Case Study: Saudi Arabian Airlines achieves global IT transformation and scalable IP-based network with SITA

Embracing It Transformation For a Better Future

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) faced a large-scale IT modernization challenge: it needed to replace a siloed, low‑speed legacy infrastructure across its 250‑site, 55‑country network to support new passenger management, flight operations, HR and finance systems and to reduce costly legacy support. In January 2009 Saudia selected SITA under Project IMCAN, signing a US$76 million, five‑year contract to outsource its communications, telephony and desktop activities and deliver an IP‑based, managed network and services.

SITA implemented Project IMCAN with an IPVPN backbone, managed desktops, IP telephony, security, hosted/virtualized applications and full operations and support, replacing over 300 legacy leased lines and deploying some 5,000 desktops, printers and servers at about 100 airports and city offices across 55 countries. Completed on schedule for the 2010 application roll‑out, the SITA solution unified links, removed hundreds of low‑speed connections, enabled new passenger and operational systems, delivered major international voice‑cost savings and reduced local support overheads while meeting strict SLAs.

Saudi Arabian Airlines

Muhammad Ali Albakri

Vice President IT