliver rich data. It also delivers the ability to provide services suited to the individual. Currently, 78% of airlines personalize service offers to passengers, or plan to – and mobile or social media are two channels that enable a highly personalized approach.

The demand for personalization works both ways: passengers want to know what’s happening when things go wrong.

They expect to be told immediately – and they expect to be able to make decisions in response as and when they want.

With the acquisition of rich data comes the question of when and what to share with other stakeholders. As many as 64% of respondents will be sharing data with ground service providers by 2015. And 53% will be sharing with airport operators by the same date.

Pressure will undoubtedly increase as the mobile and web revolution broadens.

NINE OUT OF TEN AIRLINES PLAN TO SELL TICKETS VIA MOBILE PHONES BY 2015; 70% EXPECT SMARTPHONE APPS TO BE ONE OF THE TWO DOMINANT CHANNELS. ON TOP OF THAT, 64% PLAN TO HAVE DIRECT CONNECTIONS TO THIRD PARTY TRAVEL AGENTS.

27ISSUE 3: 2012/13

SEE ALSO:

To see the Airline IT Trends Survey highlights and video

Go to

www.sita.aero/surveys

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW28 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW28 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW28 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW28

AIRPORT IT TRENDS SURVEY 2012

NEW YEAR, NEW HOPE UPBEAT, THEN GUARDED. SUCH HAS BEEN THE TONE FOR AIRPORT IT INVESTMENT IN 2012. NOW THERE’S RENEWED HOPE FOR 2013.

Yet as global passenger demand grows, new investment is critical to keep pace. The good news is we’re seeing greater optimism over IT budgets for 2013.

Fresh investment improves the service provided to passengers – and this still dominates the rationale for IT spend. As you’d expect, driving down airport operation costs and enhancing workforce productivity rank high up the priority list too. But of growing importance are business intelligence and collaborative decision-making tools.

These are among the key findings of the newly released Airport IT Trends Survey, conducted by SITA in co-operation with Airline Business and Airports Council International. To no surprise, it reinforces the huge role of mobile as airports expect mobile apps to play a leading role for passenger interaction by 2015 and beyond.

2012 WATCHWORD Caution became the watchword in 2012. The survey shows that only 36% of airports saw an increase in absolute dollar spend on IT and Telecoms (IT&T). Close to a third forecast a decrease in 2012, versus the 54% who saw an increase in 2011.

Caution was also reflected in the return to prominence of ‘reducing the cost of operations’. The number one driver in 2010, it slipped down the list in 2011, but was back in number two slot in 2012.

One again we see strong regional differences. Markets experiencing high rates of passenger growth – such as in Middle East & Africa and Asia for example – place the need to deal with growth, particularly capacity, higher than reducing the cost of operations.

SEE ALSO:

To see the Airport IT Trends Survey highlights and video

Go to

www.sita.aero/surveys

Sustained market and economic pressures mean that airports in 2012 have been more conservative in IT planning and spending than in 2011.

29ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 29ISSUE 1 : JANUARY 29ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 29ISSUE 3: 2012/13

NEW YEAR, NEW HOPE

88% of airports value mobile phone apps to keep passengers informed on issues such aswaiting times and flight status.

88%59% of airports see improving passenger experience as the key driver of IT investment.

79% of airports will be using mobile apps for information on wait times (today 16%).

85% of airports expect IT & Telecom spend to increase or stay stable in 2013.

90% of airports will be using mobile apps for flight status by 2015 (today 42%).

40% of airports have implemented bag tag printing (2011- 21%).

93% of airports will offer check-in via kiosks by 2015.

57% of airports want to use business intelligence for better collaboration.

93%

57%

AIRPORTS IN NUMBERS

40%

79%

59%

Source: Aiport IT Trends Survey 2012

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW30 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW30 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW30

AIRPORT IT TRENDS SURVEY 2012

BETTER TIMESMore than half of all airports (52%) expect a rise in IT&T spend in 2013. Only 15% anticipate trimmed budgets. Airports in Europe are more reserved, however. They see IT&T spend staying the same in 2013 as in 2011.

Given the funds, airports are poised to invest in new services to deliver against key priorities. Eight out of ten airports are set to invest in, or evaluate, major programs, for example.

• These programs include mobile services for passengers and staff, as well as business intelligence solutions.

• More than 60% of airports also have major initiatives to refresh IT infrastructure by introducing Wi-Fi and common use systems.

• Some 40% of airports are evaluating new technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) and geo-location.

BARRIERSSurvey respondents cite the lack of system integration and data access as the main challenges for mobile (57% of airports). For social media applications, justifying the business case is the main obstacle – so said 69% of airports.

What’s more, 57% of airports say they lack the levels of system integration and data access needed to embrace these new services. More than two thirds are concerned that the business case for social media apps needed greater justification and clarity.

KIOSK GROWTHAirports are keeping up investments in kiosks. By 2015, 93% will offer check-in via kiosks. Of those, 86% will be using common-use as the preferred approach.

Big steps are being taken in implementation too. Bag tag printing implementations have doubled in the past year, with 80% of airlines investing in it by 2015. Assisted bag drop is being adopted by 83% of airports by 2015, with 60% of airports planning full self-service bag drop by the same date.

Information services to passengers will also become common on kiosks by 2015, as 74% of airports plan services. Leading the move to new kiosk usage are Europe and Asia Pacific. In North America, with the recent acceptance of passenger bag tagging, self-service bag drop is expected to grow.

MORE INTELLIGENCEBusiness intelligence is on the rise. More than half of airports (57%) believe it’s a high priority, as a way to improve collaboration and sharing with airport partners/tenants. It fits with the core priorities of improved customer service, cost savings and greater operational efficiency.

Yet airports recognize the challenges this poses. More than two-thirds rank the lack of integration as the main challenge to establishing their business intelligence-related platforms.

With this in mind, airports want to leverage geo-location technologies to track, in real-time, the location of staff, vehicles, baggage, and passenger movements. Half of airports value the use of these technologies.

Half of airports say the highest priority for geo-location capabilities lies in reassigning and adjusting staff tasks in real-time, to help reduce passenger congestion. It’s also seen as valuable for monitoring aircraft movements (32%).

Airports are just as enthusiastic about collaboration and intelligence as critical components of better operational services. As many as 78% of airports have implemented or plan to implement an Airport Operations Control Center by 2015. Over two-thirds already have or will implement collaborative decision-making (CDM) by then. In Europe, the figure is 84%; in Asia Pacific it’s 86%.

ONWARDS, UPWARDSIt goes without saying that many airport communities have become wrapped up in national and regional economic malaise. But the trend path for air travel remains firmly upwards.

What’s clear from this year’s Airport IT Trends Survey is that to address the trend more investment in IT&T remains a commitment. And importantly, IT is regarded as holding many of the answers to the perpetual dilemma of improving services while keeping a tight lid on costs.

“ AIRPORTS WANT TO LEVERAGE GEO-LOCATION TECHNOLOGIES TO TRACK, IN REAL-TIME, THE LOCATION OF STAFF, VEHICLES, BAGGAGE, AND PASSENGER MOVEMENTS. HALF OF AIRPORTS VALUE THE USE OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES.”

EMBRACE THE TRENDS – JIM PETERS, CTO, SITA

To see the video, search YouTube for ‘Embrace the trends’

A NEW GENERATION OF END USERS IS DRIVING THE MOMENTUM FOR A TOTALLY NEW WAY OF CONSUMING APPLICATIONS VIA THE CLOUD.

31ISSUE 2: JUNE 2012 31ISSUE 4 : DECEMBER 31ISSUE 3: 2012/13

CLOUD COMPUTING

SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE RISESSo the trend is clear. We’re now used to the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Air transport is starting to embrace SaaS, and with it comes a huge promise and a big change in the way we relate to customers and stakeholders.

CLOUD’S TIPPING POINT

In the new on-demand era, it’s all about providing a near real-time fulfilment experience – an experience people are prepared to pay for, at an affordable price, as they consume their software as a service.

Trust becomes a vital ingredient. Users will trust a recommended single party or a respected aggregator and marketplace.

Consumerization of IT is changing the face of air transport. Customers and employees alike, as consumers, have the power to choose and use apps at their convenience – immediately. Software-as-a-Service is the way forward as cloud reaches its tipping point.

THE NEXT ‘BIG THING’ “We’ll see great change delivered by enterprise smartphones and tablets using apps in the business environment, all enabled by the cloud.

“These apps will be used on businesses’ own corporate devices and on Bring-Your-Own Devices (BYOD). Thanks to the enormous consumer market demand for these devices, we’ve reached a tipping point on cost.

“This is the next ‘big thing’ in air transport”, said Paul Coby, SITA Board Chair, in his address at the 2012 Air Transport IT Summit. See SITA’s YouTube channel: SITAOnline.

Rethink processes

“How will this change air transport? Smartphones and the apps that go with them will give us an excellent opportunity to change business processes for the better. One small example: think of the use of tablets for cabin crew.

“In the future, we’ll be able to quickly rethink the workflow around processing of the data captured by the tablet or smartphone. Then we can really join up the airline and airport operational flows. And that will enable us to streamline processes. (See page 10.)

“Think about it. The combination of a computer in your hand and always being connected to everyone via the cloud opens a door to re-invent almost every traditional process in our industry.”

QUESTIONS TO ASK For customers, SaaS delivers first, best-of-breed, new-generation apps that can better meet organizational needs. It brings the promise of shorter IT cycles, driven by business needs, lower capital expenditure and variable costs.

But for the enterprise, SaaS raises several questions:

• What’s the selection and procurement cycle?

• How do I deliver the SLA if I’m not accountable for the underlying infrastructure?

• How does this fit within my end-to-end architecture and integration?

• How do I manage the security around credentials and compliance?

• How do I control choice and end user experience?

All leading research in 2012 points to accelerating SaaS adoption. SITA’s own Airline IT Trends Survey shows that nearly 75% of airlines will have implemented SaaS by the end of 2015. Many of them cite integration between applications (68%) and data security (49%) as the current implementation challenges to be overcome.

Already, over 600 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are building air transport-specific applications. Another 1000 or so provide collaboration, email, HR, and general purpose applications.

In some shape or form, they’re all trying to move away from sole licensed sales, introducing a SaaS delivery model for their applications. For ISVs, this model provides lower cost of entry to customers, high loyalty and smoother cash flows.

FIVE-POINT CHECKLIST Gregory Ouillon, Vice President Air Transport Industry Cloud at SITA, puts forward five key considerations:

1. Maturity

“Everyone’s at a different stage in their cloud journey,” he says. “Drivers include the opportunity to optimize IT and reduce costs. But pressure also comes from end users, as well as new business ventures, outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions – where certain apps may be needed quickly and on a flexible basis.

“Remember, there’s also a huge quantity of legacy in-house apps in this business and a lot of them will not make it to the next generation. Rewriting is too expensive.

“Many consider SaaS as an opportunity to say if I need to go to a new generation app, maybe I’m going to go for best practice and customize only where needed.”

2. Governance

“We need to understand that SaaS is already here. It’s important now to jointly decide where it will be in the enterprise, how to set up joint selection and planning teams, and how to introduce SaaS in this new dynamic sourcing environment,” says Ouillon.

“This means revisiting the partnership between IT and the business, and permanently adapting governance, challenging policies such as IT and ways of working.”

3. App delivery platforms

“Focus on end users,” says Ouillon. “Remember, Bring Your Own Device is not an option. It’s a fact of life, and surveys show that the new generation of end-users see it as a right, not a privilege. This means embedding it into your planning.

“We’re at the YZ generation. They’re very fast. We have to involve them because they have a different view of what life is about when running applications. We must rethink the workspace in the post-PC era in a virtualized way.

“And we must give users performance like they get at home. At the same time, it’s critical to provide your users with single sign-on, self-service and a catalog of apps to provide ‘choice’.”

4. Marketplaces

“SaaS brokers, marketplaces and app stores will proliferate. This will allow us to evaluate, order and fulfil software in real-time, with secure single sign-on access for users to all applications.

“Technology vendors are pushing new concepts to create enterprise app stores. But there’s a lot of embedded complexity and lifecycle costs hidden in these concepts. Service providers will be providing marketplaces and enterprise stores too, and will build SaaS catalogs.

CLOUD COMPUTING

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW32

SEE ALSO:

Read our paper – ‘Not if, but when - the business value of cloud computing.’

Download from

www.sita.aero/cloud-business- value

CLOUD MOMENTUM • As cloud reaches its tipping point, SITA’s Air Transport

Industry (ATI) Cloud large-scale infrastructure goes live.

• For a whole new generation of users, three huge cloud data centers – in Frankfurt, Singapore and Atlanta – form the building blocks of a community cloud that enables a radically different approach to deploying and using applications within air transport.

• Adding to the infrastructure now in place is a Cloud Center of Excellence, along with SITA cloud specialists and architects.

• The ATI Cloud SaaS strategy has evolved fast – see ‘Come onboard... a call to ISVs’.

• Both Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) were launched in 2011, with capabilities now expanding further.

• SITA’s own cloud adoption is progressing quickly with AIRCOM Server online launched with Scoot and SITA WorkBridge with Volaris.

• Bag Manager and AirportConnect are in progress with more than 20 SITA apps in the pipeline soon to be powered by the ATI Cloud.

“Applications are now coming from the customer, from partners, from SaaS providers. These applications get distributed to a wide choice of devices. You won’t be able to control all of them.

“The point of control is moving away from the internet gateway and your own data center into a broader cloud world. Here you need to holistically manage which applications are being distributed in the cloud, to which end-users and on which secure device.

But overridingly, we see that this tipping point for cloud has been reached thanks to customers and employees with the expectations of consumers.

So in charting the way forward, let’s remember to always think end-user, end-to-end. And let’s provide the right end-user experience, choice and self-service,” concludes Ouillon.

Full story online at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

33ISSUE 3: 2012/13

“ THE TIPPING POINT FOR CLOUD HAS BEEN REACHED THANKS TO CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES WITH THE EXPECTATIONS OF CONSUMERS.”

GREGORY OUILLON VICE PRESIDENT AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY CLOUD, SITA

“We need to prepare for that complexity. It means knowing when to take an enterprise, public or community approach. And it involves criteria for adoption, including relevance of the software offering, completeness, contract to cash, trust and integration.”

5. Architecture evolution

“Start planning a new architecture evolution and be ready for the hidden complexity,” explains Ouillon. “You need to allow your employees to consume applications as a service coming from your own data center, as well as from ISVs and SaaS providers.

“Plan how to manage your identities and federate identities across multiple SaaS providers. Think single sign-on, self-service, back-end integration with marketplaces and SaaS providers, and contract-to-cash; then make sure you plan for frequent change.

COME ONBOARD... A CALL TO ISVS The SITA Air Transport Industry (ATI) Cloud offers great opportunities for air transport industry members. None more so than Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). For more go to www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

OPINION

BEHIND THE CLOUDThe five major trends driving the cloud mean that the new architecture and operating models need to be very different. They need to be elastic, intelligent and mobile. A tremendous amount of transformation is required to make it all happen.

Find out the five major trends driving cloud, at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

MANISH BHUPTANISTRATEGIC PROGRAMS DIRECTOR, VMWARE INC

END-TO-END CLOUD DEMO – BENOÎT VERBAERE

To see the demo, search YouTube for ‘Real-world end-to-end applications of Cloud computing’

FOR VMWARE, FORRESTER AND SITA VIDEO CLIPSwww.youtube.com/SITAOnline

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW34

BORDER MANAGEMENT

AMBITIOUS AIMSThese are ambitious aims, given the task of physically screening and clearing the identity and physical status of 2.5bn people a year – not to mention the 16bn air travelers projected by IATA for 2050.

Yet momentum and commitment are bringing about the reality, according to Dunlap. “We’ve spent this year ensuring that the roadmap for Checkpoint of the Future is based on a broad cross-section of the industry.

“It’s a collaborative process across aviation. To plot the way forward we see airports working with airlines, with manufacturers, with regulators and with other stakeholders.

“Our advisory group includes governments, airlines, airports and expert groups. It’s not an IATA initiative; it’s an industry initiative,” he adds.

CHECKPOINT REALITY

Thanks to self-service and the removal of costly and inflexible legacy processes, StB and its more recent Fast Travel initiatives have ushered in an enhanced experience for passengers.

But self-service and new thinking have yet to fully impact security and customs. As the main pain point for today’s travelers, these areas are rife for radical improvement.

PREPARE FOR TOMORROWEnter Checkpoint of the Future. In the words of Ken Dunlap, IATA’s Director for Security and Travel Facilitation: “Checkpoint of the Future aims to prepare today’s and tomorrow’s checkpoints for future threats.

“At the same time, it’s part of our vision for passenger travel: a seamless experience from curb to curb. Importantly, security technologies and new processes will take away the burden found with current checkpoints.”

CHECKPOINT OF THE FUTURE SHINES A BRIGHT SPOTLIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY AS A GAME-CHANGER IN STREAMLINING SECURITY AND THE PASSENGER JOURNEY. WHAT WILL MAKE IT A REALITY?

A QUICK WALK THROUGH THE CHECKPOINT• The 2020 vision of the Checkpoint of the Future sees

passengers walking through a security screening system, where security and customs processing occurs in a transparent manner.

• The enabling IT includes identity management and advance passenger information.

• Passengers will be screened as either ‘known travelers,’ ‘normal’ or ‘enhanced security’ with an appropriate level of security screening.

• A biometric identifier in the passport or other travel document triggers the results of a risk assessment conducted by government before the passenger arrives at the airport.

• Each travelers’ risk level will be partly based on the confidence in their identity. Known travelers, who voluntarily agree to provide additional information and whose identity can be reliably verified, will use their pre-enrolled biometric, experiencing fastest transit time and a tailored screening process.

Short term, the Roadmap cites approaches to optimize existing infrastructure to enhance security and the passenger experience. Mid-term, as procurement lifecycles dictate, it offers guidance to countries as they begin to embrace new checkpoint technologies and equipment.

“We think that states around the world will be able to use the next three to five years to put in place key elements such as Known Traveler Programs, where the checkpoint leverages passenger data

35ISSUE 3: 2012/13

ROADMAPIATA, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Airports Council International have put forward a Roadmap establishing 2014, 2017 and 2020 as key years for evolution in checkpoints.

“By the end of 2013, we’ll have tested additional processes and technologies to create a menu of options: 2014 will see the first prototype checkpoint,” says Dunlap.

“But we must remember that Checkpoint of the Future is not one size fits all.”

that is either already being collected by governments or is submitted voluntarily by passengers” says Dunlap.

“Looking to 2020 and beyond, with that passenger data at the checkpoint, we expect all the technology to be in place, enabling stand-off screening of individuals – that is, screening of people on the move to make checkpoints ‘touchless’.”

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIESDunlap regards biometrics as evolutional to checkpoints.

“In the intermediate and long term biometrics will play a key role alongside passenger data. Your boarding pass will be your fingerprint or other biometric for the entire journey, including the checkpoint. That will be combined with passenger pre-screening, and the use of the pre-screening decision at security checkpoints.”

Over 55 states collect passenger information today, almost exclusively for customs and immigration purposes. The challenge is to use that information earlier in the journey. For Checkpoint of the Future, it enables passengers to be differentiated based on their level of risk. They can then be processed according to the categories of trusted traveler, normal or enhanced security.

The rate at which technology is adopted will depend on the maturity or sophistication of a country’s existing border security infrastructure.

PIVOTAL POINT“Certainly, future checkpoints will be a pivotal point for passenger risk assessment and identity management technologies,” says Dan Ebbinghaus, Vice President, Government and Security Solutions at SITA.

SEE ALSO:

Read our paper – iBorders BioThenticate, and view the SITA iBorders AdvancedManagement app demoGo to

www.sita.aero/gov

SELF-SERVICE AND NEW THINKING HAVE YET TO FULLY IMPACT SECURITY AND CUSTOMS. AS THE MAIN PAIN POINT FOR TODAY’S TRAVELERS, THESE AREAS ARE RIFE FOR RADICAL IMPROVEMENT.

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW36

The critical enablers are biometrics for identity management and advance risk assessment using captured passenger biographic data. This covers everything from ePassports for identity authentication to confirming identities and transmitting that to a future checkpoint.

“Biometrics will tell you who passengers are, eliminating any chance identity fraud. Risk assessment of passenger biographic data in advance will enable you to make a decision about passengers before they arrive or depart - high risk, low risk, or somewhere in between,” says Ebbinghaus.

“In essence, a consolidation of data known on a passenger will determine the risk assessment, while the biometric data will make sure that assessment is applied to the right person once at the airport, including at the checkpoint.

“We also expect to see the increasing impact of airport passenger flow management capabilities, as they too play a critical role in processing passengers through each step of the journey,” he adds.

COOPERATIONOne thing is for sure. Checkpoint of the Future means busting any remaining siloed mentalities. In the complex environment of the airport, it demands that multiple stakeholders with conflicting requirements work together to deliver a new passenger experience.

IATA recognizes that one of the key steps is for states to align their passenger data collection systems. With personal information coming from multiple sources, the task is to gather this information together into an accessible format, so that governments can easily assess it and airlines know whether or not to issue a boarding pass. Governments can also use this information to determine the level of screening to be applied to the passenger.

Encouraging indications of a wave of change in security checkpoints are also coming from progress in pre-checking in the US and Canada. “If you look at what’s happening in airports today, and what regulators are doing, they’re showing that they’re ready to evolve their checkpoints,” says IATA’s Dunlap.

Cooperation has also been fundamental to SITA’s own approach. The company’s iBorders border management solutions and related border services have been developed through working closely with IATA and in association with governments worldwide.

As future checkpoints become a hotspot for cutting edge security IT, the portfolio combines pre-departure risk assessment with true identity management, and ever evolving capabilities and technologies. In doing this, it provides an end-to-end solution leveraging the

convergence of passenger biographic data and biometric technologies (see box).

POISED TO GOHelping to drive it all is the Checkpoint of the Future advisory board, comprising a diverse cross-section of stakeholder interests: airlines, airports, security equipment manufacturers and governments among them.

Thanks to IATA’s new Checkpoint Roadmap, backed by the impending arrival of a menu of options and a

POWER THE REVOLUTIONThe pressure is on to revolutionize transportation security and border control. Cutting edge technology and advance passenger information, as components of Checkpoint of the Future, will power that revolution. That means better detection rates and the ability of the innocent majority of travelers to clear security screening, immigration and customs rapidly.

Security and facilitation – no compromise

Combining pre-arrival risk assessment with true identity management, SITA’s iBorders Border Management portfolio improves security and facilitates faster passenger clearance.

The portfolio offers an end-to-end solution combining passenger biographic data and biometric technologies. It integrates identity verification and document authentication applications into the self-service environment – kiosks and gates.

Border control and transportation security solutions need:

• The ability to tighten security through improved identification of passengers of interest, facilitating rapid border crossing of low-risk travelers.

• Biometric identity management in the airport environment. Used by border management agencies, security authorities, airlines and airports – this improves security and passenger facilitation by automating identity checks using biometrics. When combined with biographic data checks, it enables the association and verification of an identity with a travel document across a traveler’s journey.

• The ability for governments to perform risk assessment of passengers prior to their arrival or departure. This means acquiring API (Advance Passenger Information), APP (Advance Passenger Processing), PNR (Passenger Name Record) and DCS (Departure Control System) data from carrier reservations and departure control systems. Any service must normalize, check, filter and submit the data in formats and at times required by governments, facilitating the tools to turn this data into meaningful intelligence to determine the level of risk posed by the passenger.

blueprint checkpoint penciled in for 2014, the air transport industry is poised to move forward.

As IATA’s Dunlap says: “With this level of commitment, the political will which is now there, and significant regulators committed to moving the bar forward, we’ve got the critical mass to bring Checkpoint of the Future closer to reality.”

Full story online at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

“ IT’S A COLLABORATIVE PROCESS ACROSS AVIATION. TO PLOT THE WAY FORWARD WE SEE AIRPORTS WORKING WITH AIRLINES, WITH MANUFACTURERS, WITH REGULATORS AND WITH OTHER STAKEHOLDERS.”

KEN DUNLAP DIRECTOR FOR SECURITY AND TRAVEL FACILITATION, IATA

BORDER MANAGEMENT

The ball is rolling faster and faster for in-flight mobile services as they become a ‘must have’ for the world’s airlines. We talked to OnAir’s CEO Ian Dawkins.

THE NEW INFLIGHT‘MUST-HAVE’

We’ve been expecting inflight mobile connectivity to take off dramatically. Would you say we’ve reached the tipping point?

Yes. I believe we’re at the tipping point for in-flight connectivity. Two years ago, the airlines we were talking to weren’t quite sure about what a connectivity service could offer them, so they were tentative about embracing it.

Today, that’s different. I think airlines in the Middle East were really the first to engage enthusiastically. They’re aiming for a new standard of service for passengers as well.

37ISSUE 3: 2012/13

What we’re seeing is that airlines no longer just want a trial of the service. We’re now talking about fleet deals. The conversation is about how quickly the fleet’s aircraft can be fitted, and whether we can install on single aisle, long range, regional aircraft and so on.

Another factor is that discussions used to focus just around the cabin, be it for GSM or Wi-Fi – and we’re unique in providing both. What we’re seeing is that airlines are looking at what service they can provide for passengers, as well as the applications they can give to crew who are dealing with the passengers.

“ IT’S NORMAL TO BE ONLINE, SO WHY WOULDN’T YOU BE WHEN YOU’RE ON AN AIRCRAFT – WHETHER IT’S TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH FAMILY, FRIENDS OR COLLEAGUES?”

IAN DAWKINS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ONAIR

ONAIR INTERVIEW – ONBOARD CONNECTIVITY

AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW38 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW38

Rates will be the same as they would on the ground. Users will simply see a little OnAir icon confirming international connectivity and in their bill will be a percentage attributed to OnAir services, no matter who the MNO is.

In the US, the picture is different at the moment. Usage currently centers on Wi-Fi. But we’re prepared for the availability of GSM services. That will come because of flights into the US by our customers, including carriers like Singapore, Thai, Emirates, Qatar, British Airways, Aeroflot, Saudia, TAM and more.

I think to be competitive US airlines will want to offer more than Wi-Fi, and we’re in a very strong position to meet their needs when that happens.

You mentioned services for crew. How can they benefit from onboard connectivity?

A lot of airlines are empowering their crew with tablets, and for that reason they’re embracing in-flight connectivity beyond the cabin. There are updates and communications to and from the aircraft for crew.

It can include things like real-time information about certain passengers and more. So it’s like a just-in-time service. It means that planning, services levels and turnaround times can be improved.

Also we’re starting to notice that there’s more demand for providing non-critical data to the cockpit for pilots, such as weather data. So the same connectivity services can be used for real-time data that’s not critical.

We can provide those joint services on multiple airlines, if needed. Even so, we’ve seen relatively low usage percentages for Wi-Fi because passengers need to sign on and then take out their credit cards and pay separately.

Our statistics show that 97% of people use GSM, whether it’s the Middle East, Asia Pacific or Europe. The reason is that you can just use the service and the bill arrives on your smartphone as part of your package.

So once your phone is turned on you use GSM to access data, use social sites, send texts, make and receive calls – just as you would on the ground.

The usage patterns we see from our airline customers show that the behavior in the air is no different to that on the ground, because of ease of use. That’s whether they’re using it for internet, text or voice.

For business travelers, GSM is just a tool of the trade. For leisure travelers, airline packages will play a big role. Oi in Brazil reduced passenger prices by 50% to encourage usage, to great success.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are realizing that is an interesting proposition. We’re in negotiation with several MNOs to come up with competitive international packages.

We’re starting to roll out these services with airlines this year. We think it will further encourage usage as people realize in-flight connectivity can be done inexpensively, using their mobile service as they normally would do without having to think about it.

Find out how OnAir CEO Ian Dawkins sees the evolution of onboard Wi-Fi, and the technology considerations for airlines for onboard connectivity. See the full interview at www.sita.aero/air-transport-it-review

What types of airline, and in what regions, are showing this shift in attitude?

The Middle East has been a hot spot for establishing OnAir services, with customers like Emirates, Etihad, Oman Air, Qatar Airways and Saudia, among others.

We’re seeing a rise in Asia Pacific airline adopters of in-flight connectivity too, with Qantas, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines for example, who are equipping a critical mass of aircraft before official launch.

Others include All Nippon Airways, Cebu Pacific Air and Hong Kong Airlines, as well as several more to be announced over the coming weeks.

These regions are paving the way, with Europe coming on board too, and we have some major announcements to make there. But Europe is relatively slow because I think airlines are looking hard at themselves and their competitiveness; they’re restructuring, they’re evaluating what they’re doing with cabin crew, pilots, and their fleet.

We know onboard connectivity is on their agenda, and we’re certain it will become a reality as they see airlines in other regions like the Middle East and APAC forging ahead. Especially as many of these airlines fly into Europe and internationally.

Why do you think this pressure to be connected onboard is coming now?

It’s becoming a requirement – it’s not ’am I going to have it’ but ‘when do I have to fit it’. And that’s because of trends on the ground. Everyone is connected, all the time, thanks to smartphone and tablets.

If you look at a big aircraft, statistically on an A380 over 400 people on board will have a mobile phone. For them being connected in-flight will be just as essential as it is on the ground. It’s normal to be online, so why wouldn’t you be when you’re on an aircraft – whether it’s to stay in touch with family, friends or colleagues?

It’s going to be helped by competitive prices for some of these services as we see airlines offering multiple packages for different flights. You’ll be able to go on to Facebook or other social sites, use email, or browse the internet for just a few dollars.

What patterns of usage are you seeing among passengers?

OnAir is the only company offering a full service, as I said, including a Wi-Fi hotspot and a GSM network on board aircraft, thanks to our regulatory approvals across the world.

“ WE HAVE ROAMING AGREEMENTS AND COVERAGE FOR ABOUT 80% OF THE GLOBE TODAY, FOR SOME 2.2 BILLION SUBSCRIBERS. SO WHEN I GET ON BOARD AN AIRCRAFT, MY MOBILE DEVICE WORKS ACROSS THE WORLD.”