INTEGRATING
BMI INTO
BRITISH AIRWAYS
SITA NETWORK AND
COMMUNITY MESSAGING
SOLUTIONS
CUSTOMER STORY
When British Airways, one of the world’s
leading premium airlines, took over bmi
from Lufthansa, they were tasked with not
only managing the strategic, commercial,
human resources and legal implications,
but also its information and communications
technology (ICT).
A fundamental challenge when integrating an airline is to align
the ICT that supports day to day operations as quickly as possible.
Keep reading to find out how we helped British Airways to
integrate bmi’s ICT in a record time.
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Various international bmi operated routes serving 14 destinations
were scheduled to be taken over and operated by British Airways
going forward. As British Airways had no previous presence in
these locations, their IT team was tasked to find and implement
in the shortest time possible a cost-effective connectivity
solution to support common-use check-in services. The aim was
to ensure that airport operations could be effectively handled
at the newly acquired destinations within a 1 day cut-over and
without impacting any scheduled arriving and departing flights.
A seamless cutover from the bmi host system to the new British
Airways host was imperative, allowing little time for testing.
SETTING THE REQUIREMENTS
British Airways success factors for determining the right
solution were:
• Implementing a new connectivity solution at 14
destinations within two to three months.
• Finding an affordable and cost-efficient solution that
fitted their needs.
• Securely accessing future-proof infrastructure that can
support any new applications.
• Flexibility and compatibility. As part of its overall global
strategy, a solution was sought where British Airways
could seamlessly tap into existing common-use
infrastructure.
OUR SOLUTION
British Airways selected our network solution ‘SITA
Express IP’ for its newly acquired destinations; this would
mainly be used for CUTE related activities, such as check-in
services and bag tag printing.
Based on IP VPN infrastructure, SITA Express IP allows
airlines to share IP infrastructure and to adopt new
technologies as a means of streamlining the airport travel
process. The result is that British Airways can capitalize
on the ability to increase common use terminal equipment
(CUTE) capacity with reduced lead time.
The additional Internet access option is interoperable
with all current and future CUTE technology, thus
providing a greater degree of flexibility. Our solution
allows for predictably priced IP services. Upgrades
require simple configuration only.
2
© SITA 2014
2012
“TO KEEP THINGS AS SIMPLE
AS POSSIBLE FOR BRITISH
AIRWAYS, I ACTED AS A
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
COORDINATING THE ROLL-OUT
OF THIS PROJECT WITH OVER
17 DIFFERENT TEAMS.”
ALEXANDRA BROWN
SERVICE MANAGER, SITA
BENEFITS OF SITA EXPRESS IP
• The infrastructure is already in place. In-house wiring and
a simple configuration path can activate a new service within
hours or days, instead of weeks.
• Tail circuits are bundled in the price and shared onsite,
making SITA Express IP much more affordable than dedicated
IP solutions.
• SITA Express IP is mission critical by design; no need to
compromise Service Level Agreements for the sake of cost.
•
SITA Express IP provides a cost-effective shared network
solution for those airport sites where you simply do not
require continuously high bandwidth levels: it is a “no more
and no less than what you need” solution.
of the 2 to 3 months previously expected for airport
connectivity cutovers.
To simplify the roll-out for British Airways, SITA’s single
point of contact Alexandra Brown – based at the British
Airways premises in London Heathrow - had been appointed
to entirely project manage the delivery of the new
connections so that a swift integration from bmi into
British Airways could be guaranteed.
This included close collaboration with the British Airways
ordering team and facilitating the entire SITA Express IP
ordering process for all sites. Upon implementation, it
involved coordinating the required LAN changes for these
sites with the central SITA LAN activation team and finally
connecting CUTE to the British Airways host.
CHANGE ON A GLOBAL SCALE
DID YOU KNOW THAT...?
The 14 impacted sites tapping into SITA Express IP were
Addis Ababba, Almaty, Amman, Amritsar, Baku, Beirut,
Bergen, Bishkek, Casablanca, Damman, Hanover, Yerevan,
Stavanger and Tiblisi.
SITA Express IP is available at more than 300 airports
spread across over 200 countries. The standard lead time
for connecting to SITA Express IP is 15 days.
British Airways uses SITA Express IP in 98 cities across
57 countries.
CHALLENGING 1 DAY CUT-OVER
As SITA CUTE was already in place in these 14 locations, British
Airways was able to migrate the connectivity at the destinations
to SITA Express IP very quickly – so fast that all sites were
migrated and connectivity provided in around one month instead
‘‘WHERE AVAILABLE, SITA EXPRESS IP IS A PREFERRED
SOLUTION AT THE AIRPORTS WE FLY TO, AS IT HAS
PROVEN TO BE EASY TO IMPLEMENT, RELIABLE AND
COST-EFFECTIVE”
NICK TEALE
WORLDWIDE DATA NETWORKS MANAGER, BRITISH AIRWAYS
© SITA 2014
2012
3
SITA COMMUNITY MESSAGING
As a founding member of SITA, British Airways has always
relied on our Community Messaging solutions for distributing
operational messages. Today, British Airways exchanges
over 340 million operational messages yearly with 480+
counterparties through SITA, more than 290 million are
Class Availability Messages.
SITA Community Messaging solutions form the backbone
of collaboration within the air transport industry. It
enables the industry to connect reliably with over 2,400
companies through a fully managed service – today and
in the future.
“WE HAVE BEEN WORKING
WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS
SINCE OUR FORMATION.
TODAY WE’RE PROVIDING
BRITISH AIRWAYS WITH
CONNECTIVITY AT OVER
190 LOCATIONS IN 88
COUNTRIES ACROSS
THE GLOBE.”
SEBASTIEN FABRE
DIRECTOR INTEGRATED
NETWORKS. SITA
For further information,
please contact SITA by
telephone or e-mail:
Americas
+1 770 850 4500
info.amer@ sita.aero
Asia Pacific
+65 6545 3711
info.apac @ sita.aero
Europe
+41 22 747 6111
info.euro @ sita.aero
Middle East, India & Africa
+961 1 637300
info.meia @ sita.aero
Follow us on www.sita.aero/socialhub
Operational messaging may be invisible, but it’s critical to
keep the business going. It underpins every operational
aspect of air transport including: commercial and flight
operations, ground support baggage and cargo handling,
passenger services, and aircraft maintenance.
SITA Community Messaging solutions handles more than
30 billion operational messages every year. It is the leading
provider of managed messaging services to the air transport
industry. The portfolio consists of Message Distribution,
Operational Mail, Transformation, Integration Middleware and
Message Intelligence Services.
SITA AT A GLANCE
The air transport industry is the most dynamic
and exciting community on earth – and SITA is its heart.
Our vision is to be the chosen technology partner of
the industry, a position we will attain through flawless
customer service and a unique portfolio of IT and
communications solutions that covers the industry’s
every need 24/7.
We are the innovators of the industry. Our experts
and developers keep it fuelled with a constant stream
of ground-breaking products and solutions. We are
the ones who see the potential in the latest technology
and put it to work.
Our customers include airlines, airports, GDSs and
governments. We work with around 450 air transport
industry members and 2,800 customers in over 200
countries and territories.
We are open, energetic and committed. We work in
collaboration with our partners and customers to
ensure we are always delivering the most effective,
most efficient solutions.
We own and operate the world’s most extensive
communications network. It’s the vital asset that
keeps the global air transport industry connected.
We are 100% owned by the air transport industry –
a unique status that enables us to understand and
respond to its needs better than anyone.
Our annual IT surveys for airlines, airports and
passenger self-service are industry-renowned and
the only ones of their kind.
We sponsor .aero, the top-level internet domain
reserved exclusively for aviation.
In 2013, we had consolidated revenues of
US$1.63 billion.
For further information, please visit www.sita.aero
© SITA 14-END-075-1
All trademarks acknowledged. Specifications subject to change without prior notice.
This literature provides outline information only and (unless specifically agreed to
the contrary by SITA in writing) is not part of any order or contract.