Oracle, SITA Team To Build Airline Reservation System

PRESS RELEASE

March 19, 2009 " Oracle, the world's largest business software company, and SITA, the aviation IT specialist, today announced details of a unique 15-year agreement to develop the most open and agile airline reservations system ever designed, using service oriented architecture (SOA) and advanced computing techniques.

Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, said: "SITA's strategic technology partnership with Oracle is a major milestone in the development of our Horizon passenger management portfolio and will have a profound impact on the airline industry. It is putting the most advanced technology stack available at the service of our industry for the first time. Advanced technology is essential to the modernization of the airline reservations systems of our 138 airline customers and we expect many others will be attracted to Horizon by the success of the project."

The partnership is already set to bear fruit with the launch next month by SITA of Customer Journey, a Horizon feature providing real-time access to airline bookings for business intelligence applications and rapid retrieval of customer journey records across multiple search criteria.

Loic Le Guisquet, Oracle Executive Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "This is a tremendous opportunity for Oracle and SITA to work together on one of the biggest IT modernization projects ever, implementing top quality design on a state-of-the-art architecture. This project will demonstrate Oracle's capacity to provide a full technology stack to modernize legacy applications in order to produce true SOA-enabled applications with very high transaction-processing capabilities.

"SITA is a strong strategic partner for Oracle and will be represented on the Oracle CIO Advisory Board and Customer Advisory Board with access to Oracle Labs and the Oracle Excellence Centre for co-innovation programs."

SITA is making its largest-ever single project investment in the further development of its Horizon platform which involves a team of 400 software engineers and designers - including off-shore resources - spread across the globe. The implementation approach favors gradual migration of standard industry processes and selected innovative enhancements.

This approach enables SITA to develop highly flexible solutions as airlines migrate from today's mainframe technology to SOA open systems supported by Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Business Intelligence for advanced reporting capacity and Oracle Identity Management for security. SITA will also enjoy direct access to Oracle development resources, best practice advice and new versions of software over the next 15 years.

The new SITA Passenger Reservations System will cover Reservations, Inventory, Ticketing and Departure Control and will be completed progressively over the next five years following releases in 2009. SITA's overall business goals are to extend the scope of the Horizon platform to increase airline profitability, enhance customer centricity and self-service, optimize distribution and create actionable business intelligence.

About SITA SITA is the world's leading specialist in air transport communication and IT solutions. SITA delivers and manages business solutions for airline, airport, GDS, government and other customers over the world's most extensive network, which forms the communications backbone of the global air transport industry.

SITA's portfolio includes managed global communications, infrastructure and outsourcing services, as well as services for airline commercial management and passenger operations, flight operations, aircraft operations and air-to-ground communications, airport management and operations, baggage operations, transportation security and border management, cargo operations and more. With a customer service team of over 1,600 staff around the world, SITA invests significantly in achieving best-in-class customer service, providing integrated local and global support for both its communications and IT application services.

SITA has two main subsidiaries: OnAir, which is the leading provider of in-flight connectivity, and CHAMP Cargosystems, the world's only IT company dedicated solely to air cargo. SITA also operates two joint ventures providing services to the air transport community: Aviareto for aircraft asset management and CertiPath for secure electronic identity management.

SITA is one of the world's most international companies. Its global reach is based on local presence, with services for around 550 air transport industry members and 3,200 customers in over 200 countries and territories. In 2009, the company celebrates 60 years in business. Set up in 1949 with 11 member airlines, SITA today employs people of more than 140 nationalities, speaking over 70 different languages. SITA had consolidated revenues of over US$1.42 billion (1.06 billion) in 2007.

For further information go to www.sita.aero