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Introductiontoairlinereservationsystems 090402031624-phpapp01
This document provides an overview of airline reservation systems and global distribution systems (GDS). It discusses how early airline information was stored in printed books before the first computerized reservation system (CRS), SABRE, was created in 1964. CRSs evolved to host data for multiple airlines and became GDSs to provide a single interface for travel agents. The major GDSs today are SABRE, Galileo, Amadeus, and the now-merged Worldspan/Galileo, which provide access to airline and other travel information globally.
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Introductiontoairlinereservationsystems 090402031624-phpapp01
- 1. © Copyright 2009 Introduction March2009 Airline reservation systems
- 2. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 2 Agenda • Key airline terms • Introduction to Computerized Reservation • Overview of Global Distribution Systems
- 3. © Copyright 2009 Keyairline terms
- 4. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 4 Important terms • Aircraft: A vehicle capable of air transport, such as an airplane, a helicopter, etc. • Airline: A company that provides air transport services for passengers or freight under license from a recognized public authority. Also known as Carrier in some geographies • Scheduled airline: An airline that operates its flights to a fixed schedule, i.e. flight timings are fixed
- 5. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 5 Important terms • Charter airline: An airline whose flights do not have a fixed schedule • Cabin: A class of service usually identified by a unique set of services offered (e.g. Economy, Business, First, etc.) • Flight: A trip made by an aircraft between two geographical locations
- 6. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 6 Important terms (continued…) • Itinerary: A route of journey proposed by a traveler • Ticket: (Usually) a printed piece of paper or card showing that its holder has the right to use services on one or more specific flights • Travel agency: A business that attends to the travel needs of an individual or a group of individuals
- 7. © Copyright 2009 Historyof Computerized Reservation Systems
- 8. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 8 Background • Airlines need to maintain multiple types of information Route information: Covers the destinations served by the airline Aircraft information: Information on the aircrafts used by the airline Schedule information: Covers information on days and times on which the flights operated by the airline are scheduled to run Fare information: Prices for various flights Reservation information: Passenger and cargo reservations, including information on passenger tickets
- 9. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 9 Background (continued…) • Prior to 1950 all this information was published by airlines in large books, with separate books for each type of information • Travel agents had a really tough time looking through multiple books for booking tickets that covered multiple airlines • It was impossible to get a real-time view of the inventory (available seats on a flight) since airlines could synchronize data from multiple locations only once a day
- 10. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 10 Background (continued…) • In order to make a booking, a customer would call up a travel agent, providing them details of their itinerary • Travel agent would first look up airlines, flights and schedules matching the customer’s itinerary • Customer would then call up individual airlines to check seat availability • Once seat availability was confirmed, travel agent would look up the price appropriate for the flights selected and inform the customer • Upon confirmation from the customer, travel agent would call the airlines back to reserve the seats
- 11. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 11 Background (continued…) • In 1950 American Airlines decided to set up a computerized system that would allow real-time access to all its data across all its offices and travel agents • As a result, Semi-Automated Business Research Environment, or SABRE was born in 1964. It was the first computerized airline system (CRS) in the world • SABRE was developed as a joint effort between IBM and American Airlines
- 12. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 12 Background (continued…) • When created, SABRE ran on two IBM 7090 mainframes. The system was upgraded to IBM S/360 in 1972 • In the 1970s and 80s multiple CRSs came up in North America • The first non-North American CRS was developed jointly by Air France, Lufthansa, Iberia and SAS in 1987. It was named Amadeus
- 13. © Copyright 2009 Overviewof Computerized Reservation Systems
- 14. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 14 Functions provided by a CRS • A CRS typically provides the following functions Flight schedule information: Days and times for flights operated by the airline Availability information: Seat availability on a flight by service class, i.e. Economy, Business or First class Fare quotes: A consolidated fare for an itinerary based on flight, day, time, service class and passenger types chosen Reservation information: Seat bookings Ticketing information: Generating and storing tickets Refunds and cancellations: Cancellation of existing reservations and tickets
- 15. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 15 An availability display screen
- 16. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 16 A fare display screen
- 17. © Copyright 2009 Overviewof Global Distribution Systems
- 18. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 18 History behind Global Distribution Systems • Although the CRSs simplified the task of maintaining airline data, they brought in new problems In order to handle increasing passenger traffic, large computer systems were required for CRSs. This created a cost burden for airlines, especially the smaller ones which did not have enough money to spend on expensive mainframe technology CRSs were airline specific. This required travel agencies who wanted to sell tickets for multiple airlines to have individual connections to each airline separately Availability and fare searches across airlines was not possible since each airline had its own CRS. Since most passengers were interested in purchasing the cheapest fare rather than a specific airline, travel agents had to spend inordinate amount of time to determine cheapest fares across airlines
- 19. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 19 The birth of Global Distribution Systems • CRSs recognized the need to host data for more than one airline in order to bring efficiencies to a growing airline industry • Thus, CRSs transformed from being single airline reservation systems to multi airline distribution systems (GDSs) • These GDSs also decided to share data among each other to bring in additional efficiencies
- 20. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 20 Life of a travel agent before GDSs
- 21. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 21 Problems before advent of GDSs • Travel agents required individual connections to airlines • If two or more airlines used different mainframe systems, travel agents had to use and be trained on different mainframe clients • Inability to perform direct searches across airline systems • Combining airline inventories a tedious process because inventory searches and reservations had to be performed in individual airline CRSs separately
- 22. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 22 Life of a travel agent after GDSs
- 23. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 23 Advantages of a GDS • Simplified access to possibly all airlines, through a single interface • Ability to connect to multiple airlines either through legacy mainframe clients or modern PC based clients • Less maintenance and up-keep overhead • Ability to combine airline inventories
- 24. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 24 How GDSs have evolved • Due to airline CRSs being based on mainframes, GDSs have been based on mainframes as well • Over the last few decades, GDSs have started providing direct connectivity from non-mainframe clients such as PCs • GDSs have also started leasing hosting space (hardware, software and connectivity) to airlines which do not want to create and host their own CRSs • The advent of Internet has seen GDSs offer innovative products suited for accessing airline information over the Internet
- 25. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 25 How GDSs have evolved (continued…) • GDSs now provide access to non-air products as well: Car rentals Hotel booking Packaged holidays Cruises and ships Railways Local road transport: bus, tram, taxi
- 26. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 26 Major GDSs in operation today • Amadeus Founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS Head-quartered in Madrid, Spain Largest booking share in Europe Third largest booking share across the globe Used by www.ebookers.com, www.expedia.co.uk and www.opodo.com • Galileo Founded in 1993 by 11 major North American and European airlines Head-quartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA Second largest booking share across the globe Used by www.cheaptickets.com, www.ebookers.com
- 27. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 27 Major GDSs in operation today (continued…) • SABRE Founded in 1964 by American Airlines and IBM Head-quartered in Southlake, Texas, USA Largest booking share across the world Used by www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com • Worldspan Founded in 1990 by Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Transworld Airlines Merged with Galileo in 2006 Used by www.orbitz.com, www.hotwire.com, www.priceline.com
- 28. © Copyright 2009 Recapand summary
- 29. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 29 Summary • Airlines need to store multiple types of information such as routes, schedule, fares and reservations • Travel agents need access to multiple pieces of information before making a reservation • Before 1950 airline information was stored, distributed and accessed through non-electronic media
- 30. Home Previous Next Help © Copyright 2009Slide 30 Summary (continued…) • First computerized airline reservation system (airline CRS), SABRE created in 1964 as a collaboration between IBM and American Airlines • CRSs evolved into GDSs over a period of time • 4 major GDSs operational today – SABRE, Worldspan, Galileo and Amadeus
- 31.
Editor's Notes
- #5 Key points Note that we have clarified the use of the term Aircraft here to mean any vehicle capable of transportation by air. Note also that we have avoided the use of obvious terms such as airport, pilot, etc.
- #6 Key points It should be noted that many scheduled airlines also operate chartered flights, but they do not qualify as charter airlines. In order to be classified as a charter airline, the following rules must be met: All or most of the airline’s flights must be charter flights; and Airlines must not sell any tickets for its charter flights directly; and Tickets for charter flights must be sold through a travel agency (or tour operator).
- #7 This slide rounds up the basic terms needed to describe the airline business.
- #9 Key points An airline may or may not own the aircrafts it operates (uses). Many airlines do not purchase a single aircraft; instead, they take out aircrafts on lease from someone else. Even then, an airline will need to maintain all the data mentioned above.
- #16 This screenshot is for the Galileo GDS.
- #17 This screenshot is that of a fare display screen for the Galileo GDS. Notice how the fares are arranged numerically.
- #23 Key points A GDS practically centralizes access to multiple airline CRSs, thereby making the lives of travel agents simpler. A GDS provides a single interface to schedule, availability, fare and reservation databases of multiple airlines. Each GDS has direct connectivity to a fixed number of airlines. These airlines are known as hosted airlines for that GDS. The GDS is usually in real-time sync with its hosted airlines. GDSs synchronize with each other to share information about their hosted airlines.