central reservation systems

7/21/2019 central reservation systems

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FROM COMPUTER RESERVATION SYSTEMS TOGLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

- Lesson 3 -

Angelina Njeguš, PhD Associate Professor at Singidunum University

Belgrade - Serbia, 2013



Prof. dr Angelina Njeguš

Table of Contents

Introduction to Computer Reservation Systems

Typical CRS Functions

Evolution of CRS

Global Distribution Systems GDS Organisations

Challenges for CRS/GDS

Big Data




What is CRS?

Computer Reservation System (CRS) is an information systemthat promotes sales and provides fast and accurate

information about availability, price and bookings of tourism

products and services

Originally CRSs were developed to facilitate business transactions andbookings related to air travel

Later, CRSs were extended for the use of travel agencies, hotels, and

other tourism and hospitality businesses to manage their inventory

and allow direct access through terminals to check for availability,

make reservations and issue tickets Today, CRSs are of high importance for travel and tourism industry

with the main focus on direct reservations (e.g. directly in the hotel)




CRS History

CRS is the first information system that was used in tourismindustry

Primarily was used as inventory-control system by airlines

In 1962 American Airlines introduced SABRE (Semi-Automated

Business Research Environment) the first commercial CRS,developed by IBM, that was used for:

generating flight plans for the aircraft

tracking spare parts

scheduling crews ...

Figure:

SABRE Reservation system in 1960s (Venema, 2011)




Typical CRS Functions

Flight schedule information Days and times for flights operated by the airline

Availability information

Seat availability on a flight by service class (i.e. Economy, business, first class)

Fare quotes

A consolidated fare for an itinerary based on flight, day, time, service class and

passenger types chosen

Reservation information

Seat bookings

Ticketing information Generating and storing tickets

Refunds and cancellations

Cancellation of existing reservations and tickets




Evolution of CRS

In the 1970s and 80s multiple CRSscame up

The growth of air traffic expanded

CRS

In order to distribute up-to-date

information to all potential customersworldwide and to support the operation

and administration of airlines, CRS

evolves from the central to the

distribution system

In the mid 1980s, CRS developed into

much more comprehensive globaldistribution system (GDS) offering a wide

range of tourism products and providing

the backbone mechanism for

communication between actors in

tourism industry

Source: Dennis, 2012.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/central-reservation-systems 7/32Prof. dr Angelina Njeguš

Travel Agent before GDSs

Travel agent required

individual connections to

airlines

If airlines used different

mainframe systems, travelagent had to use and be

trained on different mainframe

clients

Searches and reservations

were performed separately on

individual airline CRSs



Travel Agent after GDSs

Source: Introduction to AirlineReservation Systems, 2009.



From CRS to GDS

Among the first non-North American CRS, that was developed jointly byAir France, Lufthansa, Iberia and SAS in 1987, was Amadeus

Source: Schulz, 1996



Global Distribution Systems - GDS

Besides air products, today GDSs provide access to: Car rentals

Hotel booking

Packaged holidays

Cruises and ships

Railways

Local road transport ...

GDS enable clients to compare, and access information about travel,

leisure, and other tourism related information from various tourism

service providers



What is GDS?

GDS is an integrated information system and communicationchannel that:

incorporates all travel services

connects service providers with end users

providing information from all segments of the journey allows booking and selling of the required services

Today GDS is:

the most cost effective tool for buyers of business travel to manage

the complexity of supply

more than just a reservation tool - integrates the core business

processes of tourism businesses and therefore increase their

productivity, speed, and performance



Major GDSs in operation today

Sabre Amadeus

Travelport (the umbrella company for the Galileo, Apollo, and Worldspan)

Figure: GDS Bookings Worldwide

market share (Amadeus, 2009)

37%

30%

29%

4%

Amadeus

Sabre

Travelport

Abacus



Sabre

Founded in 1964 by American Airlines and IBM Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA

Used by www.expedia.com, www.lastminute.com,

www.travelocity.com ...

Source: Sabre Pacific, 2013.

http://www.expedia.com/

http://www.lastminute.com/

http://www.travelocity.com/

http://www.travelocity.com/

http://www.lastminute.com/




Overview of Sabre solutions

Sabre Travel Network - solutions for the travel industry Sabre Airline Solutions - solutions for the air transportation industry

Sabre Hospitality Solutions - solutions for the hospitality industry

Travelocity - online travel company

Source: Sabre Hospitality Solutions, 2013.



Amadeus

Founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS Headquartered in Madrid, Spain

Largest booking share in Europe

Used by www.expedia.com, www.opodo.com, www.flights.com ...


http://www.opodo.com/

http://www.flights.com/

http://www.flights.com/

http://www.opodo.com/




Overview of Amadeus’ principal

IT solutions offering

Amadeus Full

Altéa Suite

(PSS)

Airline IT

Other IT solutions

Other

airline IT

Reservation Inventory Departure control e-Commerce

Global services

Revenue integrity,e-ticket server

Non-air

Hotel

IT

Airport

IT

Rail

IT

Source: Amadeus, 2012.



GalileoToday under Travelport GDS

Founded in 1993 by 11 major North American and Europeanairlines

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Used by www.orbitz.com, www.hotwire.com and others

http://www.orbitz.com/

http://www.hotwire.com/

http://www.hotwire.com/

http://www.orbitz.com/



WorldspanToday under Travelport GDS

Founded in 1990 by Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines andTransworld Airlines

Merged with Galileo in 2006

Source: Travelport, 2013.



Estimated air market share gain

(2000-2012)

Source: Amadeus, 2013.



Travel Distribution Chain

Source: ETTSA, 2010.



CRS Architecture

Source: TechTuners, 2013.




GDS Organisations

In order to promote fair competition and to ensure that consumers do not receiveinaccurate or misleading information on travel services, it is necessary to have

regulations on GDS

Organisations work together with governments, and other relevant authorities to

help define the correct regulatory framework for the travel and transport industry

There are several organisations, such as:

IATA - International Air Transport Association

ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization

ETTSA - European Technology and Travel Services Association

ATPCO - Airline Tariff Publishing Company

IATAN - International Airlines Travel Agent Network

SITA - Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques

and many others




IATAInternational Air Transport Association

Trade association for the world’s airlines Representing around 240 airlines or 84% of total air traffic

Formed on 1945

Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Supports many areas of aviation activity and helps formulate industry policy and

standards on critical aviation issues, such as: Security of passengers and cargo

Airline safety

Airline revenues

Infrastructure issues

Chargers and economic regulation and taxation Fuel

Airline distribution

Environment ...




ETTSAEuropean Technology and Travel Services Association

Promote the interests of GDSs and travel distributors and support fulltransparency, fair competition and consumer choice in the travel

distribution chain

Launched in 2009

Based in Brussels

Members are Amadeus, ebookers, Expedia, Odigeo (and its brands eDreams,GoVoyages, Opodo and Travelink), Sabre (including its affiliate lastminute.com), and

Travelport.

ETTSA’s main activities include:

Engaging in policy-making

Providing insight and information

Reporting new developments




SITASociété Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques

IT company specialized in providing IT and telecommunication services toair transport and related industries

Founded in 1949 by 11 airlines in order to bring about shared infrastructure cost

efficiencies by combining their communications networks

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland

Almost every airline, airport, air cargo, and aerospace use some kind of SITA’s business

solutions

SITA solutions for:

Airport, aircraft, baggage, cargo operations

Passenger operations

Transportation security

Communications and infrastructure

Commercial management ...




Challenges for CRS/GDS




Problems of Big Data

Analysis from Google shows that the typical traveller uses 22 websites toresearch a trip, in multiple shopping sessions, before booking

The growth of Cloud, Mobile and Social Computing leads to the fact that

organisations are flooded by:

Huge volume of data

High velocity of data

Variety of data

Digital content will grow to 8ZB by 2015




The physical size of Big Data

Name Symbol Binary Decimal

byte B 20=1 byte 100=1

kilobyte KB 210=1.024 byte (B) 103=1.000

megabyte MB 220=1.048.576 B 106=1.000.000

gigabyte GB 230=1.073.741.824 B 109=1.000.000.000

terabyte TB 240=1.099.511.627.776 B 1012=1.000.000.000.000

petabyte PB 250=1.125.899.906.842.624 B 1015=1.000.000.000.000.000

exabyte EB 260=1.152.921.504.606.846.976 B 1018=1.000.000.000.000.000.000

zettabyte ZB 270=1.180.591.620.717.411.303.424 B 1021=1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000

yottabyte YB 280=1.208.925.819.614.629.174.706.176 B 1024=1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000

brontobyte BB 290=1.237.940.039.285.380.274.899.124.224 B 1027=1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000

geopbyte GeB 2100=1.267.650.600.228.229.401.496.703.205.376 B 1030=1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000

Bit (b) – 0 or 1

Byte (B) – 8 bits

Kilobyte (KB) – 1024 bytes




Big Data sources




What is Big Data?

Source: Informatika. Available at: http://www.informatica.com/us/vision/harnessing-big-data/



References

1. Markiewicz, P. (2013) Computer History – Mainframe Era (1944-1978). Available at: http://plyojump.com/classes/mainframe_era.php (accessed:

17.07.2013)2. Venema, M. (2011). Global Distribution Systems (GDS). Edutour – Education for Tourism. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/magielsr/gds-

overview-1232798141856259-2-2359117 (accessed: 18.07.2013)

3. Introduction to Airline Reservation Systems. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/mave_boy/introduction-to-airline-reservation-systems-1237705 (Accessed: 17.07.2013)

4. Dennis, B. (2012). Hospitality Internet Booking Engines & Central Reservation Systems: A thought-piece concerning online reservation technology forthe hospitality industry. Buuteeq, Seattle, WA.

5. Schulz, A. (1996). The Role of Global Computer Reservation Systems in the Travel Industry Today and in the Future. Electronic Markets, 6(2). Availableat: http://aws.iwi.uni-leipzig.de/em/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/Issues/Volume_06/Issue_02/The_Role_of_Global_Computer_Reservation.pdf (accessed 17.07.2013)

6. Amadeus (2012). Corporate presentation 2012. PowerPoint presentation. Amadeus.7. Sabre Pacific (2013). Sabre online enhancements power increased productivity. Travel Blackboard. Available at:

http://www.etravelblackboard.com/article/143630/sabre-online-enhancements-power-increased-productivity (accessed: 18.07.2013)

8. Sabre Hospitality Solutions (2013). Central Reservation System (CRS). Sabre. Available at: http://www.sabrehospitality.com/central-reservation-systems.php (accessed 18.07.2013)

9. Travelport (2013). Travelport GDS Privacy Policy. Available at: http://www.travelport.com/Privacy-Policy/Travelport%20GDS (accessed: 18.07.2013)

10. Amdekar, J., Padmanabhuni, S. (2006). Future of Travel & Tourism Industry with the adoption of Web Services in Electronic Distribution. Infosys.Available at: http://www.infosys.com/industries/hospitality-leisure/white-papers/Documents/webservices-adoption-travel-tourism.pdf (accessed18.07.2013)

11. ETTSA (2010). Technology and Independent Distribution in the European Travel Industry. PhoCusWright . Available at:

http://www.ettsa.eu/uploads/documents/ETTSA_Study_2010_Single_Pages.pdf (accessed 18.07.2013)12. TechTuners (2013). T-RES. Available at: http://www.techtuners.com/TRES.aspx (accessed 18.07.2013)

13. Davenport, T.H. (2013). At the Big Data Crossroads: Tuning towards a smarter travel experience. Amadeus IT Group. Available at:http://www.bigdata.amadeus.com/assets/pdf/Amadeus_Big_Data.pdf (accessed 18.07.2013)

14. Videcom (2013). GDS Distribution. Videcom Airline Reservation Systems. Available at: http://www.videcom.com/airline-global-distribution-systems.aspx (accessed 18.07.2013)

15. Amadeus (2013). Amadeus Introductory presentation. Available at:http://www.investors.amadeus.com/media/files/english/column_boxes/Introductory Presentation (long form) February 2013.pdf (accessed18.07.2013)

http://plyojump.com/classes/mainframe_era.php

http://www.slideshare.net/magielsr/gds-overview-1232798141856259-2-2359117



http://www.slideshare.net/mave_boy/introduction-to-airline-reservation-systems-1237705

http://aws.iwi.uni-leipzig.de/em/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/Issues/Volume_06/Issue_02/The_Role_of_Global_Computer_Reservation.pdf

http://www.etravelblackboard.com/article/143630/sabre-online-enhancements-power-increased-productivity


http://www.sabrehospitality.com/central-reservation-systems.php



http://www.travelport.com/Privacy-Policy/Travelport%20GDS

http://www.infosys.com/industries/hospitality-leisure/white-papers/Documents/webservices-adoption-travel-tourism.pdf


http://www.ettsa.eu/uploads/documents/ETTSA_Study_2010_Single_Pages.pdf


http://www.techtuners.com/TRES.aspx

http://www.bigdata.amadeus.com/assets/pdf/Amadeus_Big_Data.pdf

http://www.videcom.com/airline-global-distribution-systems.aspx



http://www.investors.amadeus.com/media/files/english/column_boxes/Introductory_Presentation_(long_form)_February_2013.pdf









































































