The first computerized booking systems dramatically changed air travel, allowing for different passengers to pay different fares and for airlines to maximize the number of passengers and manage the “yield” for each flight. The first airlines to develop reservations systems enjoyed heavy advantages: American developed Sabre, United created Apollo (which eventually became Galileo; both Sabre and Galileo are independent, leading reservations systems today), Eastern formed System One, and TWA had PARS. Small airlines increasingly had little choice but to use these systems, for which they paid handsomely. A good reservations system was a valuable airline asset in the 1980s.
The system owners attempted to use their systems for their own benefit in other ways, too; they charged higher fees to their close competitors than to other airlines, and they listed their own flights first. After all, they argued, they owned the systems, and they were determined to extract the commercial rewards. In the early 1980s, regulators examined the issue, and in 1984, the Civil Aeronautics Board (then only a year from closing down) banned discriminatory practices in listing flights.
Outside of the airline itself, these computerized systems were available only through travel agents. Reading about this recently got me thinking about how much different things are today: the reservations systems still exist, but through the airlines’ web sites and travel sites like Expedia, Orbitz, and Kayak, they are accessible to anyone and everyone. I’ve never used a travel agent, and (with apologies to Cranky) I doubt I ever will, at least for personal travel. Why? I can do it myself!
Technological change in engine technology fueled the first great phase of air travel democratization in the 1960s and ’70s; political and deregulatory change pushed the second phase in the ’80s; and in the ’90s and 2000s, the third phase has been driven in part by access to air travel tools. The aforementioned websites, tools like InsideTrip and Farecast, and helpful travel blogs like those on the right-hand side of this page spread information, promote transparency, and help people make their own travel decisions. That’s something to cheer.
What will be the next phase of air travel democratization? Free flight? Very Light Jets? Air-train partnerships? A viable alternative fuel? Or is there something completely new just beyond the horizon?
Photo credit: Flickr user Kramchang. Used through a Creative Commons license.
yes, it has changed things. But…
1. The only successful airline for the past 20 years (Southwest) doesn’t use the global systems
2. I’m wondering how much the travel systems have distorted the network pricing by prioritizing the “Connection” time. Carriers which fly 5x a day into smaller cities will show lower wait times than ones that fly 2x a day. That provides an incentive for carriers to fly TOO many planes, since they will show up first on the global system lists.
When I fly through Newark, I usually have to scroll into the second page of listing to find ones with 4+ hours of connection time in Newark, which is the absolute minimum you want to use in the summer.
3. Profit margins: the strangest thing about air travel is that everyone in the business except the airlines make money. How much money do the global system suck away from the carriers?
I hope the next innovation in airline services comes soon, and I hope it somehow saves this ailing business.