The systems that allow you to check in, deliver luggage and get through the gate in one piece have been for sale. And the battle is not over.
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An Avinor contract with an estimated value of NOK 30 million annually for eight years was recently awarded to the Spanish Amadeus IT Group SA.
The contract concerns the procurement of passenger handling services at Avinor’s airports, and was announced in a public tender last year.
But the American competitor Embross North America is far from satisfied with the result.
Now they have requested a so-called temporary injunction in the Oslo District Court. The competition must be cancelled, says Embross.
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Arguments about passenger handling
The systems Embross would like to deliver to Avinor involve so-called “common use passenger processing services (CUPPS)” for Avinor’s airports, explains group lawyer Jan-Ove Strømmen.
In short, this is a common platform for passenger processing services. The term includes check-in, baggage handling, gate operations and administration.
– [CUPPS] is a centralized system used in the aviation industry to effectively manage various processes across different airlines and service providers at an airport, says Strømmen.
– Does it delay an implementation or something else that will have a say for passengers at Avinor’s airports as of today?
– This is an important delivery for Avinor. We will do our best to ensure that the travelers are not affected by this dispute, says Strømmen.
In recent years, Avinor has been working on a new baggage facility at Oslo Airport. The facility is expected to be fully completed during 2024.
Avinor has not answered questions about whether the tender concerns the new facility, or whether the dispute could delay completion.
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Not the first time
Senior lawyer Johanne Førde in Schjødt, who represents Embross North America in the dispute, has been asked about what the American company believes may have gone wrong in the tender, and why they want it cancelled.
– On behalf of Embross, we do not wish to comment on an ongoing legal process, writes Førde in an e-mail.
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A tender dispute leads to a halt in ATM operations at airports
If there are consequences for the travellers, it will not be the first time a tender dispute comes in the way of Avinor’s operations.
In 2022, ATM operations at Oslo and Bergen airports were stopped when Nokas made a similar move.
Loomis and Nordea had won the tender to supply the ATM services for ten of Avinor’s airports, but Nokas applied for a temporary injunction and postponed the start-up.
