Encore: Southwest vs American Airlines | Aviation Cyber Wars | 3

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2021

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The computer age is on the horizon, and American Airlines has a secret weapon: SABRE. Sure, the airline is top of the heap under the current pen-and-paper reservation system — the one where travel agents use a massive phonebook to look up flights, then call individual airlines to book a ticket. But they’re tired of playing phone tag. The American Society of Travel Agents has plans to roll out a new electronic system, one that could force American to lose its unofficial preferred status. The company has to get its system to market first — and its leaders have to convince the travel agencies to get onboard.

But there’s a much bigger threat looming on the horizon, one that could give a big boost to upstart rivals like Southwest Airlines. Deregulation is coming, and when it does it will change everything.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:06.6	A listener note, this episode originally aired in 2018.
0:17.2	It's June 1974.
0:25.0	Bob Crandell, the chief financial officer in head of American Airlines data services,
0:29.6	is touching down in Rio de Janeiro.
0:32.4	He grabs his briefcase and tries to shake off jet lag after flying overnight from New
0:36.8	York.
0:37.9	As he walks to a line of taxis, the warm humid air makes his shirt cling to his back.
0:43.5	Copacabana Palace Hotel, Portovor.
0:47.3	Taxi cruises through Rio's lush landscape, passing by mountains that rise out of the sea,
0:52.8	eventually reaching the famed Copacabana Beach.
0:56.9	Looking out the window, Crandell sees hundreds of people playing volleyball and forcing
1:01.3	around in the surf.
1:03.0	Young women are wearing barely their bikinis.
1:06.2	Crandell hasn't packed a bathing suit.
1:08.5	He's here for urgent business.
1:11.4	Just three months ago, Max Hopper, American's tech guru warned that the American Society
1:17.3	of Travel Agents, which is holding its annual convention today in Rio, is making plans
1:22.4	to build its own computerized reservation system.
1:26.6	Someone has its own in-house system called Saber.
1:29.5	Other airlines have their in-house systems too.
	...

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