Lleida-Alguaire Airport, a major winter gateway to the skiing resorts of the Pyrenees, handled thousands more vacationers this winter season thanks to economical new passenger technologies delivered by ARINC Incorporated and Spanish IT specialist Ikusi.
About 30,000 additional arrivals and departures are expected this season as UK travel operator Neilson-Thomas Cook launches charter operations. The airport has prepared by installing a new check-in area with six desks, a new departure area with two gates, and a new arrivals area with two baggage claim belts.
ARINC and Ikusi proposed a powerful and effective technology solution: remotely hosted check-in and departure systems that reduce the local infrastructure requirement without any need for costly servers or conventional workstations on-site.
The technologies — ARINC’s vMUSE EnterpriseTM and Hosted DCS — operate on cost-effective ‘thin client’ hardware using an Internet connection. All the required data processing is performed at an off-site central processor maintained by ARINC.
This hosted approach eliminates costly servers and workstations and their associated maintenance requirements. It is a highly scalable solution for small or large airports and has the added benefit of reducing airport energy costs.
"These new passenger systems will fully meet the peak operational needs of our tour operators, reducing the processing times while remaining within the budget of a seasonal airport such as ours," said Alberto Lopez, Lleida Airport director.
In addition to its improvements for passenger check-in and departure, Lleida Airport has also installed two new security control points and passport control stations, which will double the airport’s previous security handling capacity.
Ikusi is a Spanish group that supplies integrated solutions in electronics and information and communication technologies. It has clients in over 80 countries, and is present in a further nine countries, particularly in Mexico. Of the group’s total annual revenue, 75% comes from international markets.
ARINC Incorporated, a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, provides communications, engineering and integration solutions for commercial, defense and government customers worldwide. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland with regional headquarters in London and Singapore, ARINC is ISO 9001:2008 and AS9100 certified.