First View

Thai Agreement Boosts Amadeus in Asia Pacific – and in Star
Another big sales win for Amadeus Altea PSS secures its leading position in the Asian market - and in Star Alliance too.
Date:01/08/2011

Not a Shining Star in Brussels
One of the headline speakers at the SITA IT Summit was very wide of the mark when he suggested that airline IT should look like the Apple AppStore.
Date:27/06/2011

Asia Moves Mainstream, More Consolidation in PSS
The PSS market continues to evolve, with Amadeus and Sabre making important strides. HP remains the most likely challenger to this duopoly - provided it can deliver on its commitments to American Airlines.
Date:06/06/2011

AA’s Next Offensive – Court Action
The Distribution Wars continue as American Airlines files suit against Travelport and Orbitz in a Texas court. At stake is nothing less than the entire GDS business model as it is currently constituted.
Date:14/04/2011

The DoJ Hands Airline MetaSearch to Google - for Now
The decision has finally been handed down and Google has got its way. The Department of Justice has imposed minimal conditions on the search giant's purchase of ITA Software. The shareholders of ITA have made a lot of money and the airline distribution business has seen a significant change.
Date:10/04/2011

Mission Accomplished – with Time to Spare
SITA has cut Air India over to its Horizon PSS well under a year after signing contracts. Sounds easy enough when stated in such simple terms but the fact that they have achieved it confirms that SITA is the past master at difficult migrations.
Date:04/04/2011

HP Declares its intentions for Travel
Hewlett Packard is flexing its significant muscles in the travel space. Not since the heyday of IBM and Univac in the 1970s has a general services provider made a realistic play for business in the airline and wider travel industries. With almost half of the US market in the bag HP certainly has a platform from which to build. Along with Google's intentions for ITA and a possible role for Apple somewhere down the line this represents a substantial threat to the industry specialist providers like Amadeus, Sabre and Navitaire.
Date:29/03/2011

Amadeus Scores for 2010
Amadeus has published its financial results for 2010 and they make very good reading for its shareholders. However we are living in interesting times and there is no room for new CEO Luis Maroto to rest on his laurels.
Date:18/03/2011

Amadeus Delivers a New Generation Self-Booking Tool
The travel industry is increasingly using powerful consumer electronic devices in preference to expensive industry-specific technology. Traveltainment's iPad application will probably be the first of many to tap the unique capabilities of Apple's must-have device.
Date:23/02/2011

The Battle of Kazakhstan
The legal tussle between Amadeus and Air Astana could have greater consequences than anyone yet appreciates. A Spanish court has decided that Amadeus may not cease service under the GDS agreement for the time being. Amadeus will probably appeal that decision but it might want to keep the case away from European courts. Contractual disputes should be settled by arbitration and that would probably be Amadeus's preference.
Date:18/02/2011

SITA Evolves Away from its Network Business
The recent SITA Horizon customer conference gave a clear view of the evolution of the venerable network provider. It still has much to offer the air transport industry but not necessarily in the most obvious ways.
Date:02/02/2011

UATP and SITA Combine to Benefit the Airlines
UATP and SITA are two of the oldest airline-owned businesses that exist to benefit the industry as a whole. The news that SITA will provide the entire technical infrastructure for UATP is a win-win-win for the two organisations and airlines in general.
Date:21/01/2011

A judge agrees with AA but the fight is still on
The dispute between American and its distributors goes to court again. This will not be the last time.
Date:17/01/2011

United and Continental Converge on SHARES
The news is now official. The merged United Airlines will use the SHARES system from EDS (Hewlett-Packard) rather than Apollo. The decision has significant knock-on effects for the PSS market in North America and further afield.
Date:28/12/2010

American Airlines Beats Orbitz and Travelport, Amadeus Wins
The distribution landscape is changing rapidly. Winners and losers are not always obvious. Sometimes being out of the front line is the best tactic.
Date:24/12/2010

AISystems has landed
Airline planning is notoriously complex and time consuming. A new product from start-up company AISystems will provide dramatic improvements in the level and timeliness of analysis for those airlines that select it.
Date:07/12/2010

BA and Iberia Push the Frontier
A merger that creates a new European mega carrier could also be the trigger for radical thinking on IT systems.
Date:01/12/2010

Amadeus - One More Step Ahead
Its conference for OTAs revealed some of the structural advantages that Amadeus enjoys as airlines look to exploit the online channel in a more intelligent manner.
Date:28/11/2010

USAir and American – Different but the Same
The phoney distribution war is coming to an end and American is leading the charge. US Airways is buying itself an option. Other airlines, especially in North America, need to prepare their own positions.
Date:27/11/2010

HP takes the PSS game to a whole new level
Hewlett-Packard announces the name of its new products and a technology licence agreement to help build them.
Date:09/11/2010