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SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the aviation industry. Known originally as "Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques", the company no longer uses this long name and is now known simply as SITA.

SITA was founded in February 1949 by 11 airlines, as a cooperative providing communications between airports and pioneering telecommunications. The company was the first to handle data traffic in real time via a packet switched network over common carrier leased lines.

The company has evolved from its early days of providing only network services as a cooperative, and today provides a range of IT as well as communication services on a cooperative basis as well as on a commercial basis. SITA has over 600 members and more than 1800 customers, and - uniquely - is still dedicated solely to providing services to the global aviation industry (for airlines, airports, GDSs (Global Distribution Systems) and other aviation companies). Being dedicated to the aviation industry means that SITA needs to be present in all countries where the aviation industry operates, and today SITA operates in over 220 countries and territories, employing people of more than 140 nationalities, speaking over 70 different languages.

SITA is owned by its air transport industry members, from whom the SITA Board is comprised. The company has the remit of serving the aviation community’s wider interests. This role remains faithful to the principles adopted when SITA was first established in 1949, meaning that SITA aims to work with the air transport community, for the benefit of the community. This includes working with industry bodies, such as IATA, to solve multi-stakeholder common industry issues through the use of IT and telecommunication services. This involves working on the development of community systems, industry standards and shared infrastructures for aviation.

Franceso Violante heads the SITA organization now based in Geneva.

Chief Executive Officer - Francesco Violante
Chief Finance Officer - Colm O'Higgins
Chief Information Officer - Jean-Pascal Aubert
Board Secretary - Johanna Verboom
Senior Vice President, Communications Services - René Azoulai
Senior Vice President, Sales and Relationship Management - Bruno Frentzel
Senior Vice President, Customer Services - Arnaud van Rietschoten
Senior Vice President, Marketing - Arthur Calderwood
Senior Vice President, Airport and Desktop Services - John Jarrell
Senior Vice President, Strategic Change and Corporate Development - Ian Riddell
Senior Vice President, Human Resources - Val Summer
Senior Vice President, Passenger & Travel Solutions - Richard Stokes
Senior Vice President, New Ventures & Large Deals Group - Norbert Steiger
Head of Group Internal Audit and Risk Management - Philip D’Hondt
Head of Legal - David Greaves

• http://www.sita.aero

Chretien, G.J.; Konig, W.M. and Rech, J.H. (1973). "The SITA Network". Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Computer Communication Networks: 373-396, Sussex, United Kingdom: Noordhoff International Publishing. 

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