An Airline Reservation System is part of the so-called Passenger Service Systems, which are applications supporting the direct contact with the passenger.

The Airline Reservations System (ARS) was one of the earliest changes to improve efficiency. 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.

[edit] Overview

The Airline Reservations System contains all reservations, independently over which distribution channel they have been made. An airline’s direct distribution works directly with the own reservation system. Direct distribution channels are e.g. call centers, who generally access the reservation system through a special graphical user interface (GUI). A 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 generally don’t work directly with an airline’s reservation system, but work with a Global Distribution System (GDS) that has connections to most airline reservation systems through standardized interfaces. Since airline reservation systems are business critical applications and functionally quite complex the operation of an in-house airline reservation system is relatively expensive. Therefore most airlines have outsourced these systems to external providers. The core functions of a reservation system can be divided into the following three major areas

[edit] Inventory Management

An airline’s inventory contains all flights with their available seats. The inventory of an airline is generally divided 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 the inventory management is the 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.

[edit] Availability Display & 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. 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 didn’t have a reservation (Go Shows)). Finally data needed for revenue accounting and reporting is handed over to the administrative systems.

[edit] Fare Quote and Ticketing

The Fare Quote System contains all prices and booking conditions (e.g. minimum stay, advance purchase, etc) for the different city pairs and booking classes an airline offers. The inventory control determines how many seats are offered for a particular price by dynamically opening and closing particular classes. Many airlines have outsourced the maintenance of fare data and systems to external providers, since the involved tasks are labor intensive and complex. The role of the Ticketing System is to issue and store tickets and other value documents like an MCO (Miscellaneous Charge Order). The ticket information is stored in a database containing data such as the ticket number, the different components of the ticket price or exchange rate information. In the past airlines still issued paper tickets, since 2008 IATA supports only electronic tickets. Another important function of a Ticketing System is the so-called Interline Electronic Ticketing, which allows code share partners to change electronic tickets which have been issued through another airline. This is supported through a standard interface which allows to pass the control to another airline or ground handler.

[edit] History

The history of airline reservations systems began in the late 1950s when American Airlines required a system that would allow real-time access to flight details in all of its offices, and the integration and automation of its booking and ticketing processes. As a result, Sabre (Semi-Automated Business Research Environment) was developed and launched in 1964. Sabre's breakthrough was its ability to keep inventory correct in real time, accessible to agents around the world. Prior to this, manual systems required centralized reservation centers, groups of people in a room with the physical cards that represented inventory, in this case, seats on airplanes.

The deregulation of the airline industry, in the Airline Deregulation Act, meant that airlines, which had previously operated under government-set fares ensuring airlines at least broke even, now needed to improve efficiency to compete in a free market. In this deregulated environment the ARS and its descendants became vital to the travel industry.

[edit] See also

• Amadeus IT Group