Air transport IT provider SITA has installed its AirportHub shared connectivity platform at Clark International Airport in the Philippines, enabling airlines such as Cathay Dragon, the regional airline of the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Group, to connect applications and IT systems at an airport quickly and easily.
Clark International Airport is supporting the growing demand of air traffic in the Philippines. Located in Central Luzon, it serves both North-Central Luzon and the northern Metro Manila area. The local catchment area has an estimated population of 23 million and in 2017 the airport’s passenger numbers rose 58% to its highest levels ever.
Alexander Cauguiran, acting president and CEO of Clark International Airport, said, “We have worked with SITA to get AirportHub at Clark International because it enables us to provide the airlines, ground handlers and our other tenants with secure and reliable bandwidth, including wireless connectivity to access off-airport applications.
“As more airlines choose to use Clark International they can be assured that they will have world-class, resilient and cost-effective communication services available to them.”
Kerry Peirse, general manager, IT infrastructure and operations, Cathay Pacific, said, “As an airline we need to be agile and be able to open new routes quickly and easily. When we connect our systems at an airport, like Clark International, that already has SITA AirportHub in place, everything moves faster.
“Being able to connect to AirportHub removes the complexity of dealing with local telecom providers. It is streamlined and efficient, which means we can be up and running in a matter of weeks not months and the secure shared infrastructure offers consistent global service standards.”
Both Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon are long-time users of SITA AirportHub, with the service already in place at 74 airports worldwide where the airlines operate. They use AirportHub for critical front and back-office services and require strong, reliable, resilient, and yet cost-effective connectivity solutions for many bandwidth-demanding applications.
Sumesh Patel, SITA president, Asia Pacific, said, “As passenger numbers continue to rise in Asia-Pacific, airlines and airports are looking for services that maximize infrastructure. This is exactly what AirportHub enables. Clark International is the latest airport to join the growing number of airports that are working with SITA and the airlines to use shared infrastructure to deliver world-class services cost-effectively.”
The roll-out of AirportHub across the world’s airports is multi-year investment by SITA on behalf of the airline and airport community. Over the next three years, SITA plans to have AirportHub deployed at airports reaching a total of 80% of airlines’ international destinations. Today, SITA AirportHub is at more than 400 airports and provides 6,500 connections across the world.