The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages 126 airports across India, has expanded SITA’s BagManager baggage-management solution to 15 airports, providing them with real-time information on the status of passenger baggage. This follows the implementation of BagManager at Kolkata and Chennai Airports in 2015.
The implementation of SITA’s baggage solution will also help AAI’s customer airlines progress toward complying with IATA Resolution 753 by tracking bags across key points in the journey and significantly reducing the chances of lost luggage.
The 15 airports are Trivandrum, Calicut, Mangalore, Tirupati, Chennai, Madurai, Kolkatta, Goa, Lucknow, Jaipur, Amritsar, Leh, Chandigarh, Trichy and Ahmedabad.
As part of the expanded agreement, the AAI will also deploy SITA Airport Management Solution to two further airports – Goa and Lucknow airports – taking the total number of India airports using this technology to 12.
Guruprasad Mohapatra, chairman of AAI, said, “As passenger traffic increases across India, we need to be smarter in the way we manage our airports and smart technology is the answer.
SITA’s experience in India and its solutions make it possible to manage our network of airports in a more efficient and effective way, delivering a better service to our passengers while accommodating rapidly rising passenger numbers.”
Maneesh Jaikrishna, SITA vice president Indian subcontinent, eastern and southern Africa said, “India has long been an important market for SITA. With our sharpened focus on delivering solutions at the airport – including passenger processing and baggage management – we are able to support AAI with new technologies that make it easier to operate their airports and deliver a great passenger experience.”
Passenger processing
Elsewhere in India, SITA will provide passenger processing solutions for check-in and boarding, as well as baggage tracking, for the newly constructed Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport in Nagpur (MIHAN).
As part of the new agreement, MIHAN is deploying SITA’s common-use technology, enabling airlines and their handling agents to access their IT applications in real time on shared common-use equipment. The airport will also deploy SITA’s BagManager baggage tracking solution.
V S Mulekar, senior airport director, MIHAN Airport, said, “MIHAN is the single biggest publicly-funded development project in India. It is essential we have the right technologies in place to make sure the airport’s operations are highly efficient from day one and that they are future-proofed for our growth.
“SITA’s technology has proven successful in other airports in India and across the world and I have no doubt it will ably support MIHAN’s requirements.”