First View

NDC will benefit the GDS and PSS Providers
IATA has adopted a standard for its New Distribution Capacity. This will allow airlines to market their services as effectively in indirect channels as they already do in their web sites and call centres. Always assuming that ill-informed controversy whipped up by the likes of the Business Travel Consortium is not allowed to derail a much needed modernisation.
Date:15/04/2013

Sabre's Quiet Success
The first major PSS migration of the year has taken place and it went off apparently without a hitch. Etihad is now a user of the SabreSonic suite and the market for airline passenger services systems has been demonstrated to be a rational and competitive one.
Date:13/03/2013

Kayak Cashes Out
With Google not yet established in airline search the owners of Kayak have exploited an opportunity to maximise their returns.
Date:22/11/2012

Thomas, Son of Amadeus
The North American carriers will be hard pressed to find a commercial proposition from the market that meets their current low costs and rates for PSS. To sustain their economics they will have to look at new models and agreements. One of these models might resemble Air France, Lufthansa, SAS and Iberia's creation of Amadeus in 1986. Open Source may be another model for consideration. Whatever route they choose the prize might be more than maintaining PSS economics.
Date:21/10/2012

Amadeus Extends its Reach
Amadeus has introduced another new product line. Revenue Accounts is a natural extension to its existing PSS and Revenue Management applications. It is also the second most valuable application in most airlines' portfolio and as such offers long-term revenue opportunities.
Date:07/09/2012

Knowing Me, Knowing You - AhHa?
British Airways and Starwood Hotels have both drawn criticism for their attempts to embellish customer data with research in non-related areas. Privacy and data security are among the hottest topics for debate in the online world of 2012. It is unlikely that BA and Starwood will be the last to attract controversy.
Date:23/07/2012

Inertia Rules - Not OK
Airline technology is often characterised as living in the past. The struggle the Internet community has had to implement IPV6 shows that the problems are far from unique to a single industry.
Date:14/06/2012

Zuckerberg's New Clothes
The forthcoming Facebook IPO has cranked up the hype cycle for social networking another couple of notches. While acknowledging the usefulness of social networks as part of an overall marcomms strategy we think that a touch of realism is also required.
Date:06/05/2012

Amadeus Goes Nuts in North America
Amadeus has finally made a significant sale in North America. Until now this was the biggest gap on the Amadeus map of the world but the agreement of Southwest to use Amadeus for its international business may just be the springboard that the European company has been looking for.
Date:27/04/2012

2012 Brings Significant Changes in the PSS Market
The first quarter has been hyperactive in the market for airline PSS - and it still has almost a month to run. More strategic changes should not be ruled out as the alignments shift among the big players.
Date:06/03/2012

Google Doesn't Do "Also-Ran"
Google has lost little time since acquiring ITA Software in April 2011. The first version of Google flight search was launched in September and there have been several iterations since. There is no doubt that Google has deep resources and that the ITA product was very capable when it was acquired. The question that airline strategists should now be asking is "Who can compete with Google?"
Date:31/01/2012

Back to the Future with Travelport
Travelport has the agency community up in arms. Is the "Agility" program a far sighted attempt to rebalance its business or a short term revenue grab ahead of another attempt at an IPO?
Date:24/12/2011

Amadeus Sabre’d for the New Year
Sabre ends the year with a stunning sales success in the Gulf. It is the first win of a significant network airline away from Amadeus since the shock of losing British Airways and Qantas over a decade ago. It is now clear that there is at least a two-horse race for network airline PSS. Whether that is enough for the existence of a healthy market remains to be seen.
Date:24/12/2011

Agilaire Equals Aircore Plus
The deal between Unisys and Hewlett-Packard to bring Aircore to market under the guise of Agilaire may be the last throw of the dice for this decade-old "newgen" system.
Date:07/12/2011

Active Regulators Demand Systems Flexibility
Recent cases on both sides of the Atlantic show an unprecedented level of activism on the part of regulators. More than any other industry, airlines are constrained in the ways that they present their offer to the public. This would be manageable if the goalposts remained static but in the world of changing requirements airlines need flexible systems just to be able to keep up.
Date:30/11/2011

Virgin America Implements Sabre PSS
The latest change to the PSS market in North America continues a trend established over the last two years.
Date:10/11/2011

Convergence of Mobile and Self-Service in the Airport
SITA has published its annual survey of self-service applications in the airline and airport industries.Although some details remain to be established it is clear that self-service will dominate the passenger experience for the foreseeable future.
Date:10/10/2011

Travelport Loan Restructuring Reflects Deeper Problems
Of all the GDS companies Travelport is the one that is most exposed to changes in the legal, technological and financial environments. The loan refinancing it has just announced will buy it a little time but that may not be enough.
Date:30/09/2011

BA iPad Apps Use Architecture to Good Advantage
British Airways is one of many airlines to look for benefits from the current generation of consumer products. The key to success is a robust IT architecture that allows the devices to tap into data and processes in corporate systems, some of which may be thirty years old.
Date:26/08/2011

Lufthansa To Sell Systems but not to the Obvious Buyer
Reports in Germany suggest that Lufthansa Group is looking to sell a majority interest in Lufthansa Systems. Although two potential buyers have been identified there could be quite a bit of maneuvering before the future of the business is decided.
Date:23/08/2011