Essence of Travel Technology

By Krishna Kanth.Ch

• Introduction

• How Travel Technology Was

• Central Reservation System (CRS) Overview

• Global Distribution System (GDS) Overview

• Passenger Name Record (PNR)

• Core Members of Airline Industries

• PNR & e-Ticket Process Flow

• Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow

• Q & A

Essence of Travel Technology

Traveller has to go to a Travel Agency for theirair travel ticket.

Travel Agency contacts the airline requesting aspecific flight on a specific time and date.

Fares were the same on each flight with each airline.

Reservations staff retrieves an index-card for that flight /date from revolving tray.

Travel Agency’s query answered based on retrieval.

Travel Agency issues the ticket, collect payment from traveler.

How it was

Reservation Employees at a Revolving Table with Index Cards for each flight

How it was

CRS Overview

Computer Reservations System or Central

Reservation System is a Computerized system used

to store and retrieve information and conduct

transactions related to Air Travel.

Originally designed and operated by Airlines,

later extended for the use of Travel Agents.

CRS used by a single travel provider to store

their reservations.

CRS Overview

Airline reservation systems contain airline

schedules, fare tariffs, passenger reservations

and ticket records.

An airline's distribution works within their own

reservation system, as well as pushing out

information to the GDS.

A second type of direct distribution channel are

consumers who use the internet or mobile

applications to make their own reservations.

GDS Overview

Global Distribution Systems are vast global travel networks.

The GDS network model is a centralized one.

GDS interconnects

Travel agencies Airlines Hotels Rent a car companies Railways Other travel-related companies.

GDS is based around high-powered mainframe computers.

GDS can process travel transactions in huge volumes at blinding speeds.

GDS Overview

Formerly known as CRS: Computer Reservation System

Now GDS: Global Distribution Systems.

Name change because of function change.

Main Functions are

Reservations

Back-office integration

Business Intelligence

Management Information

• Yield/Revenue Management

• Market Information Data Transfer (MIDT)

First GDS

On a certain day on a certain flight two personsmet by chance

Mr. C.R.Smith from American Airlines

Mr. R.Blair Smith from IBM

Plan to automate the American Airlines reservation process with the help of IBM hardware and software.

Result: SABRE(Semi Automatic Business Reservations Environment)

In 1960,First SABRE system was installed on two IBM7090 computers.

World’s Top GDS

Amadeus Selling Platform

Sabre RedWorkspace

Salient Feature of G D S

Flight Search

Seat availablility

Checking Fares

Making of a PNR (Passenger Name Record):

Issueance of Tickets

Seat Preference

Meal Preference

Booking of Bassinet for Infants

Special Service Request

Frequent Flyer Information’s

Refunding of a Ticket

P N R

An active travel reservation in a GDS is known asa Passenger Name Record (PNR).

The PNR contains the information such as

Name of the Pax.

Gender

Contact details(Phone Number, Email)

Itinerary segments.

Each GDS stores vast databases of PNR’s with pastand present reservations.

Every PNR that is created in GDS has associated historical information.

P N R

The historical information of the PNR and any Additions, Cancellations, Deletions that are subsequently made to it.

The GDS System updates PNR history at each End ofTransaction entry.

Although PNRs were originally introduced for air travel, they are now also being used for bookings of hotels, car rental, railways, etc.

PNR is an alphanumeric code, typically 6 characters in length

Ex :- RMT33W, KZVGX5, IIRCYC

PNR Elements

P N R

Passenger Details

Core Members

International Air Traffic Association (IATA) Trade association for the airlines support many areas of aviation activity

and help formulate industry policy oncritical aviation issues

Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA)

Airport operations

Baggage operations

Cargo operations

Passenger operations

Core Members

Official Airline Guide (OAG) OAG is best known for its airline schedules

database which holds future and historicalflight details for more than 1,000 airlinesand over 4,000 airports

Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO)

Publishes the latest airfares for more than500 airlines multiple times per day.

Airline CRS, Sabre, Amadeus GDSs, OnlineTravel agencies such as Expedia, Travelocityare the prime users of ATPCO.

PNR CreationProcess

Ticket Issuance Process

Thank you