Air transport industry technology leader also announces governance changes and launches additional benefits for members.
BRUSSELS – SITA announced 2014 revenues of US$1.7 billion. This consolidated group revenue, a rise of 4.3 percent from 2013, continues the organization on its growth trajectory.
The results, confirmed at SITA’s Annual General Assembly (AGA), show the company’s solid business performance and growth. These were enhanced by strong sales performance, a sound cash balance, a low level of debt and continued favorable customer feedback and loyalty scores highlighting the focus SITA places on its community and customers.
Francesco Violante, CEO of SITA, said: “SITA is stronger due to our long-term strategic vision and the investments made in recent years. We have made advances in the critical areas of portfolio developments, service excellence and collaborative innovation with our members and the wider air transport community. SITA continues to invest in our operations, service quality and our people, which together position us to reach our strategic 2020 vision.”
In addition, the SITA AGA approved a number of changes to SITA’s governance to build on the company’s success and position it well for the future. These changes follow a comprehensive review by a special Governance Review Committee (GRC), formed following the June 2014 AGA, composed of 13 SITA Council Representatives and Board Directors led by Council President Jappe Blaauw from KLM.
This review of the effectiveness of SITA’s governance was provided for in 2011 when Members unanimously supported recommendations to retain SITA’s air transport community ownership, strengthen the company’s hybrid cooperative-commercial model and create the SITA Council. The two-tier governance structure of the SITA Council and Board was one of the main questions explored in the 2014 review.
The review found that the principle of the two-tier structure was fundamentally sound and appropriate for the needs of the SITA membership. However, a number of refinements were proposed. Highlights of the approved recommended changes include strengthening the powers of the 34 member SITA Council on matters concerning SITA’s structure and strategy, major transactions and substantive membership issues. The composition of the Board was also refined allowing for up to 11 Directors affiliated with Member companies – an increase from the previous 10. The maximum number of Other Directors was reduced to two from the previous four. Greater transparency over changes in SITA leadership and the specifics of Board and Council nomination and representation as well as streamlining the AGA process were also approved.
Jappe Blaauw, SITA Council President, said: “The comprehensive governance review and agreed recommendations are a testament to the strength and maturity of SITA’s culture where Members with diverse views can come together and constructively debate with open minds improvements that will benefit SITA, its members, and the Air Transport Community.”
As a member based organization that is working collaboratively to transform the air travel experience, SITA is always looking for ways to provide enhanced offers to its 430 members. Today, additional member benefits were revealed which will help with efficiency, profitability and adoption of new services more easily. The four new member offers are:
- SITA Air Traffic Control (ATC) messaging service access – This messaging service enables airlines to exchange air traffic control related messages with ANSPs (Air Navigation Service Providers) efficiently. It simplifies the process by removing the complexity and cost of connecting and adapting to several ANSPs. This offer makes the ATC messaging service available to members with no associated annual subscription.
- Introduction to BagJourney for members seeking IATA Resolution 753 compliance – BagJourney enables airlines to track bags as required by the forthcoming IATA Resolution 753 (effective 2018). SITA will be introducing a rolling program of free evaluations of BagJourney for qualifying SITA members, with preferential member terms when contracting for on-going service.
- Network application performance and service management consulting – SITA provides consultancy, with the use of specialized analysis tools, to enable airlines to optimize the performance of applications over their networks. Members contracting for new consulting engagements of this kind that are valued at $50K or greater will be entitled to a discount in the cost of the consulting activity.
- Introduction to FLIFO API – SITA’s FLIFO API (application programming interface) enables rapid development of new applications by providing easy access to structured, accurate flight information for application developers. This offer will provide qualifying members with free access to the API for three months, with preferential member terms when contracting for ongoing service.
The offers announced will be rolled out to members during Q3 2015. Additional member offers will be announced later in the year.
SITA has worked with its air transport industry partners to define next-generation technology for more than 65 years and is proud of its history. At this year’s AGA, SITA recognized the membership of its valued customers, celebrating 50 years of partnership with Royal Jordanian and Lebanese Air Transport and 60 years of partnership with Ethiopian Airlines.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
