Airzim From Zimbabwe, joined Jun 2001, 960 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 4122 times:
Most legacy airline RES systems are based off either Unisys or IBM mainframes. The underlying IBM mainframe is the PARS RES system. There are significant differences between the various systems other than names but the core is the same. Some RES systems are leg based, some segment based, depends on the airlines specific preferences.
The new LCC’s are using some client server based systems like Open Skies, but there are many limitations to using these systems including interaction with the GDS’s.
Here are some
American Airlines-Sabre/PARS
Continental Airlines-EDS Shares/PARS
Delta Airlines-Deltamatic-PARS
Northwest Airlines-Unisys
Alaska Airlines-Sabre/PARS
America West-EDS Shares/PARS
Southwest Airlines-Sabre (in-house)
Air Canada-RS13/PARS
Aloha-EDS Shares (but may have moved)
United Airlines –Apollo/Unisys
Aeromexico-EDS Shares/PARS
Mexicana-EDS Shares/PARS
Varig-PARS
British Airways-NewGen Inventory from Amadeus
Air France-Alpha 3/Unisys
Lufthansa-LH Multihost/Unisys
SAS-Unisys
Iberia-Resiber/Unisys
Qantas- NewGen Inventory from Amadeus/PARS
Swiss-PARS
CAAC-all mainland Chinese carriers use Unisys
China Airlines-Unisys
EVA Air-Unisys
Japan Ailines-RS13/PARS
ANA-RS13/PARS
Korean Air-RS13/PARS
Asiana-RS13/PARS
Thai-EDS Shares for inventory control
Malaysia-PARS
Garuda-moving to LH Multihost
Singapore Airlines-version of RS13/PARS
Air India-Unisys
Indian Airlines-old version of BABS/PARS
Cathay Pacific-Unisys
Virgin Atlantic-EDS Shares/PARS
There are tons of others. Traditionally airlines used to have their own internal RES systems, but in today's arena to reduce cost many (including most of the US carriers and BA and QF) are going to hosted arrangements either through Sabre, EDS, Amadeus, etc.
I heard quite often that Sabre is expensive in Latinamerica due to their dominance and Amadeus is expensive in Europe.
Some Latinamerican airlines therefore try to migrate from Sabre to Amadeus.
In Venezuela they use:
Aserca: Sabre
Laser: Worldspan (still, wanted to change to Sabre but that seem to be too expensive)
Aeropostal: Sabre
Conviasa: Gabriel
Avior: Navitaire
Rutaca: ? probably Excel
Southwest uses SAAS (not sure what it stands for) This is what's left of BN's old reservations system. The only connection to SABRE aside from standard teletype reservations function is hosting only.
Quoting Airzim (Reply 2): British Airways-NewGen Inventory from Amadeus
Air France-Alpha 3/Unisys
Lufthansa-LH Multihost/Unisys
SAS-Unisys
Iberia-Resiber/Unisys
Qantas- NewGen Inventory from Amadeus/PARS
On a reservations level these are all Amadeus.
Independence Air - Openskies by Navataire
AirTran - Openskies by Navataire
both of these carriers accept FOP using teletype credit card payment.
Airzim From Zimbabwe, joined Jun 2001, 960 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 4041 times:
Amadeus is a GDS not a RES system, at least not yet. With the cooperation of BA and QF Amadeus is building a RES system based on RS13. I can't remember the name but it used to be called NewGen which also included a DCS (check-in) system which is already up and running at QF and I think BA. Finnair is also a expected to cutover from Unisys next year.
Prinair From United States, joined Dec 1999, 608 posts, RR: 4 Reply 8, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 3933 times:
Amadeus is a reservations system and a GDS. Remember the former System One which helped develop early versions of Amadeus. Later on Amadeus purchased System One.
AirScoot From United States, joined May 2005, 688 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 3870 times:
Quoting Prinair (Reply 8): Amadeus is a reservations system and a GDS. Remember the former System One which helped develop early versions of Amadeus. Later on Amadeus purchased System One.
Thank you for not making me argue the semantics in that one. It's never a good idea when I first get home.
The question I would pose in this is what about carriers that are either less well known or going away altogether.
For example.. KB (Druk Air) I couldn't find anything when I tried to do a search on it.. or G0 (the new Ghana International). At this point it's just idle curiosity since I've used SABRE, Apollo, PARS (and subsequently Worldspan), and SystemOne and find the differences intriguing. Seems from an industry standpoint that if you took a little bit from each and every one and squished them all together you'd get the perfect system that does everything. However, as we all know, you get what you pay for.
JGPH1A From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 3906 times:
Quoting Airzim (Reply 7): Amadeus is a GDS not a RES system, at least not yet. With the cooperation of BA and QF Amadeus is building a RES system based on RS13. I can't remember the name but it used to be called NewGen which also included a DCS (check-in) system which is already up and running at QF and I think BA. Finnair is also a expected to cutover from Unisys next year.
Not strictly true. There is a difference between a Res/Distribution system and an inventory system. Amadeus provided Res/Distribution for 150 airlines (ie. their own offices and airport ticket desks use Amadeus for bookings, ticketing, fares etc), but up until recently Amadeus did not provide an Inventory system. This has now changed, with the migration of BA, DI, QF, FJ, CW, PH, PC, AO, CQ, CC, DR, FQ, IE, NF, OT, TL, UQ and YE to the new Altéa Plan inventory system (NOT based on RS13 at all - developed using similiar O&D concepts but based on radically enhanced architecture and doing away completely with the Inventory (Copy) PNR). AY, DC, EE and FC will migrate to Altéa Plan shortly, followed by SAA soon afterwards.
The DCS portion, known as Altéa Fly, will only be completed in a year's time - in the meantime, BA, QF etc continue to use the existing RTZ and QUBE DCS systems. Finnair will continue to use Finnres DCS (USAS) and SAA will migrate to RTB DCS until Altea Fly is implemented.
Re your list of airlines and their Res systems, they're not all accurate...
American Airlines-Sabre/PARS
Continental Airlines-EDS Shares A/PARS
Delta Airlines-Deltamatic-PARS (op'd by Worldspan)
Northwest Airlines-PARS (op'd by Worldspan)
Alaska Airlines-Sabre/PARS
America West-EDS Shares B/PARS
Southwest Airlines-Sabre (in-house)
Air Canada-RES III (RS13/PARS)
Aloha-EDS Shares B
United Airlines –Apollo/PARS (op'd by Galileo)
Aeromexico-EDS Shares B/PARS
Mexicana-EDS Shares B/PARS
Varig-Amadeus + IRIS (Unisys, I think)
British Airways-Amadeus + Altea Plan
Air France-Amadeus + Alpha 3/Unisys
Lufthansa- Amadeus + LH Multihost/Unisys
SAS- Amadeus + Resaid (Unisys)
Iberia-Amadeus + Resiber(Unisys)
Qantas- Amadeus + Altea Plan
Swiss- Atraxis (PARS op'd by EDS)
CAAC-all mainland Chinese carriers use MIS (Unisys)
China Airlines- CICOS (PARS based on RTB)
EVA Air- EVAPARS (PARS based on RTB)
Japan Ailines- Axess (PARS)
ANA- PARS (dont think it's RS13 though)
Korean Air - TOPAS (RS13/PARS)
Asiana- ARTIS (RS13/PARS)
Thai - Amadeus+ROYAL(Unisys)
Malaysia- KOMAS (PARS)
Garuda- ARGA 2 (PARS?) - NOT moving to LH Multihost despite perennial rumours.
Singapore Airlines- KRISCOM (PARS)
Air India- ARTICA (Unisys)
Indian Airlines-old version of RTB/PARS
Cathay Pacific-CUPID (Unisys)
Virgin Atlantic-EDS Shares/PARS
Airzim From Zimbabwe, joined Jun 2001, 960 posts, RR: 2 Reply 11, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 3839 times:
JGPH1A,
Thanks for the detailed clarification. It has been a long time since I paid attention to the nuances especially when in came to Amadues as so much has changed recently.
However ANA I know has the AC version of RS13 for international flights. They also use a Unisys platfrom for domestic bookings (sorry my ommission) because they didn't want to modify the Unisys mainframe to handle international bookings. They bascially make a copy PNR from one RES to the other if they have a connection segment.
It gets really confusing since each airline has their own in-house name when there really aren't all that many differences.
HikesWithEyes From United States, joined Jan 2004, 815 posts, RR: 12 Reply 12, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 3832 times:
Trivia Tidbit:
SABRE stands for semi-automated business research environment.
I have used several systems over the years, but SABRE is still my
favorite.
JGPH1A From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 3818 times:
Quoting Airzim (Reply 11): However ANA I know has the AC version of RS13 for international flights. They also use a Unisys platfrom for domestic bookings (sorry my ommission) because they didn't want to modify the Unisys mainframe to handle international bookings. They bascially make a copy PNR from one RES to the other if they have a connection segment.
OK, thanks for the info, I didn't know about the split between domestic and international. Must be tough to manage !
Sponsor Message: 
From United States, joined Apr 2005, 470 posts, 
From Zimbabwe, joined Jun 2001, 960 posts, 
From Guatemala, joined Dec 2004, 4584 posts, 
From Venezuela, joined Sep 2004, 2002 posts, 
It's never a good idea when I first get home.
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
Printer friendly format 
