ABSTRACT
A lot has been written for many years about transformation of the airline industry. This has been mainly focused on customer self-empowerment driven through the internet and the latest consumer available mobile technologies, while underpinned by large amounts of data that the airlines can and should use to make better decisions in all aspects of their operation from customer analytics to revenue management. This chapter analyses the missing information in the airline industry transformation. In late 1980s, in their operation side, airlines introduced the Inter Airlines Through Check-In (IATCI) and Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE). Tickets moved from paper-based to electronic tickets (ETs). Airlines, which ironically created their own global distribution systems (GDSs) to keep control, started to sell their shareholdings into these GDSs and furthermore outsource their PSSs (passenger services systems) to the GDSs. The business model of the industry also started to change.
