…
Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan TD, performed the opening ceremony at the new Letterkenny offices of the global aviation IT specialist SITA which is currently recruiting for 80 new positions as it expands its Irish software development centre.
Tanaiste Coughlan said: “The expansion into the new facility, the growth of operations and the commencement of further recruitment is excellent news as it further embeds the facility in Letterkenny and offers additional high value employment to the people of the area.”
There are currently 73 SITA employees in Letterkenny.
Created and owned by the air transport community, SITA is the community’s dedicated partner for information and communications technology. It is one of world’s most international companies with services for more than 550 air transport industry members and 3,200 customers in over 200 countries and territories; almost every airline and airport in the world does business with SITA.
Francesco Violante, SITA Chief Executive Officer, said: “SITA’s development team in Letterkeny has consistently delivered work of a very high standard. When deciding on software development locations we are spoiled for choice but the high performance of our Irish staff and the support and cooperation of the IDA have convinced us to expand our Letterkenny facility and to bring other IT development work to the site that might have been done elsewhere.
“SITA is unique as the only global IT provider still owned by the industry it serves. Our solutions and services are vital to the well-being of the air transport system worldwide from flight operations to baggage management. The benefits of the work carried out in Letterkenny are felt far and wide in our industry. The quality of the work done here in Letterkenny is outstanding and we are delighted at the opportunity to fill these new positions and cement our ties with the local community.”
SITA has been in Letterkenny for many years; the office started out as a small venture nurtured by Letterkenny IT back in 1999, at that time it was part of the Irish company Eland Technologies and employees came straight from the LYIT. Six years ago, Eland was acquired by SITA and since then the team in Letterkenny has grown steadily. SITA’s operations have now moved to larger premises which will facilitate the expansion of the team.
In Letterkenny, SITA employees are part of trans-national teams working on the development and installation of specialist IT systems for the air transport industry. These include advanced e-commerce and online systems for airlines including Air New Zealand, Air Seychelles, Malaysia Airlines, Mexicana Airlines, THAI, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. The Irish team has recently taken on the development of SITA’s airport management system, which runs 24 of the world’s leading airports including Boston, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Sheremetyevo.
Border management solutions used by the governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Kuwait, New Zealand, United States of America and others are managed in Letterkenny and the newly expanded team will be working on the convergence of biometric and biographic security solutions.
Other SITA operations in Ireland include, Aviareto, which is based in Dublin and is a joint venture between SITA and the Irish Government. It is contracted by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) to establish and operate the International Registry of mobile assets as required by the Cape Town Treaty 2001.
OnAir, a subsidiary of SITA, is the company that provides inflight mobile usage to Ryanair’s passengers since March of this year.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
