SITA showcases its latest air travel & transportation solution offering designed to reduce complexity and deliver results to airlines & airports around the world, at APEX, the Aviation Procurement Expo

Abu Dhabi, UAE - 18 March 2007 - SITA, the world's leading provider of global information and telecommunication solutions to the aviation industry has announced that it will be presenting its latest IT innovations tomorrow at the Aviation Procurement Expo (APEX) which will take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from 19 - 21 March 2007.

At APEX, Abu Dhabi aviation industry officials, engineers & procurement specialists will meet with international suppliers & manufacturers to view, test & procure new products, services & technologies. This will also enable them to develop a shortlist of pre-qualified suppliers for their procurement requirements in the future.

Visitors to the SITA stand, located at booth C5-C6, in the "AIRPORT SOLUTIONS" pavilion, will experience first-hand, live demonstrations of a wide range of SITA's latest IT and communication technologies for the aviation industry.  These include SITA's Airport Management System (AMS) that includes the Resource Management System (RMS),Airport Operational Database (AODB) and Flight Information System (AirportVision). In addition, SITA will be demonstrating its Self Check-in facility (AirportConnect Kiosk) as well as the Common Use Platform (AirportConnect CUTE)  and the Integrated Baggage Solution.

"SITA's global experience and its Middle East presence, working closely with the aviation industry in the region for over 50 years, positions SITA strongly as a trusted partner. SITA is a partner who understands the dynamics of the regional aviation sector and based on this in-depth knowledge, recommends proven technology solutions to meet their existing and future needs," said Hani El-Assaad, SITA Regional Vice-President, Middle East & Turkey.

"The aviation industry in the region is experiencing phenomenal growth, with over US$20 billion being earmarked for the development of the aviation infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone. Against this backdrop, the aviation community here needs to make smarter and more customer-centric investments in IT and communications to help them achieve sustained growth and profitability and this is where SITA comes in."

"Industry growth is dependent upon the adoption of reliable integrated IT platforms that can support both current and future applications with the capability to deliver secure, anytime, anywhere access to systems throughout the airport community," added Hani Al- Assaad.

In today's busy airports, passengers and airlines need to have immediate and easy access to the most up-to-date information. Airport operators therefore need to provide fast and accurate information throughout airport terminals and beyond to ensure a seamless travel experience. As a result, SITA has developed AirportVision, as part of its goal to set the standard for simplifying complex environments, and making them more straightforward for its customers. AirportVision is a web-server application that automatically collects and distributes information to display devices in the airport, at hotels, on the Internet to cable channels or to any world-wide location with access to the airport's web server.

SITA's Baggage and Passenger Solutions offer an integrated suite of baggage services and passenger processing capabilities for all airlines using the airport's facilities, maximizing operational effectiveness, reducing costs whilst enhancing security.

AirportConnect, another comprehensive solution managed by SITA, AirportConnect is SITA's next generation IT platform for the airport community. This solution has been designed to reduce overall costs while providing flexibility and enhanced control for all users. AirportConnect supports the deployment of airport, airline and other tenant systems over a wide variety of workstations and uses a single, open standards based platform.

Focusing on the complete integration of IT systems at airports SITA's solutions are aimed at helping airports to maximize security, combat congestion, improve the utilization of limited resources and promote operating efficiencies, reduce costs and help identify new streams of revenue. They also provide airports with the technology architecture required to take advantage of a broad range of services based on Internet Protocols (IP) that are vital to the future of the air transport industry.

-Ends-

About SITA
SITA is the world's leading service provider of IT business solutions and communications services to the air transport industry. SITA manages complex communication solutions for its air transport, government and GDS customers over the world's most extensive communication network, complemented by consultancy in the design, deployment and integration of communication services.  Its extensive range of airline and airport applications and services includes airport operations and integrated baggage services, common use and desktop services, flight operations and air-to-ground communications and end-to-end airline distribution and fares services.

SITA has two main subsidiaries: OnAir, which is leading the race to bring in-flight mobile telephony to the market, and CHAMP Cargosystems, the world's only IT company solely dedicated to air cargo. SITA also operates two joint ventures providing services to the air transport community: Aviareto for aircraft asset management and CertiPath for secure electronic identity management and they sponsor the Internet's top level domain reserved exclusively for aviation - .aero.

SITA covers 220 countries and territories and the head office is in Geneva, Switzerland. SITA had aggregated revenues of US$ 1.554 billion in 2005 ( 1.295 billion).

Further information can be found at: www.sita.aero.

For further information (not for publication) contact:
SITA
Rafif Nsouli
Senior Marketing Manager
Tel: 961 1 657 200 Ext: 369
Mobile : 961 385 9849
Email: rafif.nsouli@sita.aero

Sawsan Ghanem
Active PR
Telephone: 00971-4-3900228
Fax: 00971-4-3904656
E-mail: sawsan@activepr.biz

Active PR
Mohd Al-Tawil
Telephone: 00971-4-3900825
Fax: 00971-4-3904656
E-mail: mohd@activepr.biz

© Press Release 2007