BAA improving Heathrow with outsourced IT services

SITA, the world’s leading specialist in air transport communications and IT solutions, today announced that it has joined the consortium led by Capgemini UK plc to provide core IT services to all six BAA-owned UK airports including London Heathrow, the UK’s only hub airport, in a €120 million outsourcing deal.

Rob Watkins, SITA Regional Vice President for Northern Europe, speaking at the Aviation ICT Forum 2011 in London, said: “This is a major outsourcing win. SITA, as part of the consortium, will provide ITIL based service management, contract management and transformation services across the six airports. We will orchestrate and manage telecom services across the whole BAA airport IT network environment. The five-year agreement covers the direct provision of network, telecommunications and radio services to six major airports including service transition, transformation and revenue generation. In addition to cost savings, outsourcing IT to an industry specialist like SITA will give BAA access to a much wider range of IT experience and know-how, allowing it to focus on its core business.”

The consortium intends to simplify BAA’s IT portfolio and improve efficiency while enhancing service levels. The aim is to better equip airport managers with the information they need, which will improve the airport’s resilience and make passenger journeys smoother. Working closely with the retained organisation and BAA commercial teams, it plans to improve services and deliver new solutions to airlines, retailers and other stakeholders to transform the passenger experience at BAA’s six airports: Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Peter Upton, Vice President, Capgemini, and lead for the BAA account said: “Working in effective collaboration with an ecosystem of partners is vitally important in order to provide our IT outsourcing clients with the best possible service. We are therefore delighted to be working with SITA in our major new contract with BAA and we are confident that SITA, with its world-leading expertise in air transport IT and communications, will make a key contribution to our success at BAA.”

The consortium is charged with delivering on BAA’s key objective for Heathrow to be both London’s direct connection to the world and the European ‘Hub of Choice’ by providing the optimum experience to passengers and airlines. For the other five airports, BAA’s objective is to run the airports at optimum cost and service levels, without the value-enhanced services required by an international airport hub.

SITA will provide LAN, WLAN, voice, and radio services across the six airports covering 90,000 LAN points, 1,300 WLAN access points, 2,800 LAN switches and around 4,000 professional mobile radio (PMR) terminals. SITA will ensure a fully resilient WAN interconnecting the six airports with BAA administrative and technical facilities. In addition, 51 network, radio and security operational specialists will transfer from BAA to SITA.

SITA became a key player in airport IT outsourcing six years ago when, in the first deal of its kind at a European airport, Dusseldorf outsourced all its IT services to SITA in a ten-year deal which was valued at $200 million. In that time, the project has achieved a 12% reduction year on year in overall IT costs in a time when passenger volume has increased.

The consortium, assembled and led by Capgemini as prime contractor and systems integrator, includes SITA, Atkins, Computacenter and Amor. Capgemini UK plc is part of the Capgemini Group, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. Atkins will bring multidisciplinary project service capability, Computacenter will deliver elements of desktop and server support, and Amor will support niche applications.