Regional airports in eight Latin American
countries will now be able to deploy IT technology on a similar scale to
the major airport hubs thanks to two partnerships with SITA. It was announced that IKUSI and Sertear are now members of the SITA
Channel Partner Program which aims at making state-of-the art IT technology
available for the first time to small and medium-sized airports handling up
to five million passengers. Both will now be able to distribute SITA
products and services to a target list of countries in Latin America.

Sertear, a subsidiary of AA 2000, has just signed a $3.3 million deal for
SITA AirportConnect Open check-in services for 13 airlines at Uruguay’s
Montevideo airport and will also be focusing on Argentina through its SITA
partnership.

 

Alberto Blaye, AA 2000’s CIO, said: “Passenger and airline expectations in
regional airports can only be met if the very latest technology is
available to ensure a smooth flow of passengers through the airport from
check-in to boarding and baggage management. Our partnership with SITA will
be critical to help these airports to reduce the total cost of ownership in
deploying the very latest IT solutions.”

 

IKUSI, a leader in electronic systems design and implementation, will focus
on the deployment of SITA airport systems in Chile, Colombia, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela.

 

Julio Iglesias, Director of Airport IT Systems of IKUSI, said: “Thanks to
our partnership with SITA, small and medium-sized airports in
Spanish-speaking countries will benefit from this portfolio expansion and
with this system integration to Ikusi’s global solutions. There is a real
need to increase the efficiency of the check-in and baggage handling
processes in regional airports which are tremendously increasing their
passenger throughput.”

 

 

Umar Khan, Vice President of SITA’s Channel Partner Program, said: “Average
growth last year exceeded 10% in Latin America, with Brazil, Mexico and
Colombia leading that growth. Passenger numbers worldwide have jumped from
1.6 billion in 2003 to over 2.1 billion last year and a good proportion of
this growth has come through small and medium-sized airports which are
often the airports of choice for low-cost carriers.”

 

 

The role of SITA in the partnership, in addition to providing base
solutions and specifications, is to provide a robust training and
certification for the partners, build their competencies, provide full
remote support and continue to bring in new products and services based on
local market demand. IKUSI and Sertear will be supported by SITA customer
service and industry specialists on an as needs basis.

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