Interlining Airborne

<B> Interlining Airborne</B>
<I>Integration Takes Off On Delayed Schedule</I>

By David Jonas

Another piece of the electronic ticket interlining puzzle finally is expected to fall into place today as America West and Continental go live with their integrated system. Meanwhile, United and American each will work with an alliance partner before connecting with one another sometime next year--nearly a full year after first expected--as IATA, Amadeus and other GDS providers progress toward industry-wide offerings.

The America West-Continental e-ticket interline system, also delayed slightly, should be online today and available through Sabre by the end of the month, enabling travelers to book e-tickets on multiple airlines. "The biggest challenge has been integrating both reservations systems and both revenue accounting systems," said Bill Spilman, director of market automation at America West. "Linking those four systems proved to be more difficult than we first thought and we did not allow enough time for testing."

Nevertheless, America West's connection with Continental is the first between two domestic airlines and the second overall behind American and partner Canadian Airlines International. It will be followed by similar links to two or three others throughout 2000, and Spilman noted that "those will probably be with American, United and Northwest, since they are the furthest along."

Indeed, AA and UA are progressing with e-ticket interlining, but not with each other--yet. "We had suspended discussions with AA because they had a few other projects they needed to work on," said Dick Burdette, United's manager of process development and electronic ticket systems. "Those talks recently restarted and interline implementation should occur in late April or early May of next year."

Instead, United has been actively working with Star Alliance cohort Air Canada and expects to complete the integration in late March following the Y2K programming freeze. "The trend now among carriers is to work first with partners," Burdette said, noting the completed project between AA and Canadian, and ongoing work between CO-America West and British Airways-Qantas. "But the significant benefit of working outside our alliance with American is the duplication on so many routes."

AA chief Don Carty, without pinpointing the current state of integration with United, echoed those sentiments. "It is most definitely where we want to be," he said, adding that the link with Canadian has been a "a real homerun."

"It took longer than expected because we wanted to automate as much as possible to make it passenger-friendly and easier for our frontline employees at the airport," said Blair Neufeld, Canadian's project manager of travel automation. "The next big hurdle is working with a carrier not on the Sabre system." While not identifying who that next carrier could be, Neufeld hinted that Oneworld partners are "strong candidates."

Canadian has reported positive feedback from airport staff in locations used by both AA and CAI, and from passengers. "In some markets, passengers already expect to be able to use an e-ticket on either carrier," Neufeld noted.

AA also said no problems have been reported in either its or Canadian's systems, but the link up with United is more complex because United, unlike AA and Canadian, is not on Sabre. "We have decided to wait until Y2K is behind us before moving into more detailed discussions with United," an official said.

Northwest also expects to establish e-ticket interlining ties in the year ahead. "We are working with United, but are trying to get the Continental piece finished first," said Al Lenza, Northwest's vice president of distribution planning. The carrier is targeting 1Q00 for initial implementation with Continental.

The plan at US Airways, according to former senior director of e-commerce and distribution Shafiq Khan, is to first link up with other carriers using Sabre. Khan, now vice president of interactive sales and marketing at Marriott, said, "US Airways has a priority list of those carriers with which it intends to build links, and American would be first." However, he noted that progress has been "very slow going."

Internal development of interlined systems is an extensive process. A carrier must write programs both to recognize tickets issued by another carrier and hand over control of the tickets it issued. Following software development, each carrier must train hundreds of employees--including those in reservation departments, airport locations and city ticket offices--to ensure that proper checkin procedures and ticket transfers are handled appropriately.

"It takes a lot of time initially to establish interlining with another carrier," Burdette said. "But after that, the testing period necessary is much shorter for subsequent links to other airlines."

However, a possible stumbling block for future connections are the standards determined by IATA (<I>BTN</I>, Oct. 28, 1996). Spilman said America West and Continental, despite the advantage of using the same reservations system, developed the interline link to "fully meet IATA standards so we will be ready to link up with other, non-partner carriers."

Likewise, Gerald Gunn, Canadian's analyst for travel automation, said, "Our system abides by all IATA standards, which will make it easier to link with carriers in the future because the infrastructure already is defined." It remains to be seen how connected carrier pairs not adhering to those standards will fare when branching out their interline systems to other airlines.

Once established, however, e-ticket interlining will allow travelers to book on more than one airline and facilitate ticket interchangeability in the case of flight cancellations. "The second carrier will be able to retrieve the ticket and change the coupon for that segment to itself," said Claude Guay, global executive for marketing and business development for IBM's Travel & Transportation Industry Solutions Unit, which is working with IATA on an industry-wide interline system. Guay added that in the case of a cancellation on a connecting flight, the first carrier would be able to assign the ticket to the second carrier "before you even get off the plane from the first leg and all you would have to do is change planes." The movement toward such systems is underscored by mushrooming e-ticket usage, now above 50 percent at most major airlines.

IBM and IATA said their host system will be ready next summer for any interested airline, regardless of IATA membership. "We are trying to limit the number of bilateral links carriers will have to have," Guay said, adding that he already has had discussions with a few carriers.

While it is unclear which airlines can benefit most from the shared service, United has no plans to be involved. "We have been presented the idea, but because we have such a complete electronic product of our own, we do not need to join up with the IBM/IATA product at this time," Burdette said.

For its part, Canadian said it's evaluating the IATA project and has made no definitive plans at this point.

The GDSs also are getting into the e-ticket interline game. Amadeus plans to introduce a server that will allow any participating carriers to interline with every other one by 1Q00. Like the IATA project, Amadeus' offering--thought to be the first of its kind from a GDS--would provide a single database from which carriers can exchange information, rather than a series of separate connections. Finnair currently is testing the system.

"For an air alliance of six members, you would need 30 interfaces, and adding a seventh would necessitate 42 interfaces. That will keep alliances from inviting new members as it becomes cost-ineffective," said Hans Jorgensen, senior vice president for Madrid-based Amadeus. "It wouldn't make sense without interlining at the GDS level."

Eric Speck, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Sabre, said the GDS presently has e-ticket interlining capability with Air Canada, despite some technical issues. "We're beta testing now with multiple carriers to implement interlining in the agency environment," he added. "That will become available this month by giving the agencies shared PNR access."

Worldspan, too, is keeping a watchful eye on such developments. A spokesperson said, "Worldspan is working on interline ticketing on a bilateral basis between airlines," but would not elaborate on specifics or a timeframe.