As the culmination of an exhaustive selection process shortly before the end of 2009, and as part of their ambitious continued improvement program, NAS signed an agreement with INFORM for the implementation of a wide range of GroundStar systems at operation at Kuwait International Airport.

The scope of the solution contracted by NAS includes GS Planning, GS Rostering and GS RealTime for the planning, management and deployment of one thousand staff members and a large fleet of ground support equipment. Implementation started in January and the systems will be applied to the areas of passenger services and ramp services, including check-in, boarding, PRM, transit desks, VIP services, ticketing, bus transportation, aircraft loading/unloading, baggage services and aircraft cleaning. Line maintenance and cargo transportation management are also included in the solution.

A very important part of the solution is the most recent addition to the GroundStar suite: the GSE management system GS GroundFleet.

One of the first INFORM customers to implement this new system, NAS will have the ability to visualise on the system’s AirportMap the position of their GSE vehicles on the apron and control their movements, utilisation and the status of each vehicle and its engine in order to achieve a more efficient allocation of this costly type of resource, by virtue, among other things, of the integration between GS GroundFleet and GS RealTime. In addition, GS GroundFleet’s capabilities will allow NAS to improve the safety and security of the operation and the quality of the services rendered. It will also facilitate the recording of actual service details and provide information to facilitate accurate GSE maintenance planning.

Mohamed Galal, NAS’ global chief financial officer and the person leading the evaluation and acquisition of the new solution, said, “We have very aggressive goals for streamlining our processes and further improving our efficiency and the quality of the services we provide to our customers. We also want to ensure full visibility across our operation and facilitate constant improvement. We found INFORM and GroundStar are the right choice to help achieve these goals.”

“The incorporation of NAS into INFORM’s customer base in the GCC region and their decision to include the new GroundFleet system to the scope of their solution are both very important to us. We are certain that their decision will prove fruitful to NAS and will establish yet another long-term partnership between our companies,” said Thomas Schmidt, director of INFORM’s airport systems division.