Case Study: Düsseldorf International Airport achieves 12% year-on-year IT cost savings and improved operational performance with SITA

Düsseldorf International Airport mobile technology

Düsseldorf International Airport, Germany’s third-largest airport, needed a modern IT infrastructure to handle rapid passenger and flight growth and tight 35–40 minute aircraft turnarounds. In 2005 the airport engaged SITA in a landmark 10-year, $200 million outsourcing deal to form SITA Airport IT GmbH (SAIT), giving SITA responsibility for managing the airport’s entire IT estate including data centres, network, desktops, telephony and operational systems.

SITA/SAIT carried out a full infrastructure refresh (upgrading to gigabit Ethernet, on‑site data centres and managed hosting), rolled out TETRA communications, baggage reconciliation, self‑service kiosks and other campus services, and is deploying foreign-object detection (i‑Ferret). The result: a 12% year‑on‑year reduction in overall IT costs over five years while passenger numbers rose from 15.5M to nearly 18M (2005–2009); 74 kiosks with ~80% self‑service adoption, shared services used by ~250 organisations, improved turnaround reliability, and SAIT’s headcount growing from 62 to 85.

Düsseldorf International Airport

Thomas Schnalke

Managing Director