SITA investigates the use of smart contracts in the air transport sector

The multinational air transport company SITA has published a white paper that details how airlines and airports could use smart contracts for shared data control.

The document describes the research carried out by SITA, together with British Airways and Heathrow, the international airports of Geneva and Miami, on how intelligent contracts residing in a chain of blocks could optimize current air transport systems.

In its research on the applications of Blockchain technology to this sector, SITA built a private block chain, called FlightChain, that stores flight information and uses intelligent contracts to track potentially contradictory data. The document analyzes the "key lessons" learned with respect to governance, system security, scalability and reliability.

Jim Peters, CEO of SITA, said in a statement:

The project has shown that Blockchain is a viable technology to provide a unique source of reliability to airline and airport data, specifically for flight information in real time. While there are other available technologies for sharing data, the use of Blockchain, and smart contracts in particular, provide shared control and improve the reliability of the data.
The research also examined the use of public and private Blockchain networks for the air transport industry, as well as analyzing the potential of using both the Ethereum network and the Hyperledger Fabric as a base. In a final note, the document states that this technology is still in its preliminary phase, and its immaturity makes it difficult to implement it in all the networks of the airline industry.

However, SITA indicated that it intends to incorporate more airlines and airports to the FlightChain tests in the future, in order to obtain a more complete data set. In addition, the firm plans to identify a business model to finance its operations.

Last year, this same company developed a proof of concept focused on digital identity, in partnership with ShoCard, a Blockchain startup, in order to simplify the verification of the identities of flight passengers and facilitate data flows in real time inside the airport.