Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques or SITA, the technology provider for the travel and transport industry has signed a landmark deal with the Airports Authority of India to support its growing market by providing technology to 43 of the biggest airports across the country.

As part of the deal, over 2,700 passenger touchpoints will be upgraded by the adoption of new-age solutions to help modernize the passenger experience. Initially, the technology will be deployed across 43 airports and will be scalable to an additional 40 airports over a period of seven years. Over 500 million passengers are expected to be processed within this time frame.

The adoption of cloud solutions will help Indian airports to shift to common-use passenger experiences where multiple airlines can leverage the same infrastructure such as check-in counters, and boarding gates. Centralized cloud-hosting of all servers will enable proactive monitoring and control of services and will help reduce on-premises infrastructure costs.

The number of airports in India is expected to go up from 148 to 220 by 2025. Speaking of how the deal will help, Sumesh Patel, President, of Asia Pacific, SITA said, “The new airports will bring closer together almost 50 Indian cities with populations exceeding one million people, creating substantial economic value in the long term. By connecting these cities better, air travel and transport will help unlock the full potential of India’s economic growth too. Ensuring efficient and fluid operations and a seamless passenger experience at these airports will be critical to delivering on India’s air transport industry opportunity.”

The Indian Aviation market size is expected to grow to US$ 12.55 billion by 2028. As per a SITA release, it is regarded as one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, which will help India become a US$ 5 trillion economy by 2024.