Common Use Platform

Moreover, in the highly competitive airline industry operating environment, airports are committed to improve the passenger experience, and therefore, need to ensure that the use of airport space is efficient, simple and intuitive for passengers. Furthermore, they have a growing need to understand the requirements of their airline tenants, and to create a flexible IT environment that facilitates passenger processing. For addressing the aforementioned challenges, Common Use technology offers a range of benefits by replacing expensive and less efficient dedicated passenger processing facilities with shared workstations and printers in each passenger processing points.
Common Use phrase is used when flexible and shared airport facilities are implemented for passenger processing operations through shared technology and infrastructure. It provides a platform for airlines, airports and ground handling agents to support their passenger processes at a given location, typically at an airport terminal.

- Airlines and airports costs are reduced by simplifying the development, installation, support and ongoing preservation of important passenger processing and operations
- One specific application is utilized at airports that properly works on any vendor’s standard interface
- The standard interface can be implemented at any on site or off site airport, ensuring product and service consistency
- New technologies that support the growing needs of the aviation industry can be introduced via a structured environment and standard interfaces

Cost overruns can negatively affect the common use benefits, if it is not properly planned and executed.
In addition to technology costs, an exclusive use airport must consider the cost of assets’ ownership (e.g., jet bridge) previously controlled by the individual airlines. Other physical property items such as waiting lounge seating, ticket and gate counters, and other items originally provided by the airline, may now be the airport operator’s responsibility.
Transforming the traditional passenger processing to the common use model also adds ‘soft costs’ to the airport’s operators. These costs usually comprise additional maintenance and administrative staff, management costs, ongoing licensing, and other recurring costs. Meanwhile, airports and airlines need to consider the labor issues when switching to a common use system. The soft costs are quite obvious when airlines support for the airport-controlled common use systems becomes inadequate.

Airport CUTE system imitates each airline’s host system. At the CUTE workstation, the screen and keyboard interface is the same as the direct host connection. Any applications available on the host system are accessible through the CUTE system because of the connection between the host and CUTE system. A core computer is utilized to connect workstations through the communications infrastructure. The equipment in the core computer room provide gateways to the host systems via remote access servers (RAS). Each workstation can have various common use hardware connected to it depending on the location. Therefore, there are currently dozens of versions of airport CUTE systems in use for passenger processing all over the world. Due to this variety, it’s difficult and costly for airlines to use common use terminal equipment (CUTE) interfaces efficiently. For every supplier, airlines need to manage a different variation of their passenger processing applications. This means that airlines need to invest in and undergo a different certification process for each supplier. CUTE can also have implementation challenges, particularly in terms of updating systems. Airlines have to develop their applications separately from the platforms.

From a technological perspective, it is much more clearly defined. Common Use Passenger Processing Systems (CUPPS) designate and add the range of services, specifications, and standards to CUTE platform.
By giving software developers at all airlines a common set of specifications, Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) technology could eliminate costly custom engineering, reduce the airline touch points with staffs, and make passenger applications fully portable between airports. Other benefits of the new model are:
- Elimination of proprietary device firmware in favor of current formants supporting barcodes: no ATB-II operations
- Introducing unified approach to system management, including remote administration capabilities
- Using a defined operating system and network protocol (including network services)
- It is simpler to install and provide support for passenger processing operations, which means lower costs for airlines and airports
Although CUPPS platform facilitates applications functionality and reduces the it’s complexities, it concerns the airlines and service companies in terms of care and planning needed for migration to the new system. Besides, CUPPS platform needs to work with CUTE legacy applications in order to support airlines which had not yet developed CUPPS applications. Meanwhile, technology has naturally developed since introducing CUPPS, and virtual platforms and other advancements may have inadvertently ruled out of CUPPS. Airlines tend to invest in upselling more efficient and high-tech technologies rather than CUPPS. Consequently, CUTE has never been fully retired and CUPPS never took off the way it was hoped. Even today, it is estimated that more airports are using CUTE than CUPPS.

Like other common use systems, several airlines can use CUSS in a single terminal. CUSS- Common Use Self-service kiosks were first introduced by Continental Airlines in 1995 at US airports and its standards were initially introduced by IATA back in 2003. This platform has been in production since then. In a typical self-service process, the customer gives some information and the kiosk returns information or hands out documents. Hence, the kiosk is equipped with specific reading and printing devices to form the documents. The rest of the system is a normal PC or NC, equipped with at least a touch screen for user interaction. At an airport, platform providers offer the CUSS kiosk, and application providers share it to run their kiosk applications on.
Together, CUTE/CUPPS and CUSS platforms normally construct a consistent and predictable environment on which airlines can deploy their applications smoothly. According to Common Use Self Service (CUSS) Technical Specification, IATA’s goal is to eventually merge the CUSS and CUPPS Technical Specifications, and the supporting Compliance and Certification processes into an individual, unified Common Use Standard. The CUSS and CUPPS standards overlap in some areas, and are distinct in others.

Frequent developments like Application virtualization, improved networks and security, as well as new devices, together, have moved the technology landscape to the cloud.
Application virtualization means decoupling applications from hardware. In other words, Applications are accessed remotely from different location and perform the same as locally-held applications. This procedure allows airlines and airports to centralize their computing and eliminates the burdens of on-site hosting and development. If an airline plans to make a change in locally-installed applications, it has to change each specific work-station or server at all stations the application run into. Some airlines change applications several times per year, and consequently, updating the applications causes a lot of costs and complexity for them. By centralizing computing and hosting Common Use infrastructure for all an airline’s work stations in the cloud, airlines can update or install applications at all supported sites simultaneously. Decoupling applications also puts less demand on the workstations and means they can be run as thin clients.
Along with the application virtualization, new network technologies are being rolled out with high bandwidth capacity. Fiber and optical network links have increased the data transfer speed to the speed of light. Mobile connections are also getting faster. The networks are faster and more efficient and cheaper than ever before.
While the technology trend motivates the transformation to the cloud, new devices add greater value to this change. As the public becomes more convenient to use electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets), it will be easier to shift public-facing business to modern electronic device. Meanwhile, staff can be more flexible with locations as long as internet is available in the place. This means that check-in agents could temporarily relocate to other places (e.g., hotels, rail stations) in order to prevent forming heavy traffic inside the terminal. Other benefits of utilizing cloud-based common use systems are as follows:
- Hardware Costs will be reduced as travel providers need one IT infrastructure for Common Use in a centralized data center instead of multiple servers in a local server room in the airport
- lots of on-site IT maintenance Costs will be reduced as travel providers can put the weight of maintaining IT issues on the shoulders of the cloud provider and thus,
- Network costs are reduced as airlines and airports need to only pay for a redundant connection to the central data center
- Energy efficiency will be increased as travel providers push their computing requirements to the central data center allowing the use of thin clients. These simple machines consume less energy than PCs because they have far less moving parts
- Certification process becomes less complicated as one-time certification is needed to ensure it will run on all locations that meet minimal hardware requirements.
- Handling irregular operations and other unplanned or seasonal events become easier
Although cloud computing technology has brought a range of benefits since the it’s roll out, there are some concerns surrounding considering cloud-based common use adoption that may prevent providers from selecting it when it comes to making decision. Below are some of the main concerns about the cloud technology:
- Resilience of the network connection and backups
- Security and Privacy of the centralized server
- Risk of migrating to a whole new system
Though some common use providers like Amadeus and SITA have provided cloud-based common use system, there is no stable cloud solution in the marketplace yet. But considering the technology trend, predominance of cloud technology in the Common Use area seems inevitable.

Due to its higher range of availability, larger capacity is available, and consequently there will be higher efficiency for passengers, the airline and the airport. Furthermore, the passenger is in control of their own process and can check-in their baggage within a short process time. In order to run the new system successfully, in addition to implementing appropriate self-service platform, a proper interface must link the self-bag drop application and airline departure control systems (DCS). For this purpose, self-bag drop solutions need to comply with Common Use Self Service (CUSS) or Common Use Web Service (CUWS) systems.
Common Use Web Services (CUWS) is a unique software interface specifically developed by IATA to establish proper connection between a self-bag drop application and a DCS. It does not define any hardware interfaces or layers and can easily be integrated in third party hardware.
Despite the numerous benefits of the self-service drop off solution, there are still some concerns regarding the implementation costs and the need for infrastructural changes.

Common Use Working Group (CUWG)

Since the common use standards require appropriate handling and maintaining, the common use working group (CUWG) has been created, as a joint A4A/IATA body. The CUWG is responsible for:
- Developing process and technical standards
- Developing implementation guides that reflect best practices, including Recommended Practice (RP) 1706c (implementation guide about common use self-service), RP1797 (implementation guide about CUPPS) and RP1741(implementation guide about common use web services) as well as any future guides relating to products and standards used in the airport common use environment.
- Reviewing and approving proposed additions, changes and deletions to Common Use Standards
- Drive technical and process innovation in the area of common use systems
- To submit an annual report of its activities to the Passenger Services Conference (PSC)