SITA, the technology provider for the air transport and borders industry, today released a Positioning Paper detailing its latest generation of smart border solutions to facilitate the implementation of the new European Union Schengen Zone border controls planned for 2022. 

SITA’s new TS6 Automated Border Control (ABC) Kiosks have been developed to accommodate future upgrades and changing requirements, such as the use of new biometric capture devices or the introduction of a printer to provide receipts to travelers. 

The new EU Entry-Exit System (EES) is designed to ensure robust and consistent checks on travelers along the entirety of Europe’s external borders. SITA’s next-generation solution uses the biometric data captured at its ABC kiosks to expedite processing at the ABC gates, reducing congestion and improving passenger flow while providing high-quality data to governments and border agencies. SITA has extensive experience designing and implementing digitally-enabled 21^st Century borders for airports, seaports, and land border crossings. These solutions address the entire border control ecosystem – enabling governments and border agencies to leverage passenger data, conduct risk assessment, and manage traveler identities across the full-spectrum of border control operations.

Jeremy Springall, Vice-President Border Management, SITA said: “The introduction of EES will bring significant benefits but also presents operational challenges for EU member states to achieve smooth and effective border processes. Maximizing the value delivered by the introduction of EES requires an approach that goes beyond the initial acquisition of gates, kiosks, and biometric devices. Member states now have a unique opportunity to positively transform their border operations through the intelligent integration of new and existing border management systems.”

With SITA Border solutions in place, arriving travelers in the Schengen Zone will be able to confirm their registration in the Central EES system at the kiosk, update their travel record with any new travel document or visa details, confirm their biometric data and make declarations specific to their journey. The biometric data can then be used to identify the traveler at the ABC gate – enabling them to proceed directly through the gate by facial recognition alone. This innovative approach is expected to significantly improve processing times at border crossing points for arrivals compared to traditional processing. 

Combatting COVID-19 through timely facilitation of travelers

The additional requirement to collect biometric and biographic data for all Third Country Nationals (TCNs) entering the Schengen Zone, will increase time spent at the border crossing point – potentially creating queues and unfavorably impacting upon traveler experiences. While the temporary reduction in traveler numbers relating to COVID-19 has alleviated the burden on travel infrastructure, new social-distancing guidelines will require authorities to avoid bottlenecks at border crossing points to minimize the risk of infection.  

SITA’s two-step process tackles this issue by enabling parallel processing of travelers: while face capture and matching begin the moment a traveler enters the gate, the next traveler can already be scanning their travel document in readiness to enter. This solution accelerates the process and provides a walk-through experience that saves on average five seconds in passenger processing time.

Boosting passenger confidence

COVID-19 presents the most significant challenge the travel industry has faced and technology that can support evolving safety regulations and fluxes in passenger volumes will be key to boosting passenger confidence. 

Passengers are also demanding faster and more automated journeys. SITA research conducted in January and February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic had its full impact on global air travel, examined responses from nearly 7,000 passengers across 27 countries globally, representing 75% of global air traffic. Over a third of passengers (34%) claim that technology to support digital identity management would add the most value to their journeys, superseding more widely discussed technologies like 5G and artificial intelligence. 

The report also showed passengers opt to use technology that helps them automate their entire journey and enables a more fluid travel experience. This trend falls into line with the industry’s COVID-19 response, helping to ease congestion and reducing the interaction points between staff and passengers through contactless touchpoints. 

Facing facts 

SITA can effectively apply the biometric quality standards prescribed by the EU while supporting governments to tailor and adjust their solutions. This approach leans on extensive experience working with transport infrastructure operators to ensure appropriate environments for face image capture.  

Significant efforts have also been made to ensure the fine-tuning of face capture and matching algorithms to ensure that the process works for the widest possible range of travelers. This has been proven across several SITA projects to date – where success rates of over 99% have been achieved across a traveler cohort of several tens of thousands. SITA technology today supports border operations in more than 45 countries globally.

Integration with new and existing border management systems

Many government authorities and transport infrastructure operators have introduced ABC equipment to alleviate pressure on border agents and improve the speed of facilitation. While travelers report greater satisfaction when using self-service touchpoints to clear immigration, the liberation of border guards to focus on travelers requiring greater scrutiny enables these highly trained officers to make the best use of their time and skills.

The integration of the border control point with existing government and international systems – such as watchlists, identity databases, national document registers, and visa management databases – is also critical to ensuring that travelers can be processed with the richest possible set of data upon which governments can make decisions. 

SITA has extensive experience in the deployment of ABC solutions across both EU and non-EU states with over 5,000 self-service kiosks deployed worldwide. Moreover, SITA’s existing support network – with a presence in over 200 territories – can be leveraged to ensure the ongoing maintenance and servicing of kiosks, providing customer peace of mind. 

To find out more download the ‘Strengthening the Common Border’ Positioning Paper here

Source: SITA

Predictive Mobility, the leading provider in Africa of marketing planning solutions, and partner of AFRAA since 2013, is announcing that it has been nominated as one of the Top 10 Big Data Company Worldwide in 2020. Since its creation in 2010, the company has created the largest aviation market intelligence database, including macro and micro economic indicators, origin-destination and leg-segment traffic, revenue, and capacity data, or multimodal information including rail, cruise, or express bus transport. This wealth of information is used to help airlines worldwide to monitor their competitors, build their schedule, optimize their fleet and network, as well as make pricing decision every day.

This award represents the recognition of our focus on research and development, and directly benefit our customers with more accurate analysis, regular enhancements and new functionalities, and a focus on delivering measurable benefits to our clients, including but not limited to Air Senegal SA, LAM Mozambique, Mauritania Airlines, and Air Austral in Africa. In addition, our team is pleased to work on AFRAA’s strategic Route Network Coordination project to facilitate intra-African air connectivity and airlines partnerships.

About Predictive Mobility Holdings Ltd: Predictive Mobility Holdings Ltd is a software company that commercializes under its brands Predictive Mobility and Milanamos aviation market intelligence, scheduling, fleet and network planning; and pricing and revenue management solutions. Founded in 2010, its primary focus is to provide advanced technology for airlines to implement an engaging commercial approach, grow their revenue, and expand their world globally!

Source: Predictive Mobility

Accelya is delighted to introduce the Air Transformation Lab, a series of activities aimed at fostering the collaborative transformation of airline commerce and putting the airline voice at the center of industry survival, recovery, and long-term growth.

In partnership with Atmosphere Research Group, Accelya will shed light on the current state of retailing and explore the required transformation journey ahead through an online survey and a series of in-depth interviews. In addition to customer and industry think tanks, a series of virtual boardroom discussions will enrich the study. The project will culminate in a report that delves into areas relating to the full retailing lifecycle, from offer and order through to settlement, and will uncover the DNA of a profitable future. Folks who get involved will be invited to an exclusive briefing by Henry Harteveldt, President, Atmosphere Research Group, regarding the findings.

If you would like to have your voice heard and play a part in shaping the future of airline commerce – or just want to keep abreast of the project – please click and subscribe to updates.

Source: Accelya 

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport has introduced nearly 50 of SITA’s mobile-enabled kiosks, becoming one of the first airports in India to deliver a completely contactless way for passengers to check-in for their flight.

The technology allows passengers to use their mobile device to interact with kiosks. This significantly reduces the need to touch surfaces in the airport and meets the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA’s) new passenger processing guidelines aimed at reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19 infections.

Developed in response to rapidly changing passenger requirements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the application is a cost-effective alternative to significant investment in new low-touch infrastructure. The solution leverages existing common-use kiosks and does not require changes or modifications to airlines’ existing IATA CUSS standard check-in applications.

Mumbai Airport handles more than 47 million passengers a year. With this technology, travelers passing through Terminal 2 of the airport can now simply scan a QR code on their mobile phone or tablet to operate the kiosks. After scanning the QR code, they can then use their mobile device as a trackpad to control check-in and self-bag drop kiosks to print their boarding passes and bag tags.

Rajeev Jain, CEO, MIAL, said: “With the focus on passenger convenience, the new contactless technology has been developed in response to the rapidly changing passenger requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to reassure our patrons of their safety at the airport and are willing to go the extra mile to alleviate any fear of travel during these challenging times.”

Maneesh Jaikrishna, SITA Vice President for the Indian Subcontinent, Dubai, Eastern & Southern Africa said: “In the aftermath of COVID-19, we are focused in delivering technology solutions that help our customers quickly deliver a safe and smooth passenger journey. We are pleased to have supported Mumbai Airport with this, and we’re subsequently rolling this solution to other airports in India too.”

SITA has developed a broad range of solutions to help airports through the post-COVID environment, detailed in the recent ‘Runway for Future Operations’ report. SITA President for Europe, Sergio Colella, will also be discussing the aviation industry’s recovery at the upcoming World Aviation Festival 2020.

Source: SITA