Airports Company SA (Acsa) and Airport Co-ordination Services (ACS) have concluded a $35m deal with airline technology group Sita to roll out new check-in facilities at airports around the country.

The contract is part of Acsa’s preparations for next year’s Soccer World Cup when an estimated 450000 fans are expected to arrive.

During the five-year contract Sita will provide the equipment and infrastructure for both agent check-in and passenger self-service kiosk check-in at Acsa airports in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth as well as the new King Shaka International Airport in KwaZulu-Natal. Sita has also agreed with ACS, which represents the 75 airlines using SA’s airports, to provide maintenance and operation of the common-use terminal equipment and check-in environment.

“As part of this agreement with Sita, we have already installed new check-in equipment and trained all airline staff at the central terminal building at OR Tambo International.

“Work in the other terminals there will be completed in the coming months and the new terminal at Cape Town International will be opening in November,” said Bongani Maseko, operations director at Acsa.

Sita supplies many of the airport systems in SA, but Acsa and ACS took the opportunity to review and upgrade services before 2010 to ensure that the surge of passengers travelling to World Cup games could be handled with ease. “The airports in SA will have to handle up to 78000 passengers and 260 international flights per day,” said Khodr Akil, Sita regional vice-president, Africa.