SITA or Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques, was founded in February 1949 by eleven airlines ABB in order to bring about shared infrastructure cost efficiency by combining their communications networks. The eleven original airlines were: British European Airways Corporation (BEAC), British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), British South American Airways (BSAA), KLM, Sabena, Swissair, TWA, Swedish A.G.Aerotransport, Danish Air Lines, Norwegian Air Lines and Air France. SITA was the first company to handle data traffic in real time via a packet switched network over common carrier leased lines.[5]