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SITA announced that it has added Penang International, Malaysia’s second largest airport, to its growing list of airports using AirportConnect Open for passenger check-in. Dato’ Sri Chan Kong Choy, Minister of Transport, Malaysia, congratulated both Malaysia Airports and SITA on this, the latest confirmation of their significant role in the development of air transport in Malaysia.
He said: “Malaysia Airports has continuously monitored and upgraded the facilities to ensure that the airports are equipped with the latest technology, which is both cost efficient and gives substantial add-on value to passengers.
“In recent years SITA, the aviation IT specialist, has been playing a major part in our air transport industry, this development at Penang International follows the introduction of advanced self-service facilities by SITA earlier this year at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and SITA’s lead role in the business transformation plan with our national airline Malaysia Airlines.”
The Minister continues: “As a country that welcomes millions of overseas visitors each year with a record of close to 20 million during 2007, Malaysia continually seeks to improve infrastructure. This agreement with SITA will ensure that our international airport in Penang – the pearl of the orient – will provide the highest levels of services not only to the passengers but to all the international airlines that use the airport.”
AirportConnect Open is SITA’s latest generation IATA CUTE-compliant common use passenger processing system that supports CUTE, proprietary and web applications on common use check-in and boarding gate workstations, with shared peripherals. SITA currently manages some 30,000 CUTE workstations for 285 customers in more than 200 airport locations worldwide, checking-in an estimated 580 million passengers a year.
Elyes M’Rad, Regional Vice President SITA, said: “The adoption of AirportConnect Open at Penang International Airport will provide not only the airport, but its airline partners, greater operational flexibility and cost reductions because it is a solution that is both cost-effective and scalable, it is the perfect choice for this growing airport.”
Dato’ Seri Bashir added, “This is our commitment towards enhancing our service level at this airport. We believe this programme with its effective use of technology will significantly boost our customer service levels whilst enabling us to realize cost efficiencies over a period of time.”
Penang, “the Pearl of the Orient” has been on the tourist route-map for decades, and is now fast-growing as an industrial centre. With the combined attractions of tourism and business, Penang airport has been upgraded to cater to the increasing traffic demand. In 2007, the airport handled more than 3.1 million passengers.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
