CUSS and CUPPS — Where Airport Self‑Service Goes Next

Last Updated on August 7, 2026 by Craig Allen Keefner

Common Use Self‑Service (CUSS) and Common Use Passenger Processing Systems (CUPPS) were created to let multiple airlines share the same kiosks, counters, and passenger processing infrastructure instead of each carrier deploying its own proprietary footprint. kma+1

• These standards were driven by IATA’s Common Use efforts to simplify deployment, reduce integration cost, and make airline applications portable across airports and platforms. iata+1

• In practice, CUSS/CUPPS did deliver shared check‑in kiosks and workstations, but they also introduced real‑world complexity around security management, certification, branding control, and ongoing updates as new devices and workflows entered the airport.kma+1

• The KMA article notes that modern passenger journeys are now mobile‑first and increasingly biometric, which puts pressure on legacy common‑use kiosks that were designed around boarding passes, passport scans, and local peripherals rather than identity platforms and cloud services.kma+1

• Emerging approaches like Common Use Web Services (CUWS) and cloud‑based platforms aim to keep the “common use” benefits while simplifying architecture and lowering the cost of supporting smaller regional airports and dynamic airline operations. aeroexpo+1

• For kiosk and self‑service vendors, the takeaway is that CUSS/CUPPS are no longer just airline IT acronyms—they sit at the intersection of airport operations, passenger experience, biometrics, payments, and security, and any serious travel or transportation kiosk strategy now has to account for how these standards are evolving.

• It is worth estimating that the number of overall airline kiosks currently operating in CUSS mode with old CUSS software and old PCs is less than 15%.  Of those kiosks operating in CUSS mode, probably 90+% are using old software and old PCs.

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Why CUSS/CUPPS Matter To Kiosk Vendors

• They define the “rules of engagement” for airport kiosks: how airline apps talk to shared devices, peripherals, and back‑end systems, and which capabilities are available at the common‑use layer versus the airline layer.iata+1

• If you build hardware, peripherals, or middleware for travel, CUSS/CUPPS decide whether your devices can participate in shared check‑in, rebooking, bag‑tag, or disruption‑management workflows—or whether you’re stuck in one‑off integrations.kioskindustry+1

• CUSS 2.0 and newer CUPPS platforms are moving toward modern web technologies (HTML5, OpenAPI, JSON, TLS > 1.2, OAuth2, WebSockets), which directly affects how kiosk software is architected, tested, and certified.iata+1

• For vendors, that shift means shorter release cycles, easier remote management, and better alignment with mainstream web and cloud stacks rather than bespoke, airport‑only tooling.iata+1

• As airports push for more flexible, space‑efficient operations, common‑use kiosks and CUPPS become the default way to scale passenger processing without building new terminals—so kiosk and signage providers who play well with these standards will see more RFPs and partnerships.amadeus+2

Biggest Obstacles – And Why Upgrades Are Needed

• Legacy CUSS/CUPPS deployments are often tightly coupled to old Windows builds, aging device drivers, and proprietary middleware, making it expensive and risky to add new peripherals (biometrics, payment, printers, cameras).kma+1

• Security baselines have moved: older stacks were not built for continuous authentication, strong encryption everywhere, or modern compliance regimes (PCI DSS, GDPR, HIPAA‑style privacy expectations for biometrics and PII).iata+2

• Operational complexity is high: airports must coordinate airlines, common‑use platform providers, ground handlers and regulators, so any upgrade is a multi‑stakeholder project that has to be justified against disruption risk and capital budgets.onlinepubs.trb+2

• Passenger behaviour has shifted to mobile‑first and self‑service everywhere, which exposes the limitations of kiosks that can’t easily integrate with mobile IDs, digital wallets, off‑airport check‑in, or cloud‑based identity and reservation services.amadeus+2

• In short, the combination of aging infrastructure, changing security expectations, and new passenger journeys makes “doing nothing” more expensive over time than planning a controlled migration to CUSS 2.0 / modern CUPPS.iata+1

Is This About Zero Trust And Certificates?

• Zero Trust in this context means you no longer assume that anything on the airport network is safe just because it’s “inside”; every kiosk, application, user, and API call is authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated.crowdstrike+1

• Modern CUSS/CUPPS guidance emphasizes using current security technologies (TLS > 1.2, mutual authentication, standards‑aligned encryption) and complying with data‑protection and payment regulations, which directly implies stronger certificate management and identity controls at the kiosk and platform level.iata+1

• As airports adopt Zero Trust‑style architectures for critical systems and passenger data, common‑use kiosks have to fit into that model: secure transport, hardened endpoints, auditable access to back‑end services, and strict least‑privilege access for each airline app.cyber+2

• For kiosk vendors, that means designing hardware and software that can handle certificate rotation, secure boot, encrypted storage, and robust identity/auth flows, instead of assuming a flat, trusted LAN where “everything can see everything.”iata+1

• With airports constantly highlighting the challenges of the cyber security threat as one of their key concerns, upgrading CUSS/CUPPS is not just an IT clean‑up exercise; it’s a prerequisite for bringing kiosks into a Zero Trust, cloud‑integrated, mobile‑aware airport environment with a reduce threat landscape, where security,
  compliance, and passenger experience are all moving targets.

Options and Costs

One of the options is Elevation AI for software.

Everything publicly available indicates that Elevation AI’s CUSS platform is commercial enterprise software that must be licensed. They market it to airlines, airports, and common-use providers as a production platform, not as open-source or freeware. As a new entrant, although with deep technical expertise from being a leading member of the IATA CUSS2 WG, Elevation advocate for a different approach to the typical licensing model as employed by the legacy suppliers.

Since Elevation AI doesn’t subscribe to the typical model nor publish pricing for it, we can estimate what it may be by comparing it to enterprise airport software rather than kiosk hardware.

But first let’s start with typical licensing from a legacy provider using one or more of these models:

• Per airport (one deployment serving multiple airlines)
• Per airline (for an airline’s CUSS application)
• Per kiosk or endpoint
• Annual enterprise subscription
• Cloud/SaaS subscription for the management portal and analytics
• Professional services for customization, integration, certification, and support

For example, if an airport installs 100 CUSS kiosks, the airport or its common-use provider would license the platform, while airlines may separately license or develop their own CUSS applications that run on it.

This is very similar to how companies such as:

• Materna IPS
• Amadeus
• SITA
• Collins Aerospace (ARINC)
• Embross

have historically licensed common-use airport software.

From Elevation AI — For an airport it would be AirOps and the platform so they can run the platform and manage report and configure the application irrespective of kiosk supplier ….. again a monthly option and there will be further modules that are part of the roadmap that can be added later

Since Elevation AI doesn’t publish pricing, we can estimate it by comparing it to enterprise airport software rather than kiosk hardware.

Here’s what we would expect for a perpetual license model

Then add services:

• Integration: $100k–500k
• Airline workflow customization: $50k–250k
• Testing and CUSS certification: $50k–150k
• Training: $10k–50k

A realistic first-year project for a medium airport could therefore look like:

• Software license: $250,000
• Integration: $175,000
• Customization: $100,000
• Training: $25,000

Total first year: about $550,000

Thereafter:

• Annual support/SaaS: $75,000–125,000

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Revenue potential

Suppose Elevation AI wins:

“A fully cloud-hosted SaaS model with zero upfront cost. Airlines pay-to-use the deployed CUSS 2 app, design it themselves in App Studio (flows, branding, wording — updated anytime), and use AirOps to manage deployments across their whole network. Airports get AirOps + platform to run, manage, configure and report on any supplier’s kiosks, priced per-kiosk monthly.

AirOps is the common core for configuration, management, operations, reporting and analytics — and modular for roadmap add-ons.”

Additional modules can then be added on to the core product offering with generic examples being where the price would depend on the number of kiosks / deployments in use.

 AI Analytics +$1k/month
 Advanced Reporting +$500/month
 Remote Operations +$1k/month
 Predictive Maintenance +$750/month

Why this is plausible

Airport common-use software has traditionally been one of the more expensive vertical enterprise software markets because:

• It is mission-critical.
• It requires IATA certification and airline interoperability.
• Deployments are long-lived (often 7–10 years).
• Customers expect 24×7 support and high availability.

Those characteristics support premium enterprise licensing rather than commodity pricing. Public materials indicate Elevation AI positions its CUSS platform as a commercial enterprise offering with sales engagement rather than published pricing, which is consistent with this market.

One thing we’d be especially interested in is whether Elevation AI licenses per airport, per kiosk, or per airline application. If we could determine that, we could build a much more accurate revenue model and estimate the total addressable market for CUSS 2 software vendors.

From Elevation AI — For an airport it would be AirOps and the platform so they can run the platform and manage report and configure the application irrespective of kiosk supplier ….. again a monthly option and there will be further modules that are part of the roadmap that can be added later

Subscription SaaS Model

This model would indicate:

• Monthly SaaS subscription
• Predictable operating expense (OpEx)
• Cloud-hosted management
• Continuous software updates

Instead of:

• $500,000 upfront
• 20% annual maintenance

tmaybe we are talking:

• $3,000–15,000/month depending on airport size

Estimated pricing

If we were modeling this company, we’d estimate something like:

Then modules:

• AI Analytics +$1k/month
• Advanced Reporting +$500/month
• Remote Operations +$1k/month
• Predictive Maintenance +$750/month

Those figures are speculative, but they’re in line with enterprise SaaS pricing strategies.