Report of the Committee

To

Recommend Standards on Interface

of

Airlines Computer Reservation System(CRS)

and

Departure Control System (DCS) of the Handling

Agents.

New Delhi
 Report of the Committee
To
Recommend Standards on Interface
of
Airlines Computer Reservation System(CRS)
and
Departure Control System (DCS) of the Handling Agents.

1. TERMS OF REFERENCE

The Government in order to issue guidelines /protocol for the proper

interface between airline Computer Reservation System (CRS) and
the Departure Control System (DCS) operated at the airports by the
airlines and/or their handling agents ,vide Order No. AV I3030/65/2002-
DT dated 21st August 2002, had constituted a Committee to study the
subject and recommend draft specifications of the computer interface
to be provided by the Airlines between their Computer Reservation
System and Departure Control System of the handling agents/ airlines.
This was considered essential as without a proper connectivity
between the CRS and the DCS , a fool proof operation of check-in of
the passenger is not possible and there could be confusion/mistakes
leading to possible issue of duplicate boarding cards or denied
boarding to a passenger. Furthermore, the possibility of security lapse
due to wrong passenger identity cannot also be ruled out . The proper
interfacing between the CRS & DCS would also enable
implementation in India of the ICAO Code of Conduct regarding CRS.

The Committee consisted of the following members:

i. Sh. K. Gohain, Dy. DGCA Chairman

ii. Dr. Gulshan Rai, Executive Director Member
(Arnet India)
iii. Sh. S. C. Ahluwalia, Director, NOCC Member
iv. Sh. M. S. V. Rao, Director (IT) Air India Member
v. Sh. A. K. Rastogi, Director (IT) IAL Member

The Committee co-opted Sh. Shyam Sharma, GM (IT) Air India and
Sh. M. M. Narula Dy.GM(IT) Indian Airlines to assist in the
deliberations of the Committee.

2. ICAO CODE OF CONDUCT FOR REGULATION & OPERATION OF CRS

The Council of ICAO recognises that the CRS provide substantial

benefits both to the air transport industry and to air transport users and
can also be used in abusive ways. Therefore in order to promote
desirable practices and avoid harmful ones in the distribution of air

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1
 carrier products through CRS, the Council on 17 December 1991
adopted the ICAO CRS Code of Conduct and urged States to follow it.
The Code necessitates no formal process of ratification but a State
may choose to employ the code as regulatory instrument and develop
national CRS regulations based upon the code and can also apply it
in its bi-lateral or multi-lateral relations with other States through use of
the appropriate ICAO Model Clause. The Code shall apply to the
distribution of international passenger air service products through
CRSs that would also apply to computer information systems which
provide displays of schedules , space availability and tariffs of air
carriers , without the capability of making reservations.

The ICAO Code requires the CRS to be transparent, accessible, non-

discriminatory and at affording international air transport users access
to the widest possible choice of options in order to meet their needs. In
adopting the ICAO Code on CRS the State shall have to ensure
compliance with the Code by air carriers , subscribers and system
vendors for their CRS activities in its territory , include provision for
investment in CRSs domiciled in its territory by air carriers or other
entities domiciled in the territory of another State which follows the
Code, permit free flow across and within its national borders of the
information needed to meet the reservation & related requirements of
air transport users. The ICAO Code on CRS has 12 Articles , in some
of which is defined the obligations of the States, CRS vendors, the air
carriers , subscribers to CRS services and safe-guarding the privacy of
personal data .

Based on the above ICAO Code on CRS and examination of the

existing systems in India, recommendations are made in this report for
the appropriate interface of the CRS and DCS to meet future demands
of the air transportation industry and implementation of the ICAO
Code thereto.

3. EXISTING SYSTEMS IN VARIOUS AI RLINES IN INDIA

The Airlines in India engaged in international air transportation and/or

having tie-ups with other international airlines are:

1. Air India
2. Indian Airlines
3. Jet Airways
4. Air Sahara

For its Reservations and Departure Control requirements, Air-India

uses Unisys Computer Mainframes with proprietary USAS software.
The reservation system besides being connected to Air India’s booking
and ticketing offices all over the world using its closed user group
domestic network and SITA’s international network is also connected
with the Departure Control System through a WAN connection using
UDLC and Frame Relay protocols. These mainframe systems are also

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2
 linked with the computer systems of various airlines worldwide using
host to host links through SITA network For this Air India has its own
communications network in India and the communications requirement
at foreign stations have been outsourced. Air-India has also invested
extensively on the terminal equipment at Indian and foreign stations for
its use. The Reservation System has real time links with other
computer reservation systems such as SABRE, GALILEO, AMADEUS,
ABACUS etc. The system also provides additional services like
frequent flyer programme, code-sharing, CRS booking by travel
agents, Advanced seat reservations, internet bookings etc. The
departure control system is hosted on Unisys Clear-Path System
IX6600 Series of mainframe hardware with software packages for
passenger checking and load planning. The departure control system
provides airport passenger handling and load planning support to its
own flights and the flights of other carriers handled by Air India at
various airports in India. In addition, the system permits the handling
of Air India flights at JFK Airport, New York and Dammam Airports in
Saudi Arabia using the SITA network. The main role of Air India’s
DCS activities at present include as an airline handling own flights,
handling agents of other airlines and handling all flights at Cochin
Airport. Air India conforms to Article 9 of ICAO code of conduct for the
regulation and operation of CRS. Air India’s reservation system also
conforms to the IATA standards with regard to Airlines reservations
interline message procedures.

Similarly, Indian Airlines uses two IBM Mainframe systems, which are
configured with redundant configuration with full disaster recovery for
its Reservation and Departure control requirements. The system fully
supports the electronic data exchange between different airlines
systems using real time EDIFACT protocols for both Reservation and
Departure Control as per IATA standards. The Reservation system
has real time links with other Global Distributions Systems (GDS) like
Sabre, Galileo, Abacus, Amadeus, World Span etc. and uses Highest
level of participation. The Departure Control system has similar real
time links with other airline systems like Air France, Emirates, Air India,
Kuwait Airways, Gulf Air, Cathay Pacific etc. They have their own
network infrastructure in India that facilitates on-line reservation with
auto pricing and ticket printing facility at their all International &
Domestic booking office locations (80+) and also with their travel
agents within the country. Some of the salient features in Indian
Airlines Reservation System include Availability & Schedule display,
Passenger Name Record, Lists, Air Fares, Auto Pricing, Automated
Ticketing, Code Share etc. Indian Airlines also provides value added
features in the area of reservation like Advance Seat Reservation,
processing of Frequent Flyer Program points for different airlines
(Indian Airlines, Air India, Air France), STAR records for Auto creation
of Passenger Name, Contact, FFP Number for PNR, On-line Flight
Analysis etc. Indian Airlines has computerized check-in facility
available on its network covering more than 75% of the total
passengers from 34 locations and can serve any airline at these
airports using EDIFACT links or as handled airlines. This system

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3
 offers value added facilities like through check-in of both Domestic &
International Passengers on Indian Airlines and other carrier flights,
Tele check-in, City check-in, Return check-in and Boarding Control for
flights. The DCS package of Indian Airlines is also used to handle
check-in of other airlines by downloading the Passenger List into the
Indian Airlines Host. In addition, Indian Airlines Departure Control
system also has other standard features like Payload Control,
Production of Load Sheets as per IATA standards etc. Indian Airlines
in their future plans for enhancing Departure Control activities are
examining the SITA CUTE proposal for their Metro locations.
Simultaneously, they have planned to enhance the present Departure
control by implementing Thermal Bar Coded Bag Tags & Boarding
Pass, Automatic Gate Control and Baggage Matching facility at these
airports. Additionally, Indian Airlines is maintaining a Data Warehouse
for the complete Reservation & Departure Control activities.

Jet Airways uses IBM computer systems provided by SABRE and Air
Sahara uses Unisys family of mainframe provided by SITA. Both
these computer systems are based in USA and provide the hosting
services for Reservations and Departure Control requirements of these
airlines. The SITA communication network provides SABRE
connectivity to all Jet Airways offices in the country and the system as
used by Jet Airways conforms to IATA standards in order to
automatically converse with other CRSs of other global distribution
systems and exchanging passenger data as may be required between
the airline and the booking agents. The DCS portion of the SABRE
system also satisfies ICAO requirements by providing Jet Airways with
positive passenger baggage match, automated weight and balances
etc. Similarly the reservation and departure control system of Air
Sahara using SITA GABRIEL for reservations and SITA DCS for
departure control system fully comply with the regulations prescribed
by IATA.

The details of the existing systems in each of the above airlines are
mentioned in the sections I, II, III and IV of Attachment A.

4. OTHER SYSTEMS OPERATING IN INDIA

As indicated in the preceding para, the national airlines use their own
CRS/DCS system whereas the private scheduled operators are in
possession of systems which are hosted abroad. In addition, many of
the foreign airlines transiting India have their CRS/DCS system which
are in some form derived from the SITA system. In addition, SITA
communication links are used by the national carriers in their
CRS/DCS system for international applications as well as derive some
of the features of the SITA DCS in their own including CUTE
applications at the airports. Brief details of the SITA system are as
under:-

SITA is a global service provider to the airline industry for passenger

reservation and departure control systems adopting the regulations set

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4
 by International Air Transport Associations and Regulations, where
applicable, as set by government agreements in the form of local
regulations or bilateral agreements. As handling agents for airline
passengers, SITA PSS follows those guidelines as established by
IATA and described in the Airport Handling Manual General Section –
AHM 092 – with regard to Handling Company Departure Control
System Evaluation Check-List.

For messages between the reservation control and the departure

control, the standards for the Passenger Name List message (PNL)
and the standards for the Additions and Deletions List Message (ADL)
are as described in the IATA Passenger Services Conference
Resolution Manual, resolution/Recommended Practice Number 1708.

The standards for the Request List Message (RQL) adopted are as
described in the IATA Passenger Service Conference Resolution
Manual, resolution/Recommended Practice Number 1709.

For passenger handling in DCS, the SITA system in passenger

acceptance activity follows the standards set forth by National
Governments and the IATA specifications covering aircraft/airport
security procedures, guidelines for the establishment of airline
operators committees, functional specifications for a standard
departure control system and IATA recommended practice for
checking & boarding activities. The standards for passenger Boarding
Passes are only specified if the passenger carriage is interline, which
is governed by IATA recommended practice or alternately the airline
and vendor determined design, information and printing surface of the
boarding pass. In this case, SITA follows the request of the airline.
The baggage tag is of the standard as established in IATA Resolution
but has proviso for incorporating additional information as required by
the airline.

The SITA system also has through check-in, automated boarding

control, load planning weight & balance and flight close out standards.
SITA has also got inter-airline through check-in by means of EDI fact
message handling. The EDI message standards are those established
by the Board on passenger and airport data interchange standards.
The EDI message standards are recommended industry procedures to
be implemented by bilateral agreements. As regards advance
passenger information (API) messages, the specific country of an
aircraft arrival and departure governs such messages.

In handling of other airline passengers in the departure control system,

the SITA system has a standardized PNL message as established by
IATA and the standards for agreements between the airline reservation
system and the departure control system are those indicated above
such as PNL, ADL and RQL.

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5
5. DEPARTURE CONTROL SYSTEM AT INDIAN AIRPORTS

Currently the national carriers namely Indian Airlines and Air India
carry out the Passenger Check-in, aircraft Load & Balance and other
flight departure related activities through their own computerized
Departure Control Systems (DCS). Both the airlines have centralized
DCS systems on their main frame computers and each on-line airports
being connected over their own independent network. As regards
other carriers most of them are connected from the airport terminals
over SITA telecom lines to their own mainframe computers and these
carriers avail DCS service from their own system.

However, in some of the airports worldwide, It is common to observe

that passenger booked in a particular airline are handled by the same
airlines staff at the airports at different parts of the world. In those
cases the airlines DCS computers are accessed from the airports over
SITA lines from the users CRT sets (terminals) installed at Check-in
counters or back office for LDP etc. Many airports in the world such as
Dubai, CDG Paris etc have airport based DCS systems which hosts all
the airlines operating from them. The airlines operating are charged
on the basis of service availed (Check-in, BP/BT printing, LDP etc) and
the actual number of passenger boarded. The central PSS system of
the respective airline down loads the PNL data over SITA network to
the airport system. The airport computer systems are in no different,
hardware or software wise, than the airlines own departure control
systems and renders service same as though it is airlines own DCS.
Thus, the DCS service provide Revenue for the Airport Authorities of
these airports.

Apart from the airport Authorities’ DCS service there are other service
providers such as SITA CUTE which enables redirecting of the
Departure Control transactions from a common terminal used by
various airlines to their respective hosts. Some times a particular
airline prefer to avail DCS from another airlines computerized system
which are called hosting service. Besides, the above types there is
another category of services offered that is one airline hosting the DCS
application for one or more other carriers. In this case the handled
carrier downloads the PNL data from their PSS system some hours
before the flight departure to the host. DCS system. The rest of the
handling is like any other service provider who is hosting departure
control services at the Airports.

The infrastructure for DCS that the national carriers are having are
adequate for hosting DCS service for all the foreign carriers operating
to/ from the airports in India. Air India has upgraded its old DCS
computer with a large Unisys mainframe computer system called
ClearPath. This system is in fact a two system – one with Unisys
proprietary 2200/500 series mainframe and the other open platform
with UNIX/NT machine seamlessly coupled with the U2200 system,
which renders the applications running independently on either of the

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6
 systems practically transparent for the purpose of data exchange and
further processing. Presently AI hosts departure control services viz.
Check-in, BP/BT, ABC, BRS and LDP for about 30 airlines at various
airports in India. For rendering this service and using the system for
handling its own flights, CPU utilization of the Air India DCS host is
16% at the lowest, 22% average and 39% at peak times. Thus the
capacity utilization of this powerful machine of Air India is hardly 30%
for DCS and the open platform of the ClearPath is practically
unutilized. It may be noted taking additional carriers’ load would be
staggered over 24 hours, whereby the peak transaction load would be
within processing capacity of the system. Thus, this system is capable
of taking more load by handling several other airlines DCS. In the
similar way the spare capacity on the Indian Airlines DCS system can
be utilized by catering to the DCS need of other carriers. In this
connection it is worth noting that at Kochi airport the total handling of
all carriers is given to Air India, which provides DCS to all flights
operating from Kochi, including Indian Airlines, Jet Airways. This is an
example of single service provider for DCS for all carriers.

As earlier stated Indian Airlines has two IBM Mainframe Systems with
redundant configuration to support the Reservation & Departure
Control requirements. The system fully supports the electronic data
exchange between different airline systems using real time EDIFACT
protocols for both Reservation and Departure Control as per IATA
standards. The application software is controlled by the same
operating system on one IBM machine for both Reservation and
Departure Control activities. The hundred percent fall back for the total
passenger related activities on the other IBM system, in case of
disaster scenario, is unique in nature in India. The changes and
updates in the Reservation records are fully reflected in the Departure
Control System almost till last minute prior to flight departure. This
feature enables the airline to provide the fully automated services to
the passengers both in Reservation and Departure Control. Indian
Airlines has implemented Advanced Features in the area of
Reservation and Departure Control using in-house expertise. Indian
Airlines has computerized check-in facility at 27 domestic and 7
international airports in India and can serve any airline at these airports
using EDIFACT links or as handled airlines. The multihosting feature
of IBM Passenger Services System has the capability to provide
automated passenger services to other carriers in India for both
Reservation and Departure Control.

The Committee is therefore of the opinion that, an exclusive DCS

service provider for all airports in India is a viable proposition. One
single authority, such as Airport Authority of India (AAI) or any
Government body under AAI or its subsidiary can enforce all carriers to
avail this service. This besides generating steady revenue stream for
the Government run organisation will also enable the spare capacity
available in the Computer Systems of Air India and Indian Airlines to
be availed for this purpose after making additional investments in the
hardware and software systems of the airlines. The National airlines

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7
 can also have the advantage of revenue earnings on revenue sharing
by providing their services to AAI and of additional revenue earning by
providing CRS-DCS services through an intra airline arrangement.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

The Committee is of the view that the standards for interface between
Airline Computer Reservation System and Departure control system
operated by Handling Agents at airports should be in line with those
established by International Air Transport Association (IATA),
International Government Agreements and Local Regulations or Bi-
lateral Agreements. Taking into cognizance the existing systems
available with the Airlines in India and for making a uniform CRS-DCS
control activity and introducing therein the functioning of the Airport
Management Authorities the following standards are recommended for
the system together with its modalities of operation :-

A. CRS-DCS standards: The CRS-DCS Standards should include the

following minimum components :

1. Airlines as Handling Agents for Passenger Handling

2. Message Transfer from Computer Reservation to Departure

Control System

2.1 Passenger Name List (PNL)

2.2 Addition and Deletion Lists (ADL)

2.3 Request Message List

3. Passenger Handling in DCS

3.1 Aircraft & Airport Security Procedures

3.2 Functional Specification for a Standard Departure Control

system

3.3 Passenger Boarding Pass

3.4 Baggage Tag

3.5 Through Check-in

3.6 Automated Boarding Control

3.7 Load Planning, Weight & Balance

3.8 Flight Closeout

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8
 3.9 Guideline for Establishment of Airlines Operators
Committee

4. Handling of other Airlines Passenger

• PNL transfer from handled airlines system to DCS

5. IATCI (Inter Airlines Through Check-in)

6. API (Advance Passenger Info) message

7. Baggage Reconciliation:

The details of the standards required to be incorporated in the above

components are given in Attachment ‘B’.

B. UNIFIED CRS-DCS OPERATION AT INDIAN AIRPORTS :

In addition to the above standards recommended for interface between

the CRS and DCS the Committee recommends that an exclusive
service provider for all airports in India, exercised by one single
authority like Airports Authority of India to enforce all carriers to avail
this service is a viable proposition. This will not only generate steady
revenue for a Government/ Private Run Airport Organisation but will
also bring about a synergy of resources already available with the
National Carriers by utilising their common facilities and harnessing the
unutilised capacity of the individual airlines for the benefit of all other
airlines.

Sd/-
(K. GOHAIN)
Chairman

Sd/- Sd/-
(Dr. GULSHAN RAI) (S. C. AHLUWALIA)
Member Member

Sd/- Sd/-
(M. S. V. RAO) (A. K. RASTOGI)
Member Member

New Delhi
18th March 2003.

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9
 ATTACHMENT ‘A’

Existing Systems in various Airlines of India

I. Air India’s Reservations and Departure Control Systems

Existing CRS and DCS:

The following schematic diagram gives in a nutshell, the Real Time

Passenger Services environment in Air India consisting of the state-of-
the-art Unisys computer mainframes using standard USAS software
and describes the Passenger Reservations and Departure Control
Systems termed as ARTICA (Air India's Real Time Integrated
Computer Applications) and Open Systems for Web based applications
and Revenue Management.

PASSENGER SERVICES ENVIRONMENT

Indian
IndianAirports
Airports
Other
Foreign Airports Airlines
Internet CUTE Local
Internet Domestic
DomesticN/W
N/W DCS
MUSE CRS
Web Server Frame Relay
YATRIK X25
Travel
SITA
IDS (Online services) SITAN/W
N/W Agents
P1024 CRS
TCP/IP P1024

Internet Firewall DCP

AntiVirus Domestic Firewall Reservation System
Layer 3 TCP/IP
TCP/IP Indian Airlines
Switch Frame Relay P1024
System
UDLC Member
DCP Service
TCP/IP Center
PRERANA Internet
Internet
Rev Management DCS System
ABC

From the schematic diagram, it would reveal that the Reservations

System besides being connected to Air India booking and ticketing
offices all over the world using its closed user group domestic network
and SITA’s international network, is also connected with;

a) DCS through a WAN connection using UDLC and Frame Relay

protocols,

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10
 b) CRSs and the Travel Agents and other airlines reservation
systems, using IATA Host-to-Host protocol , and
c) Internet through the in-house developed Booking Engine,
YATRIK, system using TCP/IP running over X.25.

The Revenue Management System PRERANA is also interfaced with

the Reservation System on the Air India LAN using TCP/IP over Ethernet
LAN Protocols. Since security of the systems is of paramount concern,
all the important Air India Systems are enveloped by a firewall, which
allows input and output data exchanges with the outside world after
thorough scrutiny and authentication.

Protocols Used:

♦ Communication Protocol:
• P1024 Type A
- SITA/IATA Host-to-Host
• UDLC
• P1024 Type B for teletype messages
• X.25
• Frame Relay
• TCP/IP

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

I.1 Reservation System:

Air India uses Unisys 2200/5222M mainframe system (RES) for

carrying out its Passenger Reservation activities. The system is
connected to more than 3000 terminals all over the world and has
real time links with CRSs such as Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus,
Abacus etc. as well as with the computer systems of various
airlines worldwide using host-to-host links through the SITA
network.

The system stores flight schedules for AI and large number of other
airlines for various sectors of travel of interest to AI passengers. It
controls flight/date wise seat inventories, helps AI reservation staff and
travel agents to plan the itinerary of the passengers, makes booking in
the system in the form of Passenger Name Record (PNR) and issues
Ticket(s) for the names created in the PNR. The links with other airline
systems enable the itinerary to comprise of both AI as well as other
airline flights in fulfillment of the passengers travel plans.

The system also generates Passenger Name Lists (PNLs) for various
Departure Control Systems, which are the starting points for doing
computerized check-in at various Airports. This USAS based
Reservations System ? rich in functionalities and of the highest
quality, is in use by many leading airlines of the world and service

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 providers such as Lufthansa, Iberia, SITA (which services over 140
airlines), North West etc.

Besides the above major functions, the system also provides the
following services:

a) Frequent Flyer Program:

Air India participates in the Frequent Flyer Program known as

“Flying Returns” with Indian Airlines and Air France. This System
logs the mileages flown by various Frequent Flyers and provides
them with reward points based on mileages flown. It also enables
special handling of these passengers at various touch points. While
the application is hosted in the system of Indian Airlines, the
maintenance and managing of mileage points and member
database has been outsourced to Member Service Centre (MSC),
which is a part of I.M.R.B. The Reservation System of Indian
Airlines forwards to MSC the Frequent Traveller List (FTL)
containing accrued points on daily basis. The MSC provides to the
members Mileage Point Statements periodically as also specific
developments, new partnership alliances and special offers through
separate mailings. Local MSCs have also been established at New
York, London, Sharjah, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore for
interaction with the members at a local level.

b) Code Share:

The System supports Air India’s Code Share arrangement with

approx. 20 airlines. Code share is a marketing agreement between
two carriers in which the operating carrier allows the code share
partner to display and market the flight as if flight is operated by
marketing carrier. This agreement allows the operating carrier to
generate additional routings on its own flight numbers using sectors
on which it does not fly, thus increasing its market presence and
ability to satisfy customer demands. The advantage for the
marketing carrier is in the reduction of risk of operating a new route
without actually worrying about the cost involved in establishment of
a new route.

Air India, has developed in-house, the requisite code share

software for use in Air India with various Airlines.

c) CRS Bookings by Travel Agents:

Direct Access in marketing terminology is a LOOK and deferred

BOOK situation for travel agents. Travel agents connected to CRS
are able to see the availability of participating airline via Type A
Links, but booking information is sent to airline in Teletype format

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 using Type B Links. It is a guaranteed booking, ensured by usage
of special booking code (LK) in the Teletype message.

d) Advance Seat Reservation:

Advance Seat Reservation is an automated application to reserve

specific passenger seating on booked future flights at the time of
the passenger booking. The reserved seat data is stored in the
Passenger Name Record (PNR). Presently, ASR has been
implemented in ‘F’ and ‘J’ compartments and in the Economy
compartment it has been implemented only for New York, London
and Chicago sectors.

e) Ticketing Time Limit:

The system has the capability to automatically cancel a booking for

which the time limit for ticketing has expired. This feature,
developed in-house, has resulted in significant reduction in no-
shows and has helped improve the load factor.

f) Prepaid Ticketing Advice (PTA):

Prepaid Ticketing Advice is notification by Teletype or mail that a

person in one city has requested the issuance of prepaid
transportation to another person in another city. The use of PTA
permits issuance of a ticket at a point other than the point of
payment. The PTA may be used to cover the:

i) Fare and taxes for transportation

ii) Prepayment of excess baggage charges.

PTA module in USAS*RES was developed in-house and allows

user to create a PTA in USAS*RES by the originator of PTA. The
system generates alerts to the ticket station/office as well as on
acknowledgement by receiving office, modification of PTA, non-
acknowledgement of PTA.

g) CRS Billing Audit:

CRS Billing Audit, CRSBAUD is a software package developed by

Air India after the study of various CRSs policy guidelines regarding
booking fee credit requests. The aim of this system is to minimize
the CRS billing discrepancies and thereby reduces the distribution
cost of Airline.

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13
 h) MIS Reports:

Air India RES generates various MIS reports; some of them are as
follows:

- Monthly participating airlines billing report agency wise;

- Bookings made by AI offices and CRS for domestic and

international payments;

- Monthly report of utilized and unutilized PTA’s;

- PTA’s created during a month.

i) Internet Bookings (YATRIK):

AIR INDIA has developed a Web Based Internet Booking engine

whereby the customers can book their flights from their homes
through the Internet. On payment by credit cards, through the
payment gateway, Air India arranges to deliver the Tickets at the
passenger’s residence.

j) Revenue Management System, PRERANA :

Air India performs its revenue management functions using

PRERANA based on PROS 5 segment control revenue
management system procured from M/s. PROS of USA. Interface
between PRERANA and ARTICA was built in-house whereby
reservation data is downloaded into PRERANA and latter’s
recommendations are uploaded into ARTICA on a daily basis. The
main functions of the system are to forecast the final booking
demands on all future flights and to recommend adjustments in the
number of seats to be sold in each class/segment by giving priority
to confirmation of high yield sales. The focus is on maximizing
revenue for the Airlines rather than concentrating on load/seat
factor or yields in isolation. This state-of-the-art system is in use by
75 major airlines in the world, such as, Singapore Airlines, Iberia,
Emirates etc.

k) Marketing Trends:

The market trends are based on actual loads experienced sector

wise and contribution on the route by each station. These are
analyzed month wise for the past years. These are then adjusted
based on competitor’s capacities on the route, competitive pricing
and IATA forecast. In addition, the effects of holidays, festivals,
seasonality’s, visae granted are also factored in the forecast and

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14
 trends. The Government policies and economic trends affecting
travel plans also play a pivotal role in the forecasting of trends. The
Automated Revenue Management has an inbuilt forecast for each
future flight/date. This can be viewed for an individual flight and
date.

I.2 Departure Control System :

Air India’s Computerized Departure Control System (DCS) is hosted

on Unisys ClearPath System IX6600 Series of mainframe hardware.
DCS uses Unisys proprietary USAS*CKI level 99R2 software
package for Passenger Check-in and USAS*LDP level 11R2 for Load
Planning.

The Departure Control System provides Airport Passenger Handling

and Load Planning support to its own flights and the flights of
other carriers handled by Air India at various Airports in India viz.
Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Cochin,
Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Hyderabad, using its own
domestic network. In addition, AI flights at JFK Airport, New York and
Dammam Airport in Saudi Arabia are also handled in ARTICA using
the SITA network. The system offers the following services:

a) Passenger Check-in;
b) Boarding Card and Baggage Tag printing with barcodes;
c) Baggage Reconciliation;
d) Automated Boarding Control;
e) Load Planning and Weight & Balance.

AI has got its own infrastructure of PC-based terminals and

communication equipment to handle flights in India at all airports
(BOM, DEL, MAA, CCU, AMD, COK, TRV, BLR, HYD).

Role of AI for handling activities in DCS can be divided into 3 major

categories:-

1) As an Airline handling its own flights;

2) As a handling agent handling other airlines’ flights;
3) As a handling agent handling all flights at Cochin Airport.

I.2.1 AI handling its own flights:-

a) Passenger Check-in:

DCS receives the passenger information from Reservations

system through a WAN link between RES and DCS. The flight
initialization activity consists of downloading the PNLs
(Passenger Name List) from RES system to the DCS, 8 hours

________________________________________________________________________________________ ____
15
 before flight departure using internal transactions. On flight
initialization, a flag is set in the Reservation System so that any
further booking /cancellation for this flight will be communicated
as an ADL (Addition/Deletion List) for this flight to the DCS.
Before check-in, preflight manifest is prepared to decide on
proper seat allocation for passengers carrying infants, wheel
chair cases etc. and also taking notice of seats allotted through
ASR.

Check-in includes the following functions:

a) Flight creation and initialization;

b) Check-in of single and multiple passengers;

c) Check-in of multiple passengers with same

surname;

d) Check-in of passengers with infants;

e) Check-in of single and multiple passengers with

one or more onward connections;

f) Passenger upgrade/downgrade/offload;

g) Seat map display;

h) Update seat map through:

- Block Seats (BS)
- Reserve Seats (RS)
- Block Transit Seats (BT)

i) Automatic and Manual standby acceptance.

j) APIS (Advance Passenger Information for US

Customs):
- Updation of Passport information of passengers
through Scanners (if available);
- Updation of Passport information of
passengers through API Input manually;
- Automatic/Manual generation of API messages
for the flight to US Customs.

k) Close out messages of down line Airports for AI

flights and to the host System for other carrier
flights handled by AI.

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16
 b) Crew Check-in:

With the help of crew roster obtained from Inflight Services

Department, Cabin Crew are checked-in by the boarding
number and baggage tags are issued to each crew for their
baggages which are subsequently used for baggage
reconciliation. Similarly, Advance Passenger Information
System (APIS) is processed for crew bound for US and
forwarded to US Customs.

c) Boarding Pass and Baggage Tag Printing:

During the check-in process, each passenger is given Boarding

Pass for boarding the Aircraft. The Boarding Pass contains bar-
coded information with respect to the boarding number and flight
details. Similarly, the passenger baggages are tagged with the
bar-coded baggage tag numbers.

The following functions are covered:

a) Boarding Pass printing for single and group

passengers;
b) Boarding Pass providing for change of seat due to
equipment change;
c) Baggage Tag printing for single and multiple pass
having one or more onward connections;
d) Baggage Tag printing for bulk baggage (courier
bags).

d) Automated Boarding Control (ABC):

As and when passenger’s check-in, the details are transferred to

a UNIX based mini system for boarding control (currently
functional only at Mumbai Airport) by matching the passenger
details transferred by the system with the information scanned
by bar code scanners from boarding card. The ABC terminals
with bar code scanners are used firstly at the Immigration and
secondly at the boarding gate leading to the aircraft.

The following functions are covered:

b) Normal Boarding Control:

- Boarding acceptance by boarding number
(using barcode scanners);
- Boarding acceptance by seat number
(manual);

c) Boarding Control for Transit passengers.

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17
 ABC helps in tracking of the passengers before the Immigration
and the boarding gates.

e) Baggage Reconciliation (BRS):

While loading the passengers’ baggage in the aircraft

containers, baggage reconciliation is carried out by scanning bar
codes on the baggage tags using barcode scanners and
matching with the passenger details recorded at the time of
check-in, in the baggage make-up area by the Security.

The BRS application ensures that only the bona fide

passengers’ baggage is on board for the security and safety of
the passengers and the aircraft. Moreover, in the event of last
minute off loading of a passenger, this application provides
quick tracking for off loading of the passenger’s baggage by
identifying the container details that contains the baggage.

f) Load Planning and Weight & Balance (LDP):

The LDP application enables the load controllers to print Load

and Trim sheet as per the limits set up by aircraft manufacturers.
The load sheet agents are warned when the Center of Gravity of
the aircraft during the future course of flight is out of limits. This
application also provides the following functions:

- Assist load agents in the process of planning the

distribution of payload to be placed aboard an aircraft;

- Boarding passengers are automatically distributed in the

proper cabin compartment based on seat selection
preference;

- Cargo load is accounted for and automatically distributed

in the lower bins;

- Sending Load messages to the down line airports.

The application has got the necessary ICAO certification for all
aircrafts and is used by various carriers at Indian Airports.

g) Flight Close Out:

After the flight departure, flight is closed in DCS and necessary

messages are sent to down line Airports for their flight handling.
The messages generated are:-

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18
 a) SOM (Seat Occupied Messages)
b) BTM (Baggage Transfer Messages)
c) COM (Close Out Messages - contains check-in
load details)
d) PTM (Passenger Transfer Messages)
e) TPM (Teletype Passenger Manifest)
f) PIL (Passenger Information List)

Final manifest is printed for Customs and PIL for Cabin Crew
containing hostess-wise passenger manifest with meal
preference.

API (Advance Passenger Information) is prepared and sent to

US Customs for passengers traveling to USA by scanning their
passports and visas by using special passport readers provided
by US Customs.

h) World Tracer:

World Tracer is comprehensive airline baggage tracing and

handling system for lost or mishandled baggage. In order to
provide better customer service, Air India participates in SITA
World Tracer system. An Internet access to this service has
been provided to the customers by Air India to access the most
current information regarding their mishandled baggage.

I.3 AI as an agent handling other airlines’ flights:-

Airlines handled by AI send their PNLs to AI RES as Type B

messages eight hours before departure of flight and then
transferred to DCS. As at above the Flight Initialization program in
DCS process these messages for the flight and creates the
necessary flight/passenger records for Check-in (CKI). After check-
in, flight closing transaction will send necessary close out messages
to the concerned airline for their flight handling. Presently, AI
handles a total of 30 airlines at 9 airports in India.

I.4 AI as a handling agent handling all flights at Cochin Airport:-

CIAL has authorized AI as the sole handling agent to handle all

airlines' flights at Cochin for both domestic and international
sectors. AI has acquired the necessary infrastructure to handle all
the flights in its DCS system. As mentioned in above items 7.1 &
7.2, same check-in procedure is being carried out for AI for other
airlines respectively. In order to enable Simultaneous check-in at
the origin and the down line airports by AI and the handled carriers
(in this case Indian Airlines and Jet Airways), the ARTICA system
of DCS adopts the concept of block seat allocation to avoid
duplicate seat allocation.

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19
 I.5 Use of EDIFACT for Through Check-in:-

AI uses IATA EDIFACT messaging standard (Ver. 94:1) for carrying

out through check-in on other airlines, whereby passenger is given
boarding passes by AI at the origin station and his baggage is
tagged up to the final destination. In this process the passenger is
not required to check-in at the transfer Airports. The DCS of AI
Interacts on a real time basis in the EDIFACT format with the
computer systems of participating carriers. For example, a
passenger travels from BOM to SIN on AI and SIN to SYD on SQ,
can be through checked-in to SYD in SQ system while checking in
at BOM for SIN on AI flight. In this process two boarding passes are
issued one for BOM-SIN on AI system and another for SIN-SYD for
SQ flight and the baggage tag will be printed with SYD as the
destination. AI system automatically sends the passenger record to
the SQ system with boarding information for necessary processing
in the SQ System. This saves lot of time for re-check-in of the
passengers and efforts for baggage handling at SIN.

As far as EDIFACT is concerned, the hardware/software platform

on which DCS is hosted is immaterial since the EDIFACT message
processing follow well defined protocol that is independently
implemented in the two computers. The access to AI host for DCS
application is from SITA network on P1024 Type ‘A’ Link over SITA
P1024C Protocol. The airlines have to exchange information like
HLD (High Level Designator) value, TCID (Terminal Cluster ID)
and Layer 5 address for Test and Production links. Also, they
have to apply for production link with SITA.

AI has implemented IATCI, Inter-Airline Thru Check-In using

EDIFACT message standards with Singapore Airlines at Mumbai &
Delhi and EK at Delhi,& Madras. Further, testing for EDIFACT link
has been completed with Indian Airlines, Jet airways and MH . Also,
AI has initiated the process of testing EDIFACT with KE and BI.

Presently in Air India, EDIFACT message processing helps in

handling passengers with two out-bounds as also the PNRs with
important elements like Frequent flier etc.

I.6 Economic Viability for using ARTICA DCS:-

Air India has its own infrastructure to handle departure control

activities at all Indian Airports where Air India not only handles its
own flights but also other foreign carrier flights. At Cochin Air India
has all the necessary infrastructure in terms of equipment and
communication to handle flights of all carriers including domestic
carriers Indian Airlines and Jet Airways.

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20
 Presently Air India is handling 29 other carriers at Indian airports
and earning revenue of Rs.312 crores per annum, inclusive of ramp
handling.
Air India uses its own dedicated links (64KB) and also makes use of
the public data networks like HVNET, INET, ISDN etc for effective
communication.

Since Air India has its own infrastructure including manpower and
communication facilities to handle the DCS activities at all Indian
Airports, there is no need to use any other Common User facility
such as CUTE. A study was carried out to work out the economies
involved in using CUTE type facilities where in it was found that the
use of CUTE will be enormously expensive as compared to using
the in-house infrastructure. What is of concern is that if AI is
denied the use of DCS at international Airports, AI will not only
loose the large revenues it earns by handling other carriers but also
loose the investment in the existing infrastructure. Because of the
expertise developed over the years and the infrastructure that has
been built-up, Air India is in a position to provide computerized DCS
facilities to other carriers also at all the international Airports in
India.

I.7 Dissemination of Information to Passengers:

Some of the salient modes of dissemination of information to

passengers are mentioned here below:

I.7.1. Travel Agents:

Air India has appointed various GSAs and IATA Travel

Agents worldwide for passenger booking and ticketing.

I.7.2. Air India Booking Office:

Passenger Booking and Ticketing as well as other passenger

services are rendered at various AI Booking Offices.

I.7.3. Through Internet:

Air India provides complete information portal on its Web site

airindia.com. An interesting feature of this portal is that the
status information on flight arrival/ departure, passenger and
cargo bookings and seat availability are provided through its
Real Time Computer systems.

I.7.4 Members of Flying Returns:

- Through MSC, explained as above

- Through the Air India Website.

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21
 I.7.5. WAP/SMS on Mobile phones:

Air India flight schedule and flight arrival departure status

information is available on WAP enabled mobile phones and
through SMS for the flight information is available on all the
mobile phones. This facility has been implemented in
collaboration with NDTV and Orange.

I.8 ICAO Code of Conduct – Compliance by Air India

Air India conforms to the Article 9 of ICAO Code of Conduct for the
Regulation and Operation of CRS in India, regarding the obligation
of Air India as an airline, and as adopted on November 1, 1996 by
the State of India.

It is presumed that the regulatory agency in the State of India may

have conveyed to ICAO the decision of the state of India of
adopting the above Code of Conduct.

I.9 IATA Standards -- Compliance by Air-India

The Reservation System of Air India follows ARIMP (Airline

Reservations Interline Message Procedures) for the exchange of
messages between the computers of various airline and CRS.

Similarly, Air India uses IATA EDIFACT messaging standard (Ver.

94:1) for carrying out thru check-in on other airlines.

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22
II. INDIAN AIRLINES RESERVATION & DEPARTURE CONTROL

Passenger Services System (Reservation & Departure Control)

Indian Airlines has two IBM ES9672 R21 S390 mainframe series with
redundant configuration for hosting Passenger Services System (PSS).
The application software for PSS has been procured from
SPEEDWING, a subsidiary of British Airways. It has integrated
reservation, ticketing, departure control and message switching
modules.

IBM systems are used globally by more than 85% of the airline
community for passenger Services.

II.1.0 RESERVATION SYSTEM

On-line Reservation with automatic ticket printing facility is

available at Indian Airlines booking offices and travel agents
within India and abroad.

The present system has links with major Central Reservation

Systems (CRS) to enable the seamless reservation booking
from any corner of the world. The system has standard
EDIFACT programs to support this seamless booking feature
for CRS Travel Agents.

The IBM System supports the IATA “Passenger and Airport

Data interchange Standards Message” (PADIS). PADIS is a
standard for all electronic data interchange (EDI) message
adopted by IATA and ATA members.

Some of the salient features of on-line Passenger Reservation

system are :

II.1.1 Availability and Schedule Display

Full numeric availability is maintained for system controlled

flights and this is automatically updated as space is sold or
cancelled. An availability display can be easily converted to a
schedule display and vice-versa.

This facility enables the user / agents to display schedule of

flights operating over a desired segment and the availability of
space on these flights.

II.1.2 Passenger Name Record ( PNR )

Passenger Name Records (PNRs) are the records of

reservations kept by the system. System creates one PNR for
each passenger or group of passengers for whom space has
been booked / requested by agent entry or by Teletype.

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23
 The record of each PNR created has basic travel information
e.g. contains the passenger's name, his contact, Itinerary
segments, fare construction, payment details, ticketing
arrangements and special requirements etc.

Agents can retrieve, display, modify and cancel the PNR

information subject to in-build system security checks. This PNR
record remains in the system till all segments have been flown.

II.1.3 Inventory Control Function

The objective of inventory control is to maximise the revenue

over each leg of a flight. This is the prime function of Central
Space Control. The action to be taken is based on bookings /
cancellation trends, yield management report and marketing
initiatives.

Flight inventory is monitored on day-to-day basis for taking

measures to meet demand and capacity.

II.1.4 Schedule Change Function

Schedule change consists of entering new schedules, changing

and cancelling existing schedules, and creating and maintaining
city pair records through which flights are operated.

When a flight is cancelled or its routing, times, equipment or

classes are changed booked passengers are cancelled and
may be re-accommodated on the same or alternative flights.

Passengers are notified of these schedule changes by placing

the PNRs on queue to the booking office.

II.1.5 Passenger Lists

The lists of passengers booked / waitlisted / Cancelled on a

flight of specific date can be obtained. All Indian Airlines offices
can display all type of lists, while travel agents can display the
list of passengers booked by them only.

This has a facility to obtain specific type of list viz. passengers

travelling over a specific segment or into or out of a specified
city or list of bookings made from a specific office.

II.1.6 Fares

Indian Airlines uses Pre-constructed fare(s). The fares for

domestic / International sectors are stored in the system
database. The promotional fares in various currencies are also
kept in the database. The amendment / deletion of fares and
discounts are being maintained by Central Space Control.

System has facility to keep various type of fares and discounts

applicable from time to time.

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24
 II.1.7 Automated Ticketing

System provides the facility of automatic fare computation

based on pre-constructed fares, while doing booking, based
upon sector, class and currency of the payment. On demand it
prints the ticket having all travel details along with amount and
mode of payment, on associated ticket printer at the booking
office. This facility is available for travel agents also. Presently
this is being used for domestic sector travel only. There are
plans to implement Auto ticketing for International Sectors in
near future.

System prints the break-up of sector fare with details of Basic

fare and applicable Taxes.

II.1.8 Flight Information

Information on delay, departure terminal or deviation of

individual flights is stored in the system. Display of such
information is reflected, while taking availability, schedule
display, booking and retrieval of PNRs etc.

II.1.9 Teletype Processing

The Teletype messages of Passenger Reservation Messages

are switched for automatic processing into/from the system
addressed to other airline offices. Messages in valid format
create and do amendment of PNRs. Messages in invalid format
are not processed by the system and are placed on various
queues for manual handling.

This facilitates the bookings made on Indian Airlines System by

other airlines / CRS and acts as a fallback facility for CRS
having Host to Host high speed connectivity with IC System

II.1.10 Class Cut-off & Merge

The minor and sub-ordinate classes on a flight at a specified

time before departure are cut-off and merged in major class,
such that they are no longer available for sale and remaining
capacity is handed back into the main class.
This facilitates in selling Promotional / Discounted seats up to
specified days before departure.

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25
 II.1.11 Passenger Itinerary Print

The passenger itinerary print is a plain language decode of

information contained in the PNR which is added to information
from other sources.

This facilitates the passenger in understanding about his

itinerary.

II.1.12 Time limit PNR

When a PNR contains time limits, a record is maintained in a

system file. Each day after midnight the file for current date is
retrieved and processed to place the PNRs on hourly basis.
System keeps checking this list on hourly basis and in the case
passenger do not purchase ticket before the given time limit,
system cancels the booking and release the booked space.

This facility stops the revenue loss due to un-ticketed seats.

II.1.13 STAR PNR’s

Customer profiles are increasingly important in maintaining a

high level of customer services and in managing high revenue
regular travelers. STAR (Special Travel Agent Records) is a
unique reference number advised to frequent fliers. STAR
contains name, contacts, special meal etc.

During sales conversation, STAR saves time and quickly builds

booking, it only needs an itinerary segment for making the
booking.

II.1.14 Duplicate PNRs

System has the facility to check possible duplicate bookings

based upon segment / name / departure date and flight number
etc. When such items are found they are queued to their
respective city offices / central space control for necessary
action.

This facility helps in minimizing the revenue loss.

II.1.15 Repetitive PNR construction

Reservations controls specify in a single entry the days of the

week and the end date for which the PNR is to be repeated. The
system automatically creates the PNRs, carrying forward all
information. These PNRs are identical except for dates of travel.

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26
 II.1.16 General Information

General Information system has departure/arrival pages of all

flights of the day to be filled by co-ordination cell for movement
information of the flights. This has various statistical information
also, viz. capacity utilized / delay information/payload etc. This
arrival/departure information of the flight is also used by IVRS
system. This also provides the information of seats offered of
yesterday / current / next day.

This helps in producing various management reports.

II.1.17 Central Information System

This facility allows to create / amend / display / maintain /

deletion of free format text in an organized & indexed form.
Information is stored in pages / chapters, which can be
accessed through chapters or directly. The pages of CIS have
the security features, which restricts the updation / display of
certain chapters / pages to authorized users only.
This facility helps in dissemination of information to Indian
Airlines offices and Travel Agents.

II.1.18 Code Share

The system has feature to HOST Code Shares Flights in the

Inventory. Presently, Indian Airlines has Code Share facility
with Air India, Sri Lankan, Kazhakistan, Kirgisthan and
Uzbekistan. The inventory of specific flights has separate
classes designated with specified number of seats, to be
booked by Air India. Similarly Indian Airlines can also book on
Air India Code Share predefined flights in specified classes.
This inventory is controlled by the operating airline through AVS
messages automatically.

II.2.0 On-line Flight analysis

Certain designated agents may analyse future-date passenger loads,

on flights having seats sold or seats available counts either less than
or greater than an input parameter. The resultant report gives a
summary listing of those flight segments, which satisfy the parameters
specified in the entry, and will include for each segment the Date,
Flight Number, Class of Service and the Number of Seats Sold and
Seats Waitlisted.

This facilitates in analysing booking trend of a flight / class / sector and

producing various management reports.

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27
 II.2.1 Agent Productivity

This facility enables the monitoring of the activity of all agents or

by city, or for selected agents. This provides the number of
PNRs created / amended / cancelled, number of messages
handled over a specified period.

II.3.0 Timatic

TIMATIC provides an automated method of viewing the Travel

Information Manual. This database is hosted at Atlanta, U.S.A.
TIMATIC is accessed via a host-to-host link and no validation is carried
out on the returned data before it is displayed.

This facilitates the latest information on health, visa, passport,

customs, currency and airport tax for various countries.

II.4.0 Higher Level Participation in CRS

This facilitates real-time bookings from travel agents any where in the
world connected through CRSs namely – GALILEO / ABACUS /
SABRE / WORLDSPAN. They get direct access to Indian Airlines
System via a dedicated communication links of respective CRS. Indian
Airlines system has standard EDIFACT program module to support the
real time booking feature for CRS Travel Agents.

This is value addition to existing CRS connectivity as passengers get

immediate acknowledgement for their booking requests.

II.5.0 Credit Card Validation

The Credit Card issuer agencies provide the information of black listed
credit cards on a regular interval to update their database at Indian
airlines. Some banks have provided the direct access to their
database, through which Indian Airlines offices can get the
authorization of credit card also.
This facilitates the validation of credit cards at the time of issuing the
ticket to the passengers.

II.6.0 Ticket Blacklist

Ticket Black List procedures have been implemented at Indian Airlines

to curb the fraudulent use of cash value documents. It provides an on-
line method of checking document numbers at in-house database of
‘blacklisted’ document numbers. The database is accessible from both

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28
 reservations mode and check-in mode. Whenever a document
number is matched, it give a warning to the agent regarding blacklisted
document and database simultaneously sends a printout of the
document number, with other information, to designated printers within
Security Branch.

ARINC maintains the database of black listed documents of all

participating airlines of the world. Airlines can avoid financial
responsibility by enquiring this database before accepting or honoring
a document. Indian Airlines is carrying out final testing to store its
blacklisted documents in ARINC for other airlines to validate before
accepting them.

II.7.0 Historical Data on Compact Disk

Three type of data pertaining to Reservation, Departure Control and

Flown Coupons is archived on Compact Disk with user friendly
interfaces and the same is generated on regular basis.

II.7.1 Reservation Data

The complete details of all flight of the day for fifteen days are
stored on compact disc. This has menu driven facility to display
the history of a flight or display by passenger name.

II.7.2 Departure Control Data

The details of DCS activities at airport are captured on the

compact disk and various facilities like flight statistics in detail /
summary, passenger check-in history etc. are made available
for analytic and statistical purposes.

II.7.3 Flown Coupon based Marketing Data

This data is useful for analyzing flight / route performance, agent

productivity, various discount utilization and International vis-à-
vis Domestic capacity utilizations. The reports and queries
based on this data are presently used by many departments
within the organization.

II.8.0 AUTOMATED DEPARTURE CONTROL SYSTEM

Departure Control System (DCS) is operational from 27 stations of

Indian Airlines network. DCS offers value added facilities like, through
check-in, return check-in city check-in, tele check-in and boarding
control for flights. Passenger traveling with different carriers gets
checked in up to the final destination. Passengers can block the seats

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29
 of their preference at the time of reservations. Presently, around 75%
of the total traffic is covered by this facility.

DCS system is Common User Terminal Equipment compliant.

II.8.1 Present Status of DCS

DCS is presently implemented at the following airports for Indian

Airlines Flights:

11.8.1.1 Metro Airports

o Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Hyderabad and

Banglore

11.8.1.2 Other Airports

Northern Region

o Jammu, Srinagar, Varanasi, Lucknow, Jaipur and

Udaipur,

Eastern Region

o Gauhati, Patna. Ranchi and Bhubaneshwar

Western Region

o Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Goa, Vadodara, Nagpur,

Pune and Indore

Southern Region

o Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Visakhapatnam and Calicut.

11.8.1.3 DCS at 35 more airports in INDIA

It has been planned to cover 35 more airports in INDIA

with the centralized DCS facilities. These are:

o Agartala Agra Aizwal Amritsar

Bagdogra Bhavnagar Bhopal Bhuj,
Dibrugarh Imphal Jamnagar Khajuraho
Leh Madurai Mangalore Portblair
Raipur Rajkot Silchar Tiruchirapalli,
Jodhpur Agatti Chandigarh Dehradun,
Dharamshala Dimapur Gwalior Jabalpur,
Jaisalmer Jorhat Kullu Puttaparthi,
Shimla Tejpur Tirupati

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30
 II.8.2 DCS Principal Features

DCS includes following principal functions:

a) On-line monitor for automatic initiation of specified

activities at preset times.
b) Terminal Scripts – user allowable to tailor the
activities in each terminal.
c) Through check-in with other carriers using standard
EDIFACT procedures.
d) Baggage pooling
e) Single entry check-in
f) Single entry through check-in
g) Enhanced seat plan display.
h) Special check-in facilities for shuttle operation
i) Expanded seat matrix for wide bodied aircraft.
j) Improved seating logic to maintained trim and provide
comfortable seat allocation.
k) Facility to simplify group check-in.
l) Automatic printing of Boarding Pass.
m) Automatic processing wait list passengers.
n) Automatic Bag Tag printing
o) Bag Tag edit for security
p) Security numbers.
q) Baggage, Hold and Container security
r) Auto edit improvements to PNL
s) New format passenger transfer messages
t) User friendly NOTAC and restricted articles per
carrier.
u) Auto close out and comprehensive hand back to
reservations.
v) Provisional load sheets.
w) Post Departure reconciliation
x) Cabin Crew information display.

II.8.3 DCS Passenger related features

The following passenger related features are available in IBM-

DCS:

8.3.1 Through check-in

This DCS facility enables passengers to be checked-in to

more than one flight of Indian Airlines provided each flight
is in continuation of the previous journey. Boarding
passes for all connecting flights are issued at the first
boarding point itself and passenger baggage gets
checked-in for the final destination.

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31
 This facility relieves the passenger from going through
the check-in process from his second board point
onwards as he can straightway proceed for security
check.

8.3.2 Return check-in

This DCS facility enables passengers to be checked-in to

same / next day return flight. Boarding pass for both
onward and return flights is issued at the first boarding
point itself.

This facilitates the passenger to straightway proceed for

security check for the return flight.

8.3.3 City check-in

This facility enables passengers only with hand baggage

to check-in for a flight and collects the boarding pass at
the city office itself.

This facility saves time for the passenger at the airport as

he can report directly for security check.

8.3.4 Tele check-in

This DCS facility enables passengers only with hand

baggage to check-in for a flight by contacting the tele
check-in counter at the airport. The passenger has to
collect his boarding pass at the airport from the tele
check-in counters.

This facility enables passenger to save time in the check-

in process.

II.9.0 Advance Features of DCS

II.9.1 Thru’ check-in with other carriers

This feature supports automatic check-in on other airline's flights

hosted in another system using Standard protocols as defined by
IATA ”Inter Airline through Check-in” implementation group. The
Boarding Pass and Bag Tags can be issued at starting point and
baggage is booked through.

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 This facility is a two-way on-line function. It can interrogate
another host system and process the response and respond to an
interrogation. The check-in agent can also inspect the seat map
on another host's flight and carry out seat changes when
required.

This facility provides International Passengers traveling on IC

(Indian Airlines) to get their baggage through checked-in to their
final destination and also get the boarding passes for their
complete journey.

This facility has been already implemented with Air France,

Emirates, Air India and Cathay Pacific for Passengers Traveling
between Indian Airlines and the respective carrier flights from / to
India. The implementation with Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air is
scheduled in March / April 2003. The discussion / implementation
of similar facility for many more International airlines operating to /
from India is in progress.

Through check-in from Dubai and Kuwait airports for Indian

Airlines flights has started using these EDIFACT links. The
through check-in facility from all other Gulf Airport i.e. Sharjah,
Muscat, Bahrain, Doha, Ras-al-Khyamah and Fujairah (from
where Indian Airlines operates) have been finalised and will start
during March/ April 2003.

Indian Airlines has computerised check-in facility at 27 domestic

and 7 international airports in India and can serve any airline at
these airports using EDIFACT links or as handled airlines.

II.9.2 Boarding Control

This feature identifies passengers who have checked-in and entered

the boarding lounge or the aircraft. Passengers who have checked-in
and failed to report to the departure gate can be identified instantly.

This feature helps in identifying passengers who have not boarded the
aircraft and also in the passenger baggage identification process.

II.9.3 Advanced Seat Reservation (ASR) facility

Advanced Seat Reservation facility enables passengers to pre-reserve

their seat. This facility enables booking agents to request a specific
seat number or a generic seat type and book this in the PNR of the
passenger. Seats can be booked from the day the flight is introduced
in the system.

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33
II.9.4 Handling other airlines check-in

DCS package has the facility to handle check-in of other airlines (apart
from Indian Airlines) by downloading the PNL (Passenger Name List)
into IAL Host. This feature can be used by IAL to handle check-in of
other airlines, which do not have computerized check-in facilities at
Indian Airlines.

Indian Airlines handles many foreign airlines and provides

computerized check-in facilities to their passenger flights at different
Airport in India.

II.9.5 Payload Control

This module has the following features:

o Advance load planning

o Load distribution to optimize trim
o Production of load sheets as per IATA standards
o Production of IATA standard messages - DCS automatically
constructs and dispatches IATA standard like Container Pallet
Message (CPM),Load Message(LDM) and Seats Occupied
Message(SOM).

The system generated automated ‘Load & Trim Sheet’ has approval
from DGCA for A320 aircraft in Indian Airlines fleet.

II.10 FUTURE PLAN FOR DCS

Indian Airlines held detailed negotiations with SITA to enhance the

Departure Control activities at six-metro airports, i.e. Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad under control of Indian
Airlines by implementing SITA CUTE system (Lease/purchase
options)for Domestic and International wings. This includes DELHI
International wing but excludes Mumbai international as the same has
already been implemented. It is proposed to install three CUTE Core
and three CUTE Lite servers to meet IAL requirements at these
airports. This proposal is under examination by Indian Airlines.
Simultaneously, Indian Airlines has planned to enhance the present
Departure Control system by implementing Thermal Bar coded Bag
tags & Boarding Pass, automatic gate control and baggage matching
facility at these airports.

With the implementation of above, Indian airlines will be able to offer

full DCS functionalities to all Airlines operating through all Domestic
Airports of IAL operations.

Indian Airlines is also exploring the possibility of implementation of Bio

Matrix Security System for airport.

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34
II.10.1 Automated Baggage Tags

Thermal Bar Coded Bag Tag printing facility has already been tried
and tested and the process of implementation of the same at 27
airports (33 locations – Domestic/ International) has already
started.

II.10.2 Baggage Reconciliation System

The study for Baggage Reconciliation System to ensure that

Baggages on board are already loaded only for bonafied
passengers for the safety of the passengers and aircraft is in
progress. This will be implemented after evaluation of the various
products available in the global market.

II.10.3 MULTIHOSTING

Indian Airlines System is designed to fully Multihost other airlines

that are defined as HOST or Sub-HOST in such a way that, each
airline works in its own partition independently. Each hosted airline
is allocated their Central Space Control, to exercise control of it’s
own flights. They have their own separate database for their
security reasons. All the features mentioned above can be
supported for the Hosted Airlines.

II.11 WEB SITE

The information on Indian Airlines Web Site is available based on

Static and Dynamic sources. The Static information is updated
periodically whereas Dynamic information is available by interrogating /
using the present IBM Mainframe.

The Static Information consists of

o History, Network, Infrastructure, People, Passenger services

o Frequent Flyer Programme, Promotional offers
o General information on Reservation, Ticketing, Baggage
handling, In-flight services & security regulations and FAQs.
o Tender Information

The static information is available on Web Site in Hindi Version also.

The Dynamic (on-line) Information consists of

o Flight Schedules
o Seat Availability
o Frequent Flyer points

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 o Arrival Departure information
o PNR Creation
o Fares
o Full IAL schedule
o Booking status
o E-mail messages from dumb terminals

The following enhancements are proposed for future implementation

and work on some of the activities are already in progress.

o Implementation of Payment gateway & extension to e-ticket

o Integration of e-auction through website
o Messages, alerts via SMS and E-mails.
o E-marketing

II.12 PROTOCOLS

Ø Communication Protocol

o AX.25
o SDLC
o IBM SNA Token Ring
o P1024 through external device

Ø Application Protocol

o LU 6.2
o HOST to HOST on AX.25 (EDIFACT for CRS and other Airlines)
o SITA HOST to HOST (for SITA Hosted Application)

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III JET AIRWAYS PASSENGER SERVICES SYSTEM

q Jet Airways uses the CRS (Computer Reservation System) and the
DCS (Departure Control System) provided by SABRE. Both the
systems are fully integrated together and hence the data transmission
between them is as such transparent to Jet Airways. The complete
system is hosted and maintained in SABRE’s Data Center in USA.

The SITA communication network provides SABRE connectivity to all

Jet Airways offices. This is in the form of 9.6 Kbps leased data
circuits. There are two types of connectivity that Jet Airways presently
uses. In the first type, VIDECOM brand Dumb Terminals are used as
front end with ‘ALC’ data communication protocol. In the second type,
PCs are used as front end with X.25 protocol. Both the CRS and DCS
systems are accessible from any terminal.

q The SABRE system as used by Jet Airways conforms to normal IATA

SIPP Standards in order to automatically converse with other CRSs of
other Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and exchange slight /
passenger data as may be required in the normal relationship between
the airline and the booking agents. Additionally, the DCS portion of the
SABRE system satisfies ICAO as well as local requirements by
providing Jet Airways with positive passenger baggage match,
automated weight and balance sheets, etc.

q Almost all the problems faced with the system are due to poor
communications infrastructure. SITA does not provide any uptime
commitment on the ‘last mile’ (the cable run from the nearest
telephone exchange to the Jet Airways office) and virtually all the
disruptions are due to cable faults or exchange related issues. Any
downtime of the data circuits adversely affects the airline schedule,
results in passenger dissatisfaction and contributes to crowding of the
terminal facilities thus creating a safety issue.

Reliability of the data circuits would improve a lot, if fiber optic

based connectivity were to be extending to all the airports.

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IV AIR SAHARA PASSENGER SERVICES SYSTEM

q AIR SAHARA is using leased line circuits provided by SITA Telecom

for both for Reservation & Departure Control Systems, and the
protocols used are P1024C, X.25 and TCP/IP for transmitting data to
and from both the systems. The data is transferred through AIR
SAHARA system HOST which is based in Atlanta for both the systems.

q AIR SAHARA is using SITA GABRLEL as their Reservation System

and SITA DCS as their Departure Control System, both these systems
are provided by SITA. Both the Reservation and Departure Control
systems fully comply with the rules and regulations as prescribed by
IATA for the purpose.

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 ATTACHMENT ‘B’

Recommended CRS-DCS Standards and Details

1. Airlines as Handling Agents for Passenger Handling

Each Airline acting as Handling Agent will follow the procedure as

established by IATA and described in the Airport Handling Manual
General Section – AHM092- Handling Company Departure Control
System Evaluation Check List.

2. Message Transfer from Computer Reservation to Departure Control

System

2.1 Passenger Name List (PNL)

The standard for Passenger Name List Message (PNL) will be

as described in IATA Passenger Services Conference
Resolution Manual, recommended practice no. 1708.

This is a list of Passenger Data concerning a particular flight

produced from an airline Reservation System, to be presented
to handling staff at a particular airport prior to commencement of
check-in of that flight of that station. It is the summary of the
reservations information concerning a particular flight close to
departure time, and deals only with Passenger data for that
flight, departing form a particular airport. Information contain
within the list will be a numeric summary of the passengers
holding confirmed space from that airport and may include
potential sub load totals. Names of passengers will be
presented depending upon local procedures, with a variation
possible from a minimal list only detailing passengers with
special service requirements, if any, to a comprehensive list,
containing names of all passengers. .

The PNL shall be dispatched by the reservations at a mutually

agreed time before local departure time, but issued only once.

2.2 Addition and Deletion Lists (ADL)

The standard for Addition and Deletion Lists (ADL) will be as

described in IATA Passenger Services Conference Resolution
Manual, recommended practice no. 1708.

Between the time off production of the PNL and aircraft

departure time, changes could have occurred to the data in the
PNL. Cancellations, new bookings, or changes to the facts
fields may be made, and to cope with this a new ADL may be
produced at any time. Each ADL shall show the changes that
have occurred since the PNL (or previous ADL) was produced,

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 and shall provide the latest joining figures. The format of the
ADL follows that of the parent PNL: if the PNL is full name, the
ADL will be full name; if the PNL is special requirements only,
the ADL will be a new numeric summary of joining load and in
addition will list names of any new passengers with special
requirements. The PNL and ADL shall follow the formats
specified herein to allow being directly accepted by Departure
Control Systems. When any aspect of a passenger record
(changes / adds / cancels) causes an ADL, the related
passenger information on the ADL reflects all the data in its
current active status, as it would have appeared on a PNL.

2.3 Request Message List

The standard for Request Message List () will be as described

in IATA Passenger Services Conference Resolution Manual,
recommended practice no. 1708.

If the Handling Agent has not received the PNL by the agreed
local time, a request list message (RQL) is sent to Reservation
System to generate the PNL to the pre-designated address
(SITA Code), which can be of system or hard copy printer at h te
airport. A PNL generated against an RQL contains all
reservation data, which are valid at the time PNL is generated.

3. Passenger Handling in DCS

3.1 Aircraft & Airport Security Procedures

The procedure will be as defined under Airport Handling Manual

(AHM072) which covers the following:

1. Aircraft & Airport Security

2. Passenger Processing
3. Baggage Handling
4. Cargo & Mail.
5. Company Stores
6. Protection of Aircraft on Ground
7. Security of Parking Area
8. Security of Baggage
9. Passenger Check-in\
10. Baggage make-up areas (including transfer baggage)
11. Ramp and staging areas
12. Baggage claim areas
13. Security of Cargo
14. .Cargo Terminal
15. Cargo Handling
16. Ramp

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 17. Aircraft and Airport facilities protection
• Aircraft Protection
i. Specific threat
ii. Non-specific threat
iii. Receipt of threats
• Telephone Threat
• Threat received in person
iv. Evaluating Bomb Threat
v. Guidelines when action required
• Aircraft on ground
• Aircraft in flight
• Airport facilities protection
i. Handling of threat
• Immediate action by person receiving call
• Action by management
• Evaluation and search
• Check List for Aircraft Search

3.2 Guideline for Establishment of Airlines Operators

Committee

To facilitate airport operation pertaining to clearance and

handling of passengers, crews, baggage, cargo and aircraft,
member shall establish airlines operators committee at the
International Airports as per the procedures defined under
AHM073, which covers general guidelines, purpose,
constituents of the committee, nominations and elections,
information about meetings, voting and protocols.

3.3 Functional Specification for a Standard Departure Control

system

It is recommended that in programming and operating they have

computerized departure control systems, members observe
principles and detailed requirements of IATA functional
Specification for a standard departure control system as
specified under AHM091. The broad details of the same are as
follows:

o Purpose of the system

o Objective and General System Requirements
o Check-in
§ Passenger Check-in
§ Acceptance Control
§ Seating
§ Boarding Pass and Baggage
§ Close-out

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41
 § Information display and Print-out
o Weight and Balance
§ Calculation of Allowed Traffic Load
§ Distribution of Load
§ Fuelling Order / Distribution
§ Loadsheet or Captain’s Weight and Balance
Information
§ Post Departure Messages
o Control Mechanism
o Basic Records
§ Semi-permanent Data for Load Control
§ Flight Routes and Schedules
§ Commercial Records
o Amendment facilities
o Documentation
§ Print-outs
§ Messages
o Performance and Reliability Parameters
§ Performance
§ Reconciliation
§ Reliability
§ Capacity
§ Training and Quality Control
o Security
o Development of the System

3.4 Passenger Boarding Pass

The standard for Boarding Pass is specified only if the

Passenger carriage is Interline or ATB (Automatic Ticket and
Boarding). This standard would be as provided in IATA
recommended practice 722C & D.

3.5 Baggage Tag

It is recommended that while carriage of baggage, members use

baggage tags and procedures as specified in IATA Resolution
Conference, Resolution 743, which states the application of
carriage of baggage, various definitions, type of bag tags,
common specification of the bag tag and issuance procedures.
Optional information as required by the airlines can be added on
the Bag Tags.

3.6 Through Check-in

Through check-in standards are covered under the guidelines of

the standard departure control system AHM91 as defined
above.

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 3.7 Automated Boarding Control

The Boarding Control standards are established by guidelines

listed for Passenger Acceptance and specific airport procedures
and standards defined above.

3.8 Load Planning, Weight & Balance

It is recommended that members used the codes as defined

under IATA Airport Handling Manual AHM510, AHM514,
AHM517, AHM583, AHM587 and AHM780 for Load Control
purposes.

3.9 Flight Closeout

The standard for flight closeout is to be established by the

member airline as defined under IATA procedures. The IATA
standards would be part of passenger acceptance, Boarding
Control and Load control recommendation as given above.

4. Handling of other Airlines Passenger

PNL transfer from handled airlines system to DCS

Agreement between Airline Reservations Systems and

Departure Control System will be required while handing over
Passenger Name List by the two different airlines. These
passenger lists will be in the form of PNL message and will be
as per the standard specified earlier under “MESSAGE FROM
RES TO DCS”.

5. IATCI (Inter Airlines Through Check-in)

EDIFACT message handling

Interline Through Check-in involving flight journey between

different airline flights will be based on Bilateral Agreements and
Technical Agreements between the carriers. Interline Traffic
Agreement for Airlines will be as defined under AHM780. AHM
783 establishes Passenger and Airport Data Interchange
Standards Board. This Board creates the Passenger and
Airport Data Interchange Standards Manual. This manual
contains all EDI message standards agreed by the Board.
These standards agreed by the Board. These standards are
recommended for implementation through Bilateral Agreements.
There are mandatory multilateral data exchange standards,
such as IATA Reservations Interline Message Procedures –
Passenger (AIRIMP), to be governed by separate resolutions.

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43
6. API (Advice Passenger Info) message:
At present API messages are sent in US EDIFACT format. IATA is
developing UN EDIFACT for passenger manifest, which will be used by
all airlines and will also be adopted by United States Customs Services
(USCS).

7. Baggage Reconciliation:
Passenger/Baggage Reconciliation procedures are as per Passenger
Services conference resolution manual recommended practice 1739
for BRS.

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