Galileo, (former United Airlines Apollo system) Sabre (American Airlines system) PARS/System One (IIRC Easterns contribution) and World Span (TWA's contribution) are so ingrained into the travel agents world, I don't think any upgrade could compete considering the millions, if not billions of dollars of hardware giveaways those founding airlines gave to the travel agents to sell there product.
I don't think it has anything to do with system upgrade, I think is it all about distribution. Why leave any money on the table? At this point, while odd, I see perfect logic in Southwest capitulating and going with a global distribution system. As the domestic market reaches satuaration, the only way to grow revenues is to find new streams of revenue and if that means joining the evil empire to do so, oh well.
If Southwest wanted to put their own system out there to distribute tickets with Travel Agents I'm sure they could, but why waste the investment when you can just join the party thirty plus years late. When you think about the prospect of travel agents being able to sell Southwest tickets from the GDS, and not having to go to a third party that is the best of all worlds, and given the choice between Frontier and Southwest from Denver to Las Vegas, if you have Frontier on GDS but you have to go someplace else to book Southwest, why bother? Book Frontier, but if Southwest is on the same system, now you book Southwest. So, it is a win/win/win situation for Southwest. (Win #1)They don't have to spend there money/time/energy/effort in development/distribution/training of a system that has been around 30+years, brought to you by industry leaders at the time. They get to coat tail ride the product at the end of its life cycle. (Win #2)They will obtain incremental revenue, and as revenue stagnates in the United States domestic circle, any revenue is good revenue when you are making money already! (Win #3)If Southwest does in fact purchase ATA, then they will already be able to market the flights domestically and the International expansion will be that much easier. Or could it be that ATA is demanding this step because they can't enjoy the full benefits of the codeshare with out Southwest being in a GDS agreement, and did Southwest do some research and find that the value added far exceeds the cost to join the party?
By the way, when was the last time you purchased anything from a travel agent?
