Originally Posted by
emcampbe
yup - it’s amazing that airlines can even run on the antaquated systems generally in use today.
i always thought it would be amazing to see what kind of modern system an Apple, Google, or other tech company, could build today for the industry. Would cost millions (or probably billions) of $ and a ton of other investments in equipment, training, etc. One big hurdle (I would think) is how an airline (any airline) could do this without ‘unplugging’ from the bigger system that is still on ‘todays’ tech - how would an innovative system like this, if say, United would do it, be able to operate while interlining with all sorts of partners that haven’t gone that step. It’s a huge challenge. Unfortunately, one day the ticketing system, GDS, pax info. systems, etc. are going to need to be re-built from the ground up, and I’m not sure how that transition could even work.
Don’t think even the COVID slowdown offered a good opportunity for this unless it was already well underway - as complex as airlines are and to be a truly modern system that could leave enough flexibility to be ideal for the future, as well, I suspect you’d probably be looking at a
timeline of around a decade or more to bring it online - from planning to implementation.
Absolutely agree all the way around. I'm sure that there've been plenty of "new world" mockups done; it's the implementation part that's going to be absolutely ridiculously complex. I've built a career around telecom systems and those are somewhat simplistic compared to what it takes to make an airline run.
And yes - I was being somewhat facetious when I said a piece of me wondered about the Covid slowdown being a good time to make a swap .... of course these things take many years of planning. More a case of daydreaming "gee, what if we could ground all the planes for a week? What implementations could be accelerated?"
Obviously not practical, but it's the same reason I buy a $2 Powerball ticket when it reaches a billion dollars .... That $2 buys me the ability to daydream for a few minutes. Same kind of daydreaming here -- "What if ....?"