Case Study: Airports Authority of India achieves scalable passenger processing and handles rapid growth with SITA's AirportConnect Open

Airports Authority of India keeping pace with unprecedented growth

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages 126 airports and India’s air‑traffic services, was struggling to keep pace with rapid passenger growth (184.2 million in FY2015–16 with projections much higher) amid limited terminal space, long check‑in queues, non‑standard equipment and budget constraints. To modernize passenger processing without large capital investment, AAI partnered with SITA and adopted SITA’s AirportConnect Open common‑use platform, AirportConnect S3 (CUSS) self‑service kiosks and BagManager baggage reconciliation.

SITA implemented CUTE/AirportConnect Open across 38 airports (supplying some 700 workstations in phase two), deployed CUSS kiosks at 25 airports with further rollouts planned, and put BagManager into operation at Chennai (MAA) and Kolkata (CCU). The solution enabled shared check‑in and gate use, scalable self‑service during traffic surges, real‑time bag tracking, faster check‑ins and reduced mishandled‑bag risk — increasing processing capacity without extra real estate or airline capex, boosting passenger experience and generating additional non‑aeronautical revenue, elevating SITA to a long‑term AAI concession partner.

Airports Authority of India