The customer is one of the world's largest airline service providers with over 500 aircraft and 1500 daily departures globally. Their existing legacy flight operations system based on Unisys OS2200 needed re-engineering due to scalability issues, outdated interfaces, and difficulty maintaining the 30-year old system. Hexaware conducted a discovery phase to analyze the existing system, identify replacement options, and provide a roadmap and estimates for re-engineering the system using a phased Java/J2EE solution with a service-oriented architecture for improved performance, flexibility, and reduced maintenance costs.

1. Case Study Travel & Transportation
Re-engineering Consultancy for Legacy based Flight Operations System
Customer Profile
The world’s oldest and largest airline service providers having a combined fleet of 500 aircraft (passenger & cargo). The airline having more than 1500 daily
departures has extensive domestic and global route networks serving 900 cities in 160 countries.
Business Need Sources of information:
The airline’s existing legacy based flight operation suite, based on Unisys OS2200, consists of Detailed Estimates & Schedule
applications like Aircraft routing,scheduling, ACARS, FLIFO (Flight information), Weather, MEL Approach & Roadmap
(Minimum Equipment List) , MGL (Maximum Gross Load) , Weight & Balance and Gate-handling. Risk Mitigation/Avoidance Plan
Market Study Report
The need was to re-engineer the flight operation system due to the following reasons:
Scalability Solution
Primitive user interface Hexaware recommended the following:
Rigid communication interchange protocols between applications
Java/J2EE solution to be developed
High technology overhead after establishing an SOA architectural
Limited scope for interpretation of real time data exchanged within the system layer for reduced coupling and future
Scarcity of skilled and trained professionals to maintain the 30 year old legacy system connectivity
Changing/growing business needs Phased approach instead of a big bang
Limitation in Efficiency and performance approach
A combination of re-engineering and
Methodology replacement considering the cost,
With due expertise in the field of flight operations as well as legacy modernization, Hexaware was time-to-market and customization effort
chosen to conduct the first phase of implementation known as “Discovery Phase”. Off-the-shelf components based on
factors like scalability, client base,
The objectives of Phase 1 were:
international operations capable of
Arrive at an approach and road map for re-engineering
handling intricacies
Estimate and schedule for re-engineering
Conduct ‘market watch’ to identify potential off-the-shelf components to reduce time-to-market.
Identify the technical and functional gaps in existing system and areas of customization
Build vs. Buy analysis for certain components
Sources of information:
Brain storming sessions with customer
Code mining of the applications
Provide an indicative budget for the development efforts for a ground up implementation
The experience of airline domain experts @ Hexaware
Documents from customer - Functional manuals & Program documents
Discussions/ presentations by vendors for market study
© Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. www.hexaware.com