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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1. 1 ONLINE AIRLI NE RESER V A TION SYSTEM. Airline reservation systems were first introduced in the late 1950s as relatively simple standalone systems to control flight inventory, maintain flight schedules, seat assignments and aircraft loading. The modern airline reservation system is comprehensive suite of products to provide a system that assists with a variety of airline management tasks and service customer needs from the time of initial reservation through completion of the flight. Airline Reservations ystems contain airline schedules, fare tariffs, passenger reservations and tic ket reco rds. An air line!s dir ect dis tri" uti on wor ks wit hin the ir own rese rva tion system, as well as pushing out information to the #$. econd types of direct distri"ution channel are consumers who use the internet or mo"ile applications to make their own reservations. Travel agencies and other indirect distri"ution channels access the same #$ as those accessed "y the airlines! reservation systems, and all messaging is transmitted "y a standardi%ed messaging system that functions primarily on messaging called &TA. ince airline reservation systems are "usiness critical applications, and their functionally 'uite comple(, the operation of an in)house airline reservation system is relatively e(pensive. *rior to deregulation, airlines owned their own reservation systems with travel agents su"scri"ing to them. Today, the #$ are run "y independent companies with airlines and travel agencies as ma+or su"scri"ers. As of e"ruary -009, there are only three ma+or #$ providers in the market space Ama deu s, Tr ave lpo rt, a" re and ha res. There is one ma+ or Region al #$ , A" acus,
