Three major Star Alliance members are considering forming a common IT platform to combine their inventory, departure management and pricing systems.
Air Canada, Lufthansa and United Airlines have jointly issued a request for information to their current IT suppliers and other vendors and are likely to issue formal proposals by mid-2003.
This comes as United, Star's largest single carrier, is faced with the prospect of having to replace its ageing legacy IT system. Its Star partners have been pushing for an alliance-friendly option.
The move is intended as much to save costs as it is to gain advantage over competing alliances. Savings could begin to accrue as early as the end of 2004.
The common system would not share information or track individual accounts for customer relationship management, but share common processes.
Requests for information have been made to the four major global distribution system operators - Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan - and to several other IT providers, including IBM and Lufthansa Systems. Amadeus has been pushing hard for the contract as six Star carriers already use its GDS system.
Star says: "Our approach is not a United Nations approach where every Star member would have to make every single decision, but instead we are letting members with a specific interest go ahead on a project."
Source: Airline Business
