Air India sticks to erring vendor SITA

By Nirbhay Kumar

New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) In spite of two technical glitches causing operational disruption and financial loss, state-run Air India has refused to claim compensation from its passenger service system (PSS) provider SITA.

The airline remains committed to Rs 800 crore deal under which SITA is required to provide IT solutions for baggage check-in, boarding and tracking technology.

SITA is a global airlines IT services solution major providing airport and related services to a host of airlines.

"It is surprising that the airline has not debited SITA for the huge losses caused by shutdown of its server. In the recent technical glitch the airline had to cancel hundreds of flights," said an Air India insider.

He said instead of penalizing for the poor performance, the airline decided to extend the contract period to two years.

Explaining the two-year extension, another airline official said this provision in the contract meant for finding a new vendor after eight years.

An email query from IANS failed to elicit any response on the issue.

As a result of technical issue in SITA's software last week, Air India had delayed over 100 flights leaving thousands of passengers stranded. A similar glitch had taken place last year too forcing the airline to delay nearly 25 of its flights across the country.

"Besides financial loss, the glitches result in huge inconvenience to passengers. This affects relationship with customers in the long run," an official said.

(Nirbhay Kumar can be contacted at nirbhay.k@ians.in)