In a major competitive win, ARINC has been awarded the contract for passenger check-in and departure systems at the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, currently under construction.

Under the contract, ARINC will install its industry-leading passenger solution vMUSE™, which is fully compliant with the IATA CUPPS standard for common-use passenger systems. The company will also install its BagLink™ baggage information distribution system and provide full maintenance and support services for the installed technologies.

ARINC has already implemented a live test environment on 54 workstations and has installed its AviNet Airport™ service for airlines to connect to host systems immediately. Hardware installation will be complete in February and at full operation ARINC will have rolled out vMUSE on 153 workstations for check-in and back office desks and 188 boarding gate workstations for use by 31 airlines and handling agents.

ARINC has a depth of experience managing large passenger IT projects for new airport construction and the company refined its operational management processes at Munich Terminal 2, the most recent new build in Germany.

"ARINC’s background will help assure a smooth migration process at the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport," stated Tony Chapman, ARINC senior director, Integrated Travel Solutions. "We are committed to giving airline customers a trouble-free transition to the new airport, with minimal disruption to the airport or passengers. We are expanding our services in Germany and committed to customer satisfaction, with in-country support."

"We are pleased that with ARINC we have found a competent and experienced partner for CUPPS services at Berlin Brandenburg Airport," said Andreas Deckert, head of aviation management at Berlin Airports. "The first units have already been operating for the test run of the airport, which started in November."

ARINC vMUSE is a state-of-the-art common-use check-in solution with a complete suite of available features, from self-service kiosks to baggage drops. ARINC BagLink bridges airport systems and airline hosts to ensure that bags checked at common-use locations are routed securely. ARINC’s AviNet Airport uses standard network hardware technology requiring no custom development, for rapid implementation. It supports all airline data communication requirements.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport is the new international airport being built 11 miles south of central Berlin at the site of the current Schönefeld Airport. It is designed to replace Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, which closed in 2008 and the existing airports Tegel and Schönefeld which will close when Berlin Brandenburg Airport opens on 3 June 2012.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport will have an initial capacity for as many as 27 million passengers annually and can be expanded to accommodate up to 45 million. ARINC’s customer is the airports board of management, Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg.