TAV IT, a subsidiary of TAV Airports, Turkey’s global brand in airport operation sector, built the IT infrastructure of the two leading airports in Saudi Arabia. Standing out with products it develops using information technologies for aviation sector, its process management and innovative technology approaches, TAV IT increased its market share in the Middle East through projects it realized in Saudi Arabia.

The project aimed to maximise the operational integrity and passenger satisfaction through integration of airlines operating at Riyadh King Khalid bin Abdulaziz and Dammam King Fahd bin Abdulaziz airports; ground handling services companies and terminal aviation systems within the airports.

TAV IT Services general manager Binnur Guleryuz Onaran said that the project was the most comprehensive work materialised outside TAV Group and added: "Displaying our experience in this project that we realised in Riyadh and Dammam, which we have gained through our information technologies solutions we have been implementing at 22 airports nationwide and internationally is a huge achievement for us.

Offering turnkey solutions in airport management systems and applications area with its large product portfolio, TAV IT Services played an effective role with this project in enabling the optimum utilisation of sources and improvement of processes through coordination of different teams. Proving once more its leading position in domestic market and being an active and preferred brand internationally, TAV IT Services provides service to operators and millions of passengers at different airports in Turkey and worldwide. As an integration firm, TAV IT Services offer its customers a wide range of services and products from analysis and design to support and maintenance. The company’s goal is to maintain maximum ‘passenger and airport satisfaction.’

Under the project, which was commissioned at Dammam King Fahd bin Abdulaziz Airport in April 2013 following the implementation of the same at Riyadh Khalid bin Abdulaziz Airport, airport operational data base (AODB), flight information display system (FIDS), resource management system (RMS), information broker (IB) and reporting system (DAR) which have been developed by TAV IT were installed and other electronic systems were integrated with airline companies. Through the systems integrated, the flight information of Saudi Arabian local airline companies NAS and Saudi 2

Airlines were automatically transferred into the airline systems. Through GOS (Gate Operated System), BRS (Baggage Reconciliation System), Sitatex and Radio Integration, manual intervention requirement was eliminated and operational integrity was set up. Finally, integration was provided with ground handling services companies and maximisation of passenger satisfaction was targeted in Saudi Arabian Airports.

The project which started in February 2011 was materialized by a team of 22 consisting of software and system specialists working in Turkey and Tunisia. Thanks to the systems commissioned and integrations made at Riyadh and Dammam airports where data input used to be made manually prior to the project with the contract value of 2.5 million Euros, minimising human errors, reducing telephone, e-mail and fax traffic and enabling fast decision making on key operational decisions are targeted by providing central and uninterrupted data management.

In addition, optimisation and improvements are achieved in operational processes with use of products. It is expected that operational efficiency will also increase significantly at Riyadh and Dammam airports where a planning system, developed by TAV IT Services, optimising aviation source allocations was also set up; the same system used at Istanbul Ataturk and Medinah airports. Medinah Airport has gone through the last Pilgrimage period, the busiest of the year, without any problems thanks to the resource management system (RMS) set up by TAV IT Services.

As part of the project, 24/7 communication and support will be provided by TAV IT Services for all systems set up both remotely by a centre in Istanbul and locally in Saudi Arabia.

With the addition of Riyadh and Dammam airports to the customer portfolio, the total capacity of local and overseas airports receiving TAV IT Services software and operation support increased from 73 million passengers to 122 million a year. Istanbul Ataturk Airport maintains its position on top of the list of airports which TAV IT Services provides IT software and 24 / 7 operation support to, retaining the highest capacity of 45 million.