The Airline Industry’s Problem with Absolutely Ancient IT

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

[uglyfdd]

Airline consultant here: this is INSANE. The fact that you included information that even I didn't know is beyond amazing. I only today realized how much research goes into these videos like...insane, even the internal tools wow. Great great job!!!

[roanwestraat]

As an IT professional, corps VERY rarely replace or upgrade hardware until it literally is about to burst or already burst. Its VERY frustrating. Ive been used as a scapegoat for this shit before too.

[vegannomad]

The fact that literally 40 years after taking my first flight I still can't purchase an airline ticket using my full and correct legal last name because it contains a hyphen is mind-blowing to me. That really says everything you need to know about the airline industry's IT systems.

[TikkaQrow]

I promise that the last 15 years the IT dept has done nothing except warn higher ups of an impending failure of the system, and the higher ups likely said 'We'll think about it' while stretching the backbone of their company on box fans pointed at server racks in rooms where the AC failed 5 years ago.

Always prepare for the worst, because the worst WILL happen given enough time, and however much it costs to prepare, I promise it'll be cheaper than waiting for the worst to happen.

[johnopalko]

I finally retired from IT after 40+ years in it. We would beg and plead with management to spend more money on staffing, upgrades, etc., all to no avail. Then, when something finally did break, it was, somehow, all our fault.
Of course, that never stopped them from spending money to implement the latest fad in software development or whatever and trying to shove it down our throats, thus making it even more difficult to do our jobs.
Feh!

[sonofbelz]

As someone who works in IT, it is completely unsurprising that this is the case. You'd be appalled by just how many vitally important things run on highly outdated tech. This is usually because the cost, manpower, and time required to replace it is often absolutely monumental. So company bigwigs stick with "well if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Even the pentagon still has critical systems that run on windows 95 and 98.

Not saying it's right or the best way of doing things, but there's usually more to the story than just pure money or greed in these cases. Nothing in this field is ever as simple as just pressing a few buttons on a keyboard or unplugging a device and plugging a new one in.

[TimePlusTravel-]

As an ex-travel industry employee (thanks, Covid), seeing that GDS screen gave me some PTSD. Travel agents call it 'flightmares' - stress thinking about doing something wrong in the GDS system (which can result in expensive fines from the airlines if you break booking rules accidentally that the system allows) or having to do some major re-booking. I don't miss flight bookings at all!

[Robin_Goodfellow]

I work for a software consulting company. Basically my job is to write custom software for businesses. So naturally, I deal with technical debt on a daily basis. It can be very frustrating at times because we are not in control of whether or not the hulking old system is replaced or improved. That's in the hands of our clients. We can always advise, but never command.
However, when we _are_ actually contracted to replace or improve old systems, my job suddenly becomes amazing. The level of impact I can have is staggering. My work can affect people all over my state, or even all over my country. I love doing this kind of work, but I have to be asked to do it, and given the money and time to do it right.
If you're out there and you're in charge, take a good, hard look at your systems and ask whether they could be considered modern and efficient. Ask what the cost of failure is. Then do something about it, before the whole thing caves in.

[Prizm]

Thanks for your proper voiceover with natural pauses. So sick of lazy YouTubers who splice a thousand edits together, chopping out all pauses and creating a never-ending barrage of words where you don't have a chance to think or absorb the info.

[adisario]

I no longer consider Southwest to be a "low-cost airline." Its fares are often right in line and sometimes higher than the traditional big carriers.

[jeromykeloway]

Ah yeah... The old Story of "technical dept". Technicians always warn and management never listens.

[jeancarlocastro]

I worked for about 5 years with a travel agency, and got really familiar with Sabre GDS. The tool itself was quite marvelous as a new agent, but as the years went on I started to notice the huge amount of limitations it had. For example, the entirety of a corporate account for one of the biggest oil companies in the world could be messed up quite easily by one single agent unticking a box while looking up a PNR. Happened many times, and I swear there was never a change on the GDS to avoid delaying thousands of passengers from booking their flights.

[kanetao]

When I went to college in the late eighties, one of our profs had experience in the airline industry and helped with Sabre. Fast forward to 30 years later, we are still using the software he worked on. How sad is that.

[Citricut]

My father worked in ticketing many years until retirement. He used to work with an Amadeus terminal and type the most complicated reservations on the command line by hand. He then was unable to work with a windows computer or use the mouse 😂 This brought good memories, thanks for the video.

[GingerKiwiDev]

My mom worked for Air Canada in reservations and bookings in the late 60's and early 70's. They had one of the most up to date systems at the time. It sounds like not much has changed since then, and that she could literally do the same job 50 years later with almost no additional training. (She still remembers most of the 3 letter airport codes too!)

[gusnaughton]

Google Flights doesn't do a GDS lookup. It buys availability data directly from OAG and consumes AVS messages from airlines directly and use a much smarter data structure internally to quickly evaluate farings.

[Jabullz]

If tax dollars are used to bail them out, they should be held to a general standard regardless of what it will cost them. And that's the end of it.

[Peacewind]

As a private pilot and IT professional, I've been following this story closely. Thanks for breaking it down. What a lovely morning coffee watch.

[surferdude]

I was an IT professional at a bank. It frightens me that some of the processes that the bank relys on are still running in Cobol. That code is as old as I am and I'm retired.

[chillaxter]

This "Good Enough" mentality with accountability only to the share holders is honestly one of the most pressing problems we have today, period. Not just in the airline industry, but in industry altogether. It's a primary driving factor in the income gap eroding the functional middle class, driving a portion of global inflation and encouraging corporate corruption on a massive level.