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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
AT&T Wireless Helps Airlines Earn Wings with Post Office
REDMOND, Wash. – Several U.S. airlines are working with AT&T Wireless to track millions of pieces of mail on thousands of flights every day to ensure they maintain – if not increase – their shares of federal postal business.
America West Airlines, United Airlines and numbers of other carriers use AT&T Wireless’ nationwide GSM/GPRS network to deliver tracking information every step of the way of a mail container’s trip from one city to another. The data ultimately is used by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to verify whether an airline is adhering to USPS’ strict on-time performance standards stipulated in its air mail contracts. Depending on the results, a carrier could lose, maintain or gain additional postal business.
“The transporting of mail is a highly competitive business in which delays in the transmission of tracking data to the United States Postal Service could impact our relationship with them,” explained Joseph Beery, Senior Vice President and CIO, America West Airlines. “The AT&T Wireless network allows us to quickly and reliably transmit critical mail departure and arrival information to the USPS from any of the nearly 50 airports America West serves throughout the United States. This allows the USPS to accurately evaluate our performance against its rigorous standards and help maintain our highly valued business association with them.”
The airlines use handheld devices from such manufacturers as HHP and Intermec to scan barcodes on mail containers numbers of times during a journey:
when the United States Postal Service delivers the mail to a carrier at an airport;
when the mail is loaded on aircraft;
during transfers to other planes if connecting flights are involved; and
upon delivery back to the postal service at the final destination airport.
At each “touch point,” the information is transmitted wirelessly to airline mainframe computers, which then feed that data to the USPS.
Mail contracts with the USPS represent a significant piece of business for the airline industry. Air Transport Association statistics indicate that carriers flew 1.3 billion mail revenue ton miles – one ton of mail payload transported one mile – in 2003. Airlines were expected to handle an estimated 19 million pounds of mail per week in 2003, according to USPS figures.
“AT&T Wireless’ nationwide wireless data services provide not just the airline industry but all businesses with the flexibility, reliability and coverage that they demand and need to maintain an advantage in the marketplace,” said Kent Mathy, executive vice president, Business Services Group, AT&T Wireless. “The airlines and USPS share many of the same customers. With our assistance, airlines are able assure USPS that they are delivering on their commitments to them while helping to provide a superior level of service to their mutual valued customers.”
AT&T Wireless is widely acknowledged as the industry leader in the business marketplace. Employees of thousands of companies of all sizes benefit from AT&T Wireless’ innovative voice and data services, from small, home-based ventures to nine out of 10 of the Fortune 100 firms and 70 percent of the Fortune 500 list. AT&T Wireless provides businesses with several advantages, such as the fastest nationwide wireless data network in the United States, the broadest coverage in North America and the largest international voice and data footprint of any U.S.-based carrier.
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