Sydney Airport Corporation and SITA are conducting a series of trials at the airport’s international terminal to demonstrate the benefits of SITA’s planned AIRCOM IP GateLink wireless connectivity solution for new aircraft including the A380, Boeing 777 and forthcoming 787.
The new product from SITA is aimed at providing a cost-effective way of transmitting large amounts of data on the ground wirelessly during aircraft turnarounds. This service will allow airlines and airports to take full advantage of the operational benefits of these new aircraft types by automating labour intensive and time consuming processes to retrieve and load large volumes of aircraft systems’ data, which cannot be transmitted cost-efficiently using traditional datalink services such as ACARS.
The initial phase of the trial at Sydney has been underway since mid 2009 and is focused on Boeing 777 aircraft, with A380s added during recent weeks. SITA adds that it is actively pursuing trials of AIRCOM IP GateLink at other airports around the world ahead of a planned commercial rollout of the service towards the end of the trials.
