Ms Tuija Makkonen, Systems Developer

Finnair, one of the world's oldest operating airlines, was established on 1st November, 1923. Finnair Group's operations cover the following areas: scheduled passenger traffic and leisure traffic, technical and ground handling operations, catering, travel agencies as well as travel information and reservation services. Finnair Group’s personnel consists of approximately 9 000 employees. During the calendar year 2003, Finnair carried a total of 6 849 100 passengers. The Group's turnover was about 1 600 million euros in 2003. Finnair Oyj is a part of the global oneworld alliance.

At the beginning of 2002, Finnair Oyj started co-operation with SysOpen Oyj and Ideos Finland Oy in order to develop RFID identification based state-of-the-art passenger identification and check-in system. Technological pioneer solutions VipGate and eLine for passenger traffic purposes were developed as a result of this co-operation. VipGate is designed for on-the-fly customer identification, for instance for identifying passengers who travel a lot by simply directing passengers through the identifier gate, making the check-in quicker and easier. The eLine is an e-ticket recognition system designed for the authorities.

The VipGate system is designed to automatically recognize passengers when they walk through the VipGate. Basic components of the VipGate system are the RFID transponder in for example a multifly.e card and the RFID readers in the VipGate itself. VipGate systems have been in operation at several airports in Finland. In 2002, VipGate received the International Information Technology Excellence Award granted by The World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA).

In June 2004, Ideos Finland Oy was acquired by Tamtron Solutions. The acquisition included deliveries of VipGate and eLine, RFID product development and product support. From Finnair Oyj’s Business Solutions department, Ms. Tuija Makkonen says that reasons for continuing the VipGate and eLine co-operation also with Tamtron Solutions were reliability, sufficient resources and good financial standing. As VipGate and eLine are an important part of Finnair Oyj’s business, the up-time rate of the system is the highest priority.

Ms. Makkonen describes the co-operation with Tamtron Solutions fluent. Ms. Makkonen also tells that she appreciates Tamtron Solutions’s true aspiration to develop co-operation always better and faster. Furthermore, Makkonen mentions that Tamtron Solutions’s interest to improve processes has been very positive. "For occasional defect situations, we have created together functioning support process and we believe that everything works fine also in the future" Ms. Makkonen says.