New Delhi – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in various areas of airport operations, including security, passenger experience, cargo, airport development, consulting and training.
The MoU was signed by Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific, and Hari Marar, BIAL’s President for Airport Operations, on the sidelines of an industry event in New Delhi. This MoU is the first of its kind that IATA has signed with an Indian airport.
One of the highlights of the MoU could see IATA and BIAL implementing trials of new technologies and processes, and testing concepts at Bangalore International Airport. “This will place Bangalore International Airport in the forefront of airport operations. These trials will ensure that global best practice solutions can be appropriately adapted to the Indian environment, and will provide guidance for rolling out the implementation to other Indian airports,” said Clifford. The IATA Fast Travel initiative, Passenger Facilitation program and Smart Security are among the initiatives being considered as part of the MoU.
“An important objective of the MoU is to promote the efficient development of civil aviation in India to meet growing demand. By 2035, India’s passenger traffic is forecast to exceed 400 million passengers, more than double that of today. The industry will support 19 million jobs and $172 billion of India’s GDP. But for this potential to become reality, India’s airports need to have the necessary infrastructure capacity while implementing efficient processes that embrace the latest technologies,” said Clifford.
“The ultimate beneficiaries of this MoU are travelers in India, airlines and the Indian civil aviation in general. We look forward to a similar cooperation with other like-minded airports in India,” said Clifford.
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Tel: +41 22 770 2967
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Notes for Editors:
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- The Fast Travel program addresses the future of travel, with more choice and more control for passengers, and lower costs for the industry. Fast Travel provides self-service options in six areas of a passengers’ airport journey - representing annual savings of up to US$ 2.1 billion for the industry. By creating uniform standards and recommended practices, IATA will facilitate industry adoption of these projects – and a better travel experience for the customer. Examples include the use of Mobile Boarding passes and Self-bag tagging solutions
- The Passenger Facilitation Program focuses primarily on the crucial areas of security, border protection, immigration and customs with the aim to provide an “end-to-end passenger experience that is secure, seamless and efficient”. IATA's Passenger Facilitation Program is addressing solutions in the following areas:
- Security Access: improve the passenger flow at security checkpoint with existing technology and infrastructure in order to reduce queue length and times.
- Immigration: improve border crossing through the promotion of automated border control in order to support passenger growth and reduce waiting times without compromising security
- Smart Security: The vision will be achieved through the introduction of risk-based security concepts, advanced screening technologies, and process innovation. With these elements in combination, Smart Security seeks to deliver:
- Strengthened security – Focus resources based on risk, increase unpredictability, make better use of existing technologies, and introduce new technologies with advanced capabilities as they become available
- Increased operational efficiency – Increase throughput, optimize asset utilization, reduce cost per passenger, and maximize space and staff resources
- Improved passenger experience – Reduce queues and waiting times and use technology for less intrusive and time consuming security screening
