Airport Passenger Service Systems & ICT Solutions for the Aviation Industry

Airports today either share expensive PCs and equipment or allow airlines to operate their own – both alternatives cost airlines dear. Common Use systems allow this hardware to run several airline systems simultaneously and CUTE (Common Use Terminal Equipment) is the standard in widespread use. However, this standard has not aged well and the vendors of these systems have wildly varying implementations meaning that airlines have to do a lot of work to get their applications to run across their network.

The replacement standard CUPPS (Common Use Passenger Processing System) aims to unify the various implementations by presenting an identical interface to applications running on it. This means that airlines do not have to maintain various versions of their application. For the first time, airline applications will have true portability and both maintenance and deployment costs should fall in time.

As long-term airport IT contracts come up for renewal, they will be based on CUPPS. Airlines operating flights from those airports will be forced to upgrade too, whether they like it or not.

Airlines and system providers need to formulate a strategy about how to implement the CUPPS standard itself in their applications. For all the simplification that CUPPS brings going forward, there is a significant amount of development that each airline has to do in order to adopt the standard in the first place.

It is non-trivial and the specifications run to hundreds of pages, the vast majority of which cannot be ignored. This "speed bump" to adoption is as high as it is wide. The aims of CUPPS are noble and there has been rich collaboration to achieve a  specification that delivers on over 100 pages of requirements. But therein lies the problem. Satisfying such a vast number of requirements could never result in  simplicity. Add to this the Windows-centric nature of CUPPS and even before industry-wide rollout begins, it is beginning to look like technology the rest of the world left behind 3-4 years ago.

Since then there has been enterprise adoption of Cloud Computing, Web 2.0, a slew of mobile computing devices and IATA Fast Travel Initiatives that encourage agility that the number of moving parts in CUPPS complicates.

Shawn Richards, CEO of Ink Aviation explained, "Nowadays, 'mashups' are old hat but the simplicity and informality with which companies can slap processes and data together quickly still evade large swathes of aviation IT." A mashup is an online product made by combining technologies, often with little or no involvement of the owners of each piece of technology.

Shawn recently gave a presentation at a CUPPS Workshop in Future Travel Experience 2011 in Vancouver during which he outlined an alternative approach to adopting CUPPS. The rollout of CUPPS as airport middleware is inevitable because it already has the enviable benefits of consensus. His approach centred on simplifying implementation with an add-on product that would expose a simpler interface to which airlines join their systems and a CUPPS compatible interface on the other side that would run in upgraded airports.

Another approach is to upgrade the software that airlines deploy into airports. Terminal Emulated (TE) software running on "green screens" is a lot more common than many would care to admit. TE windows are sometimes hiding behind pretty, modern looking applications. These relics of computing contribute are part of the interconnected technology stack that keep the cost of running check-in areas and boarding gates as high as they are for airports and airlines. Browser-based technology, which virtually all airlines used to sell their own tickets, are largely absent from check-in.

Ink is hoping to help airlines to jump into browser-based computing in the Check-in Hall by convincing them to plug Ink DCS into their host systems and mainframes (shockingly, these do still exist) and have browsers connecting across commodity connections like ADSL instead of expensive dedicated lines with modems (yes, the kind that screech when connecting).

Shawn added, "The cost of web-enabling an airline host can be quickly recouped by savings in distributing access to that system. And that is even before benefits of checking-in on iPads and other mobile devices are rolled in".

The original presentation is available from Ink Aviation, who worked with airports and airlines of all sizes.

Future Travel Experience is a unique global forum for travel industry stakeholders that focuses on the end-to-end travel process from the passenger's point of view, from the moment of booking through to the collection of baggage at the arrival destination, and assesses how every aspect of the passenger experience on the ground can be improved.

Ink Aviation is an independent provider of Next Generation Passenger Services Systems and hardware. They work with international and regional airlines and airports to increase capacity and streamline service delivery with cutting edge self-service, mobile and agent-based systems. Ink is based in Alicante, Spain. Their highly skilled team delivers innovative systems that are real, practical and ahead of the industry curve in affordability, flexibility and capability.

For more information, visit inkaviation.com or follow them on twitter.com/inkaviation