SITA Adding 17 VHF Ground Communications in India

SITA is working with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to deploy an additional 17 VHF ground stations at the nation's airports to support the increasing use of datalink communications there.

The new Indian ground stations will bring SITA's AIRCOM network in India to 23.  AIRCOM handles both voice and data communications, the latter of which is comprised of traditional ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system) as well as VDL-2 (VHF digital mode 2). It also provides and satellite voice and data communications for its users.

Akhil Sharma, a SITA director with worldwide responsibility for air traffic management, said the deployment is "important as Indian airlines switch to the latest aircraft equipped with datalink communications and away from dependence on voice communications."

Furthermore, India's aircraft fleet is expected to double in size by 2010, and there will be increasing traffic from non-Indian carriers putting additional pressure on air traffic control voice communications, authorities there believe.

SITA's Indian network originally had just four VHF ground stations at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, but in recent years it has expanded as Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Kingfisher all became customers for AIRCOM Server, SITA's turnkey airline implementation of ACARS.

Today, SITA says it operates more than 850 VHF ground stations in over 160 countries, and more than 8,000 aircraft operated by over 100 airlines use its VHF datalink AIRCOM service; 2,000 of them also use its satellite service.  05-19-2007.

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