Tata Communications bags contract from Air France-KLM

Tata Communications today said it has won a multi-million dollar contract from European airline Air France-KLM to provide next-generation network connectivity at 170 sites.
As part of the contract, Tata Communications will roll out a network which will power the airline's systems, including passenger check-in, flight operations and departure control applications, as well as corporate programmes in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
"The network will form the backbone for the company as it embraces the latest mobile, cloud, big data analytics and wearable technologies to enhance and personalise passenger experience," the company said in a statement.
Air France-KLM, which carried 87.4 million passengers in 2014, is the first major European airline group to move away from the legacy networks widely used in the airline industry.

"Airlines worldwide are starting to rethink their technology infrastructure to improve the passenger experience, and integrate cloud services and new applications to support the huge amounts of data coming from next-generation aircraft," Genius Wong, President, Global Network Services, Cloud and Data Centre Services at Tata Communications said.
"We're introducing a range of innovative services, such as travel apps for smartwatches, to provide a seamless, personalised travel experience for our tech-savvy passengers," Jean-Christophe Lalanne, CIO of Air France-KLM Group said.