The last three major airline res system cutovers have not gone well for the major players involved. Despite the success of the SITA cutover of the Malaysian Airlines new res system, the next two have been rocky at best. So while I hope not to jinx the next one, let's hope that the Sabre cutover of jetBlue from Navitaire to SabreSonic goes well.
UAL Corp. chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton spoke at the airline industry's Wings Club in New York Thursday, and focused his
prepared comments on familiar topics: taxes are excessive, infrastructure is inadequate, regulation is outdated and industry behavior is dysfunctional. He talked about
possible industry consolidation, but was reluctant to answer analysts' and reporters' questions about the
JAL saga beyond saying he hopes it continues to be a distraction for his two primary competitors. Tilton also answered a few questions of mine on corporate accounts and information technology.
WestJet CEO Sean Durfy today acknowledged that the challenges stemming from the
switchover to Sabre's reservation system "are carrying on longer then we originally anticipated."
Acknowledging that the
SabreSonic CSS cutover had been less than stellar--despite my earlier congrats--WestJet offered its apologies for a number of snafus with the cutover. It probably still has a way to go. Still, this is a pretty fast install. Sometimes its better to just do it rather than wait.
