Christopher Enenmoh Professor Shad Ewart BPA 236 Sunday, April 7, 2019, Activity B: The Airlines’ Reservation Systems The airline reservation system (ARS) was a dedicated system which airlines and travel agents used during the early stage of the electronic tickets reservation. The airline industry was the first sector to take advantage of the computer system due to complex operation and passengers did not have the mean and authorization to purchase their tickets which was difficult since the airlines took significant advantages of these systems to maximize their profit. According to Garrett, the first two major ARS was the 1946 American Airlines Reservisor. The Reservisor was not a fully automatic system and required an additional collaboration between the airlines and the agents to process each customers reservation. American Airlines (AAL) and IBM later joined their forces to update and improve the system with the introduction of new autonomous technology to manage the flight reservations. The collaboration gave birth to the Magetronic Reservisor during the 1950s, and such system used an electronic brain which was also the first artificial intelligence system (AI) (Garrett ). The introduction of the SABRE system in the 1960s was the major change in the AR industry since companies did not need human do supervise the operations. The new Global Distribution System (GDS) has several advantages due to its ability to connect the company to the customer using different internet-based booking websites. Some of the GDS examples include Sabre by AAL, PARS by USAir, TravelSky by Air China and Worldspan by Delta (Kelly 1). The GDS is one of the critical change in the reservation systems; however, today there are small websites which can offer the same service at lower prices with faster networks. Also, there are several conflicts between the customers and airlines and according to a recent study, airlines continue to impose additional fees on tickets purchased on third parties websites (Garrett ). The advance in the mobile technologies and the implementation of increased mobile internet connection such as 5G expand the domination of third parties website over the use of GDS and airlines companies web site for reservation purpose. One of the new airline business models is the advance of the cargo transportation business which companies such as UPS and FedEx continue to dominate in term of market share. Both America Airline and Southwest have a cargo business operation for personal and business use. The cargo related operation is second business revenue to an airline, and such business consists of loading customers and companies freight in the planes for delivery to other countries. The cargo business is a recent model in diversifying the airline's profit and maintain a long term competitive advantage due to the reduction of the airline's profitability during the last decade. Some of the requirements to start shipping include the use of Air Waybill, Shipper Export Declaration (SED), Commercial Shippers and Freight Forwarders and others based on the destination country (American Airlines Cargo ). Southwest has three products capabilities which are the Next Flight Guaranteed, Southwest Standard and Fesh Fast while America Airlines appears to provide four products which are the Priority Parcel Service, Expedite FS, Expedite TC and Confirmed FS. According to the recent research, America Airlines is the only carrier which can ship to Europe while Southwest is limited to America, Mexico, and Canada. Finally, America Airlines is the ultimate choice to ship devices to Europe at the price of $ 1841 pounds based on the rate estimations: 100kg to pounds = 220 pounds which is $ 9.55* 100 = $ 955 + 12.7*80 pounds = 1016+ 955= $ 1971 to ship $ 300 lbs in France. Works Cited American Airlines Cargo . America Airlines. n.d. 7 April 2019. <https://www.aacargo.com/index.html>. Garrett , Mark Evan . Encyclopedia of Transportation: Social Science and Policy. California: Sage Publications, 2014. < EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=845930&site=ehostlive&scope=site.>. Kelly , David . How global distribution system povide access to travel. 26 November 2018. 6 April 2019. <https://www.tripsavvy.com/what-is-gds-468274>. Southwest Cargo . Southwest Cargo. n.d. 7 Aprl 2019. <https://www.southwest.com/html/air/business-groups/cargo.html?clk=GFOOTERBOTTOM-CARGO>.
