Airline reservations system

Airline reservation systems (ARS) are part of the so-called passenger service systems (PSS), which are applications supporting the direct contact with the passenger.

ARS eventually evolved into the computer reservations system (CRS). A computer reservation system is used for the reservations of a particular airline and interfaces with a global distribution system (GDS) which supports travel agencies and other distribution channels in making reservations for most major airlines in a single system.

Overview
Airline reservation systems incorporate airline schedules, fare tariffs, passenger reservations and ticket records. An airline’s direct distribution works within their own reservation system, as well as pushing out information to the GDS. The second type of direct distribution channel are consumers who use the internet or mobile applications to make their own reservations. Travel agencies and other indirect distribution channels access the same GDS as those accessed by the airline reservation systems, and all messaging is transmitted by a standardized messaging system that functions on two types of messaging that transmit on SITA’s high level network (HLN). These messaging types are called Type A [usually EDIFACT format] for real time interactive communication and Type B for informational and booking type of messages. Message construction standards set by IATA and ICAO, are global, and apply to more than air transportation. Since airline reservation systems are business critical applications, and they are functionally quite complex, the operation of an in-house airline reservation system is relatively expensive.

Prior to deregulation, airlines owned their own reservation systems with travel agents subscribing to them. Today, the GDS are run by independent companies with airlines and travel agencies being major subscribers.

As of February 2009, there are only four major GDS providers in the market: Amadeus, Travelport (which operates the Apollo, Worldspan and Galileo systems), Sabre and Shares. There is one major Regional GDS, Abacus, serving the Asian market and a number of regional players serving single countries, including Travelsky (China), Infini and Axess (both Japan) and Topas (South Korea). Of these, Infini is hosted within the Sabre complex, Axess is in the process of moving into a partition within the Worldspan complex, and Topas agencies will be migrating into Amadeus.

Reservation systems may host “ticket-less” airlines and “hybrid” airlines that use e-ticketing in addition to ticket-less to accommodate code-shares and interlines.

In addition to these “standardized” GDS, some airlines have proprietary versions which they use to run their flight operations. A few examples are Delta’s OSS and Deltamatic systems and EDS SHARES. SITA Reservations remains the largest neutral multi-host airline reservations system, with over 100 airlines currently managing inventory.

Types:
Airline Reservation Systems (ARS) contain:

the routes of the airlines
fares and tariffs
passenger and bookings

(usually these records are accessible up to 24 hours from the departure of the last completed flight of the passenger.After 24 hours, they are recorded in microfilms and their recovery is only possible upon a written request to the airline)
The immediate direct distribution of an airline operates within its own reservation system, as well as by expelling its (for example, information on routes, availability of seats, freight offers, etc.) to the GDS.

A second type of direct distribution channel is consumers who use the internet or their mobile applications to make their own bookings.

Inventory management
In the airline industry, available seats are commonly referred to as inventory. The inventory of an airline is generally classified into service classes (e.g. first, business or economy class) and up to 26 booking classes, for which different prices and booking conditions apply. Inventory data is imported and maintained through a schedule distribution system over standardized interfaces. One of the core functions of inventory management is inventory control. Inventory control steers how many seats are available in the different booking classes, by opening and closing individual booking classes for sale. In combination with the fares and booking conditions stored in the Fare Quote System, the price for each sold seat is determined. In most cases, inventory control has a real time interface to an airline’s Yield management system to support a permanent optimization of the offered booking classes in response to changes in demand or pricing strategies of a competitor.

Availability display and reservation (PNR)
Users access an airline’s inventory through an availability display. It contains all offered flights for a particular city-pair with their available seats in the different booking classes. This display contains flights which are operated by the airline itself as well as code share flights which are operated in co-operation with another airline. If the city pair is not one on which the airline offers service, it may display a connection using its own flights or display the flights of other airlines. The availability of seats of other airlines is updated through standard industry interfaces. Depending on the type of co-operation, it supports access to the last seat (last seat availability) in real-time. Reservations for individual passengers or groups are stored in a so-called passenger name record (PNR). Among other data, the PNR contains personal information such as name, contact information or special services requests (SSRs) e.g. for a vegetarian meal, as well as the flights (segments) and issued tickets. Some reservation systems also allow to store customer data in profiles to avoid data re-entry each time a new reservation is made for a known passenger. In addition, most systems have interfaces to CRM systems or customer loyalty applications (aka frequent traveler systems). Before a flight departs, the so-called passenger name list (PNL) is handed over to the departure control system that is used to check-in passengers and baggage. Reservation data such as the number of booked passengers and special service requests is also transferred to flight operations systems, crew management and catering systems. Once a flight has departed, the reservation system is updated with a list of the checked-in passengers (e.g. passengers who had a reservation but did not check in (no shows) and passengers who checked in, but did not have a reservation (go shows)). Finally, data needed for revenue accounting and reporting is handed over to administrative systems.

Fare quote and ticketing
The Fares data store contains fare tariffs, rule sets, routing maps, class of service tables, and some tax information that construct the price – “the fare”. Rules like booking conditions (e.g. minimum stay, advance purchase, etc.) are tailored differently between different city pairs or zones, and assigned a class of service corresponding to its appropriate inventory bucket. Inventory control can also be manipulated manually through the availability feeds, dynamically controlling how many seats are offered for a particular price by opening and closing particular classes.

The compiled set of fare conditions is called a fare basis code. There are two systems set up for the interchange of fares data — ATPCO and SITA, plus some system to system direct connects. This system distributes the fare tariffs and rule sets to all GDSs and other subscribers. Every airline employs staff who code air fare rules in accordance with yield management intent. There are also revenue managers who watch fares as they are filed into the public tariffs and make competitive recommendations. Inventory control is typically manipulated from here, using availability feeds to open and close classes of service.

The role of the ticketing complex is to issue and store electronic ticket records and the very small number of paper tickets that are still issued. Miscellaneous charges order (MCO) is still a paper document; IATA has working groups defining the replacement document the electronic multipurpose document (EMD) as at 2010. The electronic ticket information is stored in a database containing the data that historically was printed on a paper ticket including items such as the ticket number, the fare and tax components of the ticket price or exchange rate information. In the past, airlines issued paper tickets; since 2008, IATA has been supporting a resolution to move to 100% electronic ticketing. So far, the industry has not been able to comply due to various technological and international limitations. The industry is at 98% electronic ticket issuance today, although electronic processing for MCOs was not available in time for the IATA mandate.

History
When civil aviation was re-launched after World War II, no one imagined that this transport sector would grow so soon and to such an extent as we are experiencing today.

The story of the detention of aviation systems began in the early 1950s when American Airlines needed a system that would allow it to access real-time flight data at all its offices, as well as the integration and automation of booking and ticketing procedures.

By the end of the 1950s in the US, the situation in the booking of some of the largest airlines had become totally cumbersome. Telephone sales were housed in gym-sized rooms. Each employee was equipped with binoculars so that he could see the status of individual flights in the Availability Boards. Several of these reservations sites checked their flights through flight statements. These were situations that contained all the travel information of booked passengers as well as those who were awaiting onward connections, special meals, contact points, etc.

Many of these companies, at one time or another, were already planning to automate their bookings.

Primitive computerized reservation systems, developed in the US, about the same time as the introduction of jet (jet) aircraft in commercial operations. However, these systems only showed the availability of flights and seat reservations had to be registered manually.

However, in 1965 a completely new program appeared. The IBM unveiled the aviation market, a computerized reservation system -in real hour; which not only showed the availability of flights, but recorded and reservations by directly adjusting the availabilities. The market was presented under the name: P rogrammed A irline R eservations S ystem (PARS).

Origins
In 1946, American Airlines installed the experimental electromechanical Reservisor, the first automated booking system. In 1952, Magnetronic Reservisor, the first electronic reservation system, was set up, a newer machine with its temporary storage in a magnetic drum. This system proved to be successful and soon began to be used by several airlines, as well as Sheraton Hotels (Sheraton Hotels) and Goodyear tire companyfor census control. However, it was seriously hampered by the need for local operators to make real searches; ticket issuers would have to call on the Reserve Office, whose operators would run a small Reservisor team and then forward the Reservisor results by phone. There was no way for agents to look for positions directly from the system.

Remote access
In 1953, Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) began investigating a remote-controlled computer system, testing that summer’s Manchester Mark 1 machine design from the University of Toronto. Although the plan was successful, researchers found that entering and leaving data was a major problem. The Ferranti Canada became involved in the project and suggested a new system using punched cards and a computer with transistors (transistorized computer), replacing the unreliable lamp based on the Mark 1. The resulting system was called ReserVecand in 1962 it began operating in January 1963, all functions in bookings. Terminals were installed at all TCA ticket offices, allowing all queries and reservations to be completed in about one second, without the assistance of the remote operators required.

In 1953, CR Smith, Managing Director of American Airlines, on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, sat down next to IBM’s top sales representative, R. Blair Smith. The CR Smith invited to R. Blair Smith, visit the Reservisor their system and to seek ways in which IBM could improve the system. The R. Blair Smith informed the Thomas Watson, Jr. that American Airlineswas interested in an important collaboration and started a low-level set of studies. Their idea of an automated Airline Reservations System (ARS) resulted in 1959, the project known as the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE), which began next year. When completed in December 1964, it was the largest urban data processing system in the world. The Sabre (Semi-Automated Business Research Environment – ie Semi Business Research Environment), was developed and launched in 1964. The breakthrough Sabre, was his ability to keep the census accurate in real time, accessible to agents of travel agencies around the world. Prior to this, manual systems needed central reservation centers, groups of people in a room, with physical cards representing the census, in this case seats (seats) on airplanes.

The liberalization of the airline industry in the practice of lifting airline controls meant that airlines that had previously operated at government-based fares, at least securing airlines at the zero point, now needed to improve performance, to compete in a free market. In this liberated environment, ARS and its descendants became vital to the tourism industry.

Subsequently, the other airlines established their own systems.

In 1964, Pan American World Airways launched the PANAMAC system.
In 1968, Delta Air Lines launched the Delta Automated Travel Account System (DATAS).
In 1971, United Airlines and Trans World Airlines followed with the Apollo Reservation System and the Programmed Airline Reservation System (PARS), respectively.
Soon, travel agencies began to push for a system that could automate their own process to have direct access to the various ARSs to make reservations. Fearful that this would give too much power to travel agencies, Robert Crandall, an American Airlines executive, proposed the creation of a broad-based online booking system, a central clearing house for travel to the US; however, the other airlines were cautious, citing fear of violating antitrust law.

Access to Travel Agencies
In 1976, United began to offer Apollo, its system, to travel agencies; while it did not allow tour operators to make reservations to United rivals, the commercial price of the appropriate terminal proved necessary. Soon followed by SABRE, PARS and DATAS at the travel agencies. In 1978, after the liberalization of the airlines, an effective CRS was particularly important; with some measurements. The Frank Lorenzo owner of the Texas Air, bought the poor Eastern Air Linesin particular, made this purchase only to gain control of their SystemOne CRS system.

Also in 1976, Videcom international with British Airways, British Caledonian and CCL launched Travicom, the world’s first multi-access reservation system (based entirely on Videcom technology), forming a distribution network initially to 2 and then to 49 registered international airlines (such as: British Airways, British Caledonian, TWA, Pan American Airways, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air France,Lufthansa, SAS, Air Canada, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Alitalia, Cathay Pacific, JAL, etc.) to thousands of travel agencies in the United Kingdom. It allowed travel agencies and airlines to communicate through 97% of commercial airline business reservations through a common distribution and network language. The system continued to play the Videcom in other regions of the world, including the Middle East (DMARS), New Zealand, Kuwait (KMARS),Ireland, the Caribbean, the United States and Hong Kong. The Travicom was the trademark of Travel Automation Services Ltd. When BA (which until then held 100% of Travel Automation Services Ltd) chose to participate in the development of the Galileo system, Travicom changed its trading name to ” Galileo UK” and introduced a migration process to relocate agencies the Travicom in Galileo.

European airlines began in the 1980s to invest in the sector, initially with the development of their own home-based reservation systems, driven by the increase in demand for travel and the technological advances that allowed GDS to continually offer growing services and seeking power. In 1987, a consortium led by Air France and West German Lufthansa, developed Amadeus, according to the model of SystemOne. The Amadeus Global Travel Distribution began in 1992. In 1990, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, andTrans World Airlines (TWA) formed Worldspan, and in 1993, another joint venture (including British Airways, KLM and United Airlines) was the competing company Galileo International based on the Apollo system. Many smaller companies, such as the KIU, have formed, targeting niche markets not served by the four largest networks, including market segments in low-cost companies and small and medium-sized domestic and regional airlines.

Major systems

Source from Wikipedia