22 December 2010

UA Apollo To Die in 2012/2013


A little break in the AA vs Travelport story was the news that United Airlines has served notice that it will be terminating its contract with Travelport for passenger reservations and airline IT.

According to Travelport they believe the business will go to HP's EDS Airline unit marking a big win for the California based Computer Services firm.

This marks the second time in 2 years that a major US carrier has cut its links to its former child. Last year AA announced it was severing its PSS agreement with Sabre and going to HP's new reservations system called Jetstream.

The announcement also hurts ITA's PSS prospects where it was also bidding for the business. However the only real contest was between the current big 3 PSS vendors. Sabre, Amadeus and HP.

Another icon bites the dust. For Travelport this will mark the 3 major airline loss.

TWA was folded and withdrew from Worldspan hosting
Northwest was subsumed into Delta - which has a facilities management agreement with Travelport
And now United is leaving.

Travelport needs to take its reservations services and give it a shot in the arm. From my personal experience, the hosting system of the old PARS was one of the more flexible and functionally rich hosting environments.

Cheers

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