American Airlines and Sabre System

In the 1960s air travel first became available for ordinary people, and travel agents provided a required service. A travel agent would find a convenient flight in the printed schedules, which were published by individual airlines, and call the airline reservation agent to make a booking. At a later time, the airline reservation agent would call back to confirm the booking, or to propose an alternative flight, if no seats were available. The airline paid the agent a fixed amount of commission for the booking. The airline business in the US was in a turbulent situation in the late 1970s due to fierce competition and deregulation. Most of the airlines that operated on the same routes used the same aircraft and the same terminals. Since the services were so similar it seemed that the only scope for differentiation was in terms of cost.
That time American Airlines had no hubs, its routes were regulated, and it was mainly a long-haul carrier. This meant that American Airlines would have lost market share in a subjective reservations system controlled by a competitor. In keeping with the systems thinking of the time American Airlines developed a computerized reservation system with the intention of cutting costs through the reduction of clerical staff. Initially, the system was meant to be used by American Airlines reservation staff only. The system automated the main clerical tasks including finding out flight information, booking a seat on a flight, issuing tickets and invoices, etc. This information system was expensive to develop and, when it came online, competitors filed lawsuits claiming that it gave American Airlines an unfair advantage (mainly because American Airlines flights were listed first by the system). Other air companies aspired to implement their own reservation systems, for example, Delta Airlines created DATAS, United Airlines developed the Apollo system and TWA created PARS (TWA is now owned by American Airlines). But that early computer

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