Heathrow AOC, through the AOC Shared Systems Board, has awarded Rockwell Collins, through its recent acquisition of ARINC, a five-year contract that will place the company’s latest ARINC vMUSE™ Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) in all four common-use terminals at London Heathrow Airport (LHR), one of the world’s busiest airports.

As part of the agreement, LHR will now upgrade the terminals to vMUSE, as well as install a new vMUSE system in Terminal 4. The vMUSE implementation will support more than 1,500 common-use workstations and up to 300 dedicated back office workstations and will replace the ARINC multi-user system environment (MUSE) platform, which has been used in Terminals 1, 2 and 3 since 1999.

The company’s implementation of vMUSE supports the latest CUPPS standards, offers airlines and airports new efficiencies and savings and extends CUPPS support to off-site locations and wireless devices through vMUSE Enterprise. Scalable for any size airline or airport, vMUSE is engineered to support emerging technologies, including baggage drop and leading-edge bag management systems.

"As one of the world’s busiest airports, Heathrow must utilize the most effective passenger processing technologies available," said David Wilding, chairman of the AOC Shared Systems Board.

"The ARINC system enables us to meet the needs of our member airlines by improving the efficiency and flexibility of passenger processing, which ultimately enables us to provide the best customer service possible."

Heathrow for Rockwell Collins’ Information Management Services business executive director Tony Chapman said: "We’ve been working with LHR for many years and are delighted that the AOC has decided to renew and expand its relationship with us."

"As passenger traffic continues to grow, we remain committed to providing airlines and airports of all sizes with the most efficient solutions available to meet passenger demands."

For more information, please contact ARINC.