Passenger Service & Reservations Technology

ITA Software’s airline passenger service and reservations platform is an amalgam of the very best of ITA technology solutions, from pricing and shopping systems to airline reservations and departure control solutions. It uses advanced computer and storage architecture to provide high performance at a much lower cost. And — critically important — it has the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of our customers and the shifting landscape of the airline industry.

 

 

Modern, flexible, and reliable technology

ITA's airline platform is built entirely from scratch using commodity PC-based application servers in a multi-tiered, modern architecture. The cost-efficient and scalable platform increases capacity and improves overall performance. It has configurable and adaptable components and relies on customizable rule languages that permit fast modifications.

All components communicate by exchanging XML messages. They offer open APIs and third party connectivity. ITA also fully supports industry-standard PADIS/EDIFACT and AIRIMP to communicate with Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and other airlines (OAL).  
 

Centralized customer data repository

With a centralized data repository, ITA's airline platform enables a streamlined, customer-centric approach with better product and customer tracking capabilities across all passenger-service operations. The data repository uses an industry-proven relational database management system for Passenger Name Record (PNR), electronic ticket, customer and reservation data, making it highly fault-tolerant, secure, and scalable. The integrated data architecture adds consistency, simplifies management, provides high availability, and improves data reporting. All data can be controlled by a flexible role-based access rights mechanism and is accessible from all customer touch points, including websites, kiosks, call centers, and mobile applications.

 

Intuitive user interfaces and efficient workflow

All available airline platform components have user-friendly and feature-rich interfaces that incorporate modern web technologies. Desktop client interfaces use DHTML/JavaScript, CSS, Ajax, and Mozilla XUL technologies. ITA’s call center application and airport agent application support CUTE, MUSE, RESA and ULTRA environments, among others. Whether handled by agents or the passengers themselves, every request or change is smooth and efficient — more focused on customers, less on transactions.

The browser based design slashes costs as well. The installation footprint, desktop rollout costs, and IT maintenance costs are all drastically reduced by enabling consolidation of all updates on the server side. ITA airline platform components also use carefully designed iconography coupled with meaningful workflows to make training of call center and airport personnel faster and less error-prone.

 

Resilient Infrastructure

ITA maintains fully redundant operations, including multiple fail-safe communication networks with no single point of failure. Critical data resides on multiple devices simultaneously and is distributed throughout the hosting environment (and to secure alternate sites) for data recovery purposes.