One of the instrumental factors behind failed merger of Air India and Indian Airlines — the non-implementation of seamless integration of operations through a common reservation platform called Passenger Service System — may finally come through with global aviation IT giant SITA tipped to bag the bid.

After much controversy, fresh requests for proposal for IT integration were floated by NACIL recently. Only two companies had bid for the tender, SITA and another one being Amadeus. Even though the NACIL CMD Arvind Jadhav had kept a deadline of August 15 this year for awarding the contract, the award kept getting delayed. SITA has scored over the other company, according to sources close to the development, in the technical as well as the financial bid. “It is expected that the memorandum of understanding will shortly be signed with the company,” said the source. It is also learnt that there was a considerable cost difference with SITA citing much lower price tag than Amadeus.