Originally Posted by
jjbiv
Airline IT in general just isn't that great. It's viewed as a cost to be minimized rather than a source of competitive advantage. Airlines also just can't afford to compete for top-tier IT and CS talent, so it's usually outsourced to the lowest bidder.
I guess it depends on what you call IT. The customer-facing stuff (website, app), sure, it's not always super amazing. But come on, the back-end IT to run an airline (scheduling, routing), even a LCC like Frontier, is pretty intense. Some airlines (Southwest) have underinvestd for years, and occasionally you see meltdowns (Christmas 2023). But it's actually pretty incredible just how much self-serve you can do on United's website, for example.