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A computer reservations system (CRS) is a computerized system used to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions related to travel. Originally designed and operated by airlines, they were later extended to travel agents as a sales channel; major CRS operations that book and sell tickets for multiple airlines are known as Global Distribution Systems (GDS). Airlines have divested most of their direct holdings to dedicated Global Distribution System companies, and many systems are now accessible to consumers through Internet gateways for hotel, rental cars, and other services as well as airline tickets. Image File history File links Acap. ... The NASA Columbia Supercomputer. ... An Airbus A380 of Emirates Airline An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight. ... A travel agency is a store where individuals or families go to buy travel packages. ... Dariush Grand Hotel,Kish island, Iran The 4-star Manor House Hotel at Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England. ...

Today's challenges

The big four GDS companies are all facing challenges. Their system architectures are largely based on a mainframe TPF (Transaction Processing Facility) [1] framework which -- while very reliable, and capable of tremendous workloads – has relatively little CPU power, and is exorbitantly expensive to maintain and enhance. The declining cost of modern server hardware and the relatively recent introduction of pricing, shopping, and booking software from vendors like ITA Software, has allowed many airlines to shift significant buying volume to their own websites, thereby avoiding GDS distribution fees of $4 or more per flight sector. For other meanings of TPF, see TPF (disambiguation). ... Die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor (actual size: 12×6. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... ITA Software, Inc. ...

In recent years, all of the big four GDS companies have, to varying degrees, begun selectively migrating (or "offloading") processes from their legacy mainframe platforms to service oriented architectures (SOA). By utilizing high-performance, lower cost open systems platforms in a Service-oriented architecture approach, they further improve their capacity to cost effectively handle a fast-rising "look-to-book" ratio, i.e. the number of shopping transactions compared to actual purchases. The explosive growth of this ratio was driven initially by the creation and utilization of robotic software and, more recently, by the rapid growth of consumers' multi-site shopping behavior on the Internet. The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Beginning in 2004, several companies – including Triton Distribution Systems, ITA Software, G2 Switchworks, Farelogix– claimed to be developing GDS alternatives. The new entrants tout lower fees and greater flexibility. The big four GDS companies cast doubt on their viability. shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ITA Software, Inc. ...

However, it is still very uncommon for a travel agency to operate without the use of at least one of the big four GDS systems. The GDS companies are playing catch up in the technology arena. All now have a browser based system; Sabre, Amadeus and Worldspan have full browser based solutions while Galileo still utilizes a VPN based system. Most, in one way or another, are aggregating webfares back into the GDS, and some airlines have agreed to post their webfares both to their own sites and on the GDS.

Many of these GDS's have now started to integrate forward into the business, reaching out to the customers with their own websites, such as Expedia (formerly owned by IAC, but now spun off into a separate company called Expedia Inc.), Travelocity (owned by Sabre), Orbitz (formerly owned by Cendant, but now called Travelport and has been recently sold to Blackstone) and many others. These new entrants to the market have further eroded revenues at the GDS.

Today, each system allows an operator to locate and reserve inventory (for instance, an airline seat on a particular route at a particular time), find and process fares/prices applicable to the inventory (Revenue management, Variable pricing and Geo (marketing)), generate tickets and travel documents, and generate reports on the transactions for accounting or marketing purposes. Yield management, also known as revenue management, is the process of understanding, anticipating and reacting to consumer behaviour in order to maximise revenue. ... Most firms use a fixed price policy. ... In marketing, geo (also called marketing geography) is a discipline within marketing analysis which uses geolocation (geographic information) in the process of planning and implementation of marketing activities. ...

U.S. Department of Transportation regulations governing CRS's were eliminated as of July 31, 2004. However, CRS's remain subject to government regulations in Canada and the European Union. Since all of the major CRS's operate globally, the most restrictive requirements — currently those of the EU Code of conduct for the use of computerised reservation systems — effectively govern their worldwide operations. The CRS/GDS companies have been lobbying Canada and the EU for worldwide deregulation of the industry. is the 212th day of the year (213th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Major Systems

• Airline bookings, 2002.

• In December, 2006, Travelport which owns the Galileo CRS agreed to buy and merge with the Worldspan GDS. The combined company would then control a 41.5% market share.

For other systems, see List of global distribution systems. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland. ... Air Canada is Canadas largest airline and flag carrier. ... Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane (ISE: IT0003331888) is the national airline of Italy. ... For the 1930s airline of similar name, see British Airways Ltd. ... KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (in full: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, literally Royal Aviation Company; usual English: Royal Dutch Airlines) is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. Prior to its merger with Air France, KLM was the national airline of the Netherlands. ... Swissair (Swiss Air Transport Company Limited) is the former national airline of Switzerland. ... Categories: Organization stubs | Airlines of Portugal ... US Airways is an American low-cost airline headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, owned by US Airways Group, Inc. ... United Airlines, also known as United Air Lines, Inc. ... Founded in 1986, CheapTickets. ... IXEO is an online travel agency operated by IXEO Interactive Travel SA, a registered corporation with head offices in Küsnacht-Zurich, Switzerland. ... Worldspan is a technology company that specializes in travel related software and systems. ... Delta Air Lines, Inc. ... Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA), occasionally known as NWA, is an American airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota near Minneapolis-St. ... Trans World Airlines (IATA: TW, ICAO: TWA, and Callsign: TWA), commonly known as TWA, was an American airline company that was acquired by American Airlines in April 2001. ... [[Austr Expedia. ... Orbitz, Inc. ... Alternate meaning: Hotwire (filesharing protocol) Hotwiring is the process of bypassing an automobiles ignition interlock and thus starting it without the key. ... Priceline. ... Travelport is a new company with a nearly 30-year track record. ... The Galileo Central Reservations System is one of the main computer reservation systems designed for the travel industry by a consortium of airlines. ... Worldspan is a technology company that specializes in travel related software and systems. ... The following is an partial list of global distribution systems: 1A Amadeus ...

History

In the early days of commercial aviation, passengers were relatively few and each airline's routes and fares were tightly regulated, in the United States by the Civil Aeronautics Board after 1940. These were published in a volume entitled the Official Airline Guide, from which travel agents or consumers could construct an itinerary, then call or telex airline agents who would mark the reservation on a card and file it. As the demand for and complexity of air travel expanded, however, this process soon became onerous and costly. Aviation refers to flying using aircraft, machines designed by humans for atmospheric flight. ... An Airbus A380 of Emirates Airline An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight. ... Governments have played an important part in shaping air transportation. ... Teletype machines in World War II A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY for TeleTYpe/TeleTYpewriter) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. ...

In 1946, American Airlines installed the first experimental automated booking system, the electromechanical Reservisor. A newer machine with temporary storage based on a magnetic drum soon followed, the Magnetronic Reservisor. This system proved fairly successful, and was soon being used by a number of airlines, Sheraton Hotels, and Goodyear for inventory control. However these systems were seriously hampered by the need for local human operators to do the actual lookups; ticketing agents would have to call into the booking office, whose operators would make requests to a small team operating the Reservisor and then speak the results back into the telephone. There was no way for the agents to directly query the system. American Airlines (AA) is the largest airline in the world in terms of total passengers-miles transported[1] and fleet size [2], and the second-largest airline in the world (behind Air France-KLM) in terms of total operating revenues[3]. A wholly owned subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, the... In engineering, electromechanics combines electromagnetism and mechanics. ... The Magnetic Drum was invented by G. Taushek in 1932 in Austria. ... The Sheraton hotel brand is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. ... Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. ...

In 1953, Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) started investigating a computerized system with remote terminals, testing one such concept on the University of Toronto's Manchester Mark I machine that summer. Although successful, they found that input/output was a major problem. Ferranti Canada became involved in the project and suggested a new system using punch cards and a transistorized computer in place of the unreliable tube-based Mark I. The resulting system, ReserVec, started operation in 1962, and took over all booking operations in January 1963. Terminals were placed in all of TCA's ticketing offices, where queries and bookings took about one second to complete with no remote operators needed. Air Canada Boeing 767 Air Canada Airbus A330 Another Air Canada A330 Air Canada is Canadas flag air carrier and recognised as one of the worlds safest airlines. ... The University of Toronto (U of T) is a coeducational public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... Manchester Mark 1 was the worlds first stored program computer, which made its first successful run of a program on 21st June 1948 The Manchester Mark I was one of the earliest electronic computers, built at the University of Manchester in England, in 1949. ... Ferranti-Packard was the Canadian division of Ferrantis global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric. ... Punched cards (or Hollerith cards, or IBM cards), are pieces of stiff paper that contain digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. ... ReserVec was a computerized reservation system developed by Ferranti Canada for Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA, todays Air Canada) in the late 1950s. ... A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. ...

In 1953, American Airlines CEO C. R. Smith chanced to sit next to R. Blair Smith, a senior IBM sales representative. Their idea of an automated Airline Reservation System (ARS) resulted in a 1959 venture known as the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment, or SABRE, launched the following year. By the time the network was completed in December 1964 it was the largest non-governmental data processing system in the world. A Chief Executive Officer (CEO), or Chief Executive, is the highest-ranking corporate officer, administrator, corporate administrator, executive, or executive officer, in charge of total management of a corporation, company, organization or agency. ... Cyrus Rowlett Smith Cyrus Rowlett Smith (September 9, 1899 – April 4, 1990), known throughout his life as C. R. Smith, was the CEO of American Airlines from 1934 to 1968 and from 1973 to 1974. ... IBM redirects here. ... The deregulation of the airline industry meant that airlines that had previously operated under government-set fares which ensured they at least broke even now needed to improve operational efficiency to compete in a free market. ... Sabre Logo Sabre is a computer reservations system/global distribution system (GDS) used by airlines, railways, hotels, travel agents and other travel companies. ... Data processing is any computer process that converts data into information or knowledge. ...

Other airlines soon established their own systems. Delta Air Lines launched its DATAS in 1968. United Airlines and TWA followed in 1971 with Apollo and PARS respectively. Soon, travel agents began pushing for a system that could automate their side of the process by accessing the various ARSs directly to make reservations. Fearful this would place too much power in the hands of agents, American Airlines executive Robert Crandall proposed creating an industry-wide Computer Reservations System to be a central clearinghouse for U.S. travel; other airlines demurred, citing fear of antitrust prosecution. Delta Air Lines, Inc. ... United Airlines, also known as United Air Lines, Inc. ... The Twa, also known as Batwa, are a pygmy people who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes region of central Africa. ... Robert Crandall (born 1935), also known as Bob Crandall, is the former president and chairman of American Airlines. ... This article is about anti-competitive business behavior. ...

In 1976, United began offering its Apollo system to travel agents; while it would allow the agents to book tickets on United's competitors, the marketing value of the convenient terminal proved indispensable. SABRE, PARS, and DATAS were soon released to travel agents as well. Following airline deregulation in 1978, an efficient CRS proved particularly important; by some counts, Texas Air executive Frank Lorenzo purchased money-losing Eastern Air Lines specifically to gain control of its SystemOne CRS. President Jimmy Carter signs the Airline Deregulation Act. ... Texas Air was an airline holding company in the USA that played a significant role in the downfall of the better-known Continental Airlines and Eastern Airlines. ... Francisco A. Lorenzo (b. ... Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from the late 1920s until 1991. ...

European airlines also began to invest in the field in the 1980s, propelled by growth in demand for travel as well as technological advances which allowed the GDS to offer ever-increasing services and searching power. In 1987, a consortium led by Air France and West Germany's Lufthansa developed Amadeus, modeled on Eastern's SystemOne. In 1990, Delta, Northwest Airlines, and Trans World Airlines formed Worldspan, and in 1993, another consortium including British Airways, KLM, and United Airlines among others formed competing company, Galileo International, based on United's Apollo network. Numerous smaller companies have also been formed, aimed at geographic, industry, or language niches inadequately served by the "big four." This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Air France (Compagnie Nationale Air France) is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. Before its merger with KLM, it was the national airline of France, employing 71,654 people (as of March 2004). ... Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ISIN: DE0008232125) (pronounced ) is the largest airline in Germany, and the second-largest in Europe (behind Air France-KLM, but before British Airways). ... The Amadeus Global Travel Distribution System is an electronic reservation system. ... Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA), occasionally known as NWA, is an American airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota near Minneapolis-St. ... Trans World Airlines (IATA: TW, ICAO: TWA, and Callsign: TWA), commonly known as TWA, was an American airline company that was acquired by American Airlines in April 2001. ... Worldspan is a technology company that specializes in travel related software and systems. ... For the 1930s airline of similar name, see British Airways Ltd. ... KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (in full: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, literally Royal Aviation Company; usual English: Royal Dutch Airlines) is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. Prior to its merger with Air France, KLM was the national airline of the Netherlands. ... United Airlines, also known as United Air Lines, Inc. ... The Galileo Central Reservations System is one of the main computer reservation systems designed for the travel industry by a consortium of airlines. ...

Competitive Concerns resulting from Codesharing

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Code sharing results in a single flight that is operated by an airline to be marketed by many other airlines under their own flight number. Although the airlines indicate when a flight is a code-share flight, passengers may not realize that they will be flying on a different airline. Because many passengers prefer connecting flights on the same airline, these connections are normally displayed first by a CRS. This practice may result in pushing attractive connections using other airlines off the first page displayed to the customer, which will make it less likely that they will be noticed. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Code sharing is a business term used in the airline industry for a procedure whereby one airline operates a service using its own flight number, e. ... A flight number, when combined with the name of the airline and the date, identifies a particular flight. ...

Criticism has been leveled against code sharing by consumer organizations and national departments of trade since it is claimed it is confusing and not transparent to passengers, but thus far without any success.

See also

• Passenger Name Record
• Travel technology

In the travel industry, a Passenger Name Record (PNR) is a record in the database of a Computer Reservation System (CRS) that contains the travel record for a passenger, or a group of passengers traveling together. ... Travel Technology is a term used to describe applications of Information Technology (IT), or Information and Communications Technology (ICT), in travel, tourism and hospitality industry. ...

External links

• Consumer Web Watch: Computer Reservations System (CRSs) and Travel Technology
• Hospitality.net: Galileo International Tells USDOT: Modified Computer Reservation System (CRS) Rules Necessary to Protect Consumers and Competition, 18 March 2003
• Das, Samipatra. "Global Distribution Systems in Present Times," Hospitality.net, 30 September 2003
• Hasbrouck, Edward. The Practical Nomad: "What's in a Passenger Name Record (PNR)?"
• European Union: Code of conduct for use of computerized reservation systems (CRS's)
• United States Department of Transportation: Computer Reservations System (CRS)