Australian airline board renews Unisys contract for four years
The Board of Airline Representatives Australia (BARA), an industry representative organisation for more than 25 airlines, has renewed its contract with Unisys for another four years.
Under the contract, Unisys will continue to provide a baggage reconciliation system at seven international airports across the country, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns, Perth, Adelaide, and the Gold Coast.
This includes managing the network infrastructure and security architecture, providing training and onsite support, application management, and help desk support.
The system has been designed to track passengers when they check in and drop off their bags, and then ensure that the passenger records match up with the bags before they are loaded onto the aircraft. The system can also identify and recover bags if passengers fail to board.
While no specific details about the value of the contract were disclosed, a Unisys spokesperson told ZDNet that the last time the contract was renewed in 2011, it was worth AU$11 million. The spokesperson said the renewal is around the similar vicinity of "double-figure millions".
Unisys has worked with BARA since 2004, and helps airlines validate around 15.8 million bags on flights departing Australia.
BARA executive director Barry Abrams said the baggage reconciliation system helps its member airlines to not only comply with mandated security requirements for baggage handling, but also provide efficient processing when baggage needs to be found or removed to help prevent delays.