SITA - Air Transport Communication and IT solutions.

SITA, the airport IT specialist, today announced that it has signed a multi-million dollar deal to handle passenger processing for the 55 international airlines flying into the world's fastest growing airport, Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA).

Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, said today in Beijing: "These are very exciting times in the airport sector in China. SITA is very pleased with this strengthening of our ties with China's busiest airport which is also well on its way towards becoming the busiest airport in the world ever since T3 opened in March 2008 providing it with a capacity of 80 million-plus passengers.

"The joint managed IT services business model which SITA and BCIA are implementing will keep costs down for the airlines and help to develop and expand their presence in China. The end result will be a very efficient airport environment."

Passenger numbers at BCIA surged 16.9% to reach 65.4 million in 2009, raising its ranking from eighth to the world's third busiest airport, while overall the country's 166 airports handled a record 486.1 million passengers last year.

BCIA and SITA have a strong strategic partnership which proved itself during the very successful 2008 Olympic Games which saw a new daily record of 260,000 passengers passing through the airport.

SITA manages 50 Common Use Self Service (CUSS) kiosks and 600 CUTE work stations for check-in on its AirportConnect platform in the airport. SITA has 20 staff dedicated to work with airport IT staff in providing round-the-clock support and maintenance on site.