SriLankan Airlines has introduced a state-of-the-art passenger handling
system at the Bandaranaike International Airport, further enhancing the
level of convenience for travellers.The National Carrier is the sole ground handler at the Bandaranaike
International Airport (BIA) and provides services for all airlines that
use the country’s only international airport, which includes handling
of passengers, baggage, cargo, and in-flight catering.

Nigel O’Shea, Head of Service Delivery at SriLankan, said: “This is the
latest step in SriLankan Airlines’ continuous efforts to support Sri
Lanka’s aviation industry. It is a momentous event for BIA, and
represents a technological leap forward. The system has an array of
benefits for passengers at check-in and boarding, and several of our
most important customer airlines encouraged us to install it.”

 

The Common User Terminal Equipment (CUTE) system was commissioned
recently at BIA in the presence of the management of SriLankan Airlines,
representatives of several customer airlines, and officials of SITA, a
global information and telecommunication solutions provider for the air
transport industry which supplied the system.

 

CUTE is designed for the sharing of information on a real-time basis
between the airport ground handler - in this case,  SriLankan - and the
systems of operating carriers.

 

Yohan Pathirana, Manager Airport Service Delivery, said: “This project
involved the efforts of SriLankan Airlines, SITA and customer airlines.
Our airport staff has already been given the necessary training to
handle the system.”

 

CUTE has enabled check-in counters at BIA to handle new innovations and
advancements in air travel, such as 100% e-ticketing, providing direct
connectivity to frequent flyer programmes of customer airlines, better
integration for through check-in, facilities for on-line check-in, the
use of bar-coded boarding passes, and passport swipe capabilities.

 

Sabri Duser, Project Manager, SITA, said: “The installation of CUTE at
BIA was a perfect example of teamwork, with SITA providing the system
and SriLankan’s staff handling the integration into the airline’s
existing systems very efficiently.”
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