London | May 16, 2018–Virgin Atlantic Airlines has extended its long relationship with SITA, with the global IT company providing secured, high-speed connectivity between the airline’s London hub to 66 airport, sales and cargo locations in 19 countries around the world.

Don Langford, CIO of Virgin Atlantic, said: “Our IT network is central to the running of Virgin Atlantic, linking every office around the world in real-time to our team in London. SITA has been, and will continue to be, integral to supporting that connectivity. We have had a strong partnership with SITA since the airline launched operations in 1984, with SITA’s solution evolving to meet our changing business requirements.”

Through SITA Connect, Virgin Atlantic has access to secure, reliable connectivity no matter where it flies to in the UK, the US, Africa, the Middle East, Asia or the Caribbean. SITA’s solution provides increased security and reduced network congestion for remote offices while ensuring rapid setup for new destinations and capacity adjustments, providing the airline greater flexibility in managing its operations.

SITA will manage the local area network (LAN) and wireless network, and provide end-user support at these locations. It will also leverage SITA AirportHub^TM infrastructure, an airport-wide shared connectivity platform that provides airlines, ground handlers and other airport tenants with secure and reliable bandwidth.

As part of the agreement, the airline has also extended its use of SITA’s Airfare Insight. This innovative, fares management solution provides competitive market intelligence and uses sophisticated algorithms to help Virgin Atlantic analyze fares and make more informed and accurate pricing decisions. This means the right fares are distributed at the right time, to the right customer.

While SITA continues to support Virgin Atlantic with its day-to-day operations, the airline and SITA have long worked together on some highly innovative projects and will continue to transform Virgin’s passenger experience at airports.

Sergio Colella, SITA President for Europe, said: “SITA continues to provide Virgin Atlantic with stable, resilient and secure global services that help the airline’s operations run smoothly so its passengers continue to enjoy the Virgin experience. We look forward to strengthening our partnership from this base to further innovations that are rapidly changing the landscape of aviation.”

• SITA’s shared infrastructure AirportHub™ now available at 300 airports worldwide

2016 Air Transport IT Summit, Barcelona, Spain | May 26, 2016– SITA, the air transport industry communications provider, today announced that 300 airports in more than 100 countries across the world, are now equipped with SITA AirportHub™. This unique shared infrastructure allows airlines to connect all their applications and IT systems at an airport quickly and easily. It removes the complexity of dealing with local telecom providers and adds flexibility and agility to route management.

Airports are the center of the industry’s communications and are becoming ever more connected. By 2030, 18,000 airline communication connections will be needed at the world’s airports. The number and size of airports is also rising; 500 new airports – a 30% increase over today – and a 40% capacity growth in existing airports. The challenge the industry faces with this expansion is have reliable, secure, high performance communications – consistently across the world’s airports – for airlines, ground handlers, maintenance companies, other airport tenants and the airports themselves.

SITA AirportHub is an airport-wide shared connectivity platform that ensures airports can provide their airlines, ground handlers and other tenants with secure and reliable bandwidth, including wireless connectivity to access off-airport applications. Today, it is at 300 airports and provides 3,000 connections across the world.

Matthew Billings, Chair of Membership Committee, SITA and VP Technology Services at Virgin Atlantic, speaking at the Air Transport IT Summit being held in Barcelona, said: “SITA’s investment in the AirportHub infrastructure over the last number of years is of huge benefit to the entire air transport community. Now airlines can use AirportHub at 300 airports across the world – from Beijing to here in Barcelona.

“SITA AirportHub makes opening new routes much quicker and easier. When airlines are connecting their systems at an airport they can now do so within a matter of weeks not months. This streamlined approach is efficient and cost-effective. Many airlines are keen to work with their airport partners who don’t already have SITA AirportHub in place to consider its adoption.”

Dan Ebbinghaus, Senior Vice President, Communications and Infrastructure Solutions, SITA, said: “All airlines need high levels of connectivity on demand. Wherever they fly, and whether they are low cost, hybrid or flag carriers, the need is the same. As our airline members have experienced, SITA AirportHub provides this securely and efficiently.

“The rollout of AirportHub across the world’s airports is multi-year investment by SITA on behalf of the airline and airport community. Our plan over the next three years is to have AirportHub at 700 sites reaching 80% of airlines’ international destination airports. This will dramatically expand our coverage transforming the communications infrastructure at the world’s airports.”

SITA AirportHub helps to reduce the total cost of ownership through secure shared infrastructure and global community solutions. It makes connections between all stakeholders at the airport – airlines, governments, ground handlers, commercial operators and other partners – efficient and cost-effective. In addition to cost savings through shared, short lead time to connect and common-use infrastructure, there are vast savings in the time and effort of sourcing from local telecom companies, managing multiple suppliers and having to cope with long lead times.

The 300 airports already taking advantage of SITA AirportHub are located in more than 100 countries. These range from remote and regional destinations serving less than a million passengers to the largest international hubs of the world which together manage hundreds of millions passengers every year.