Why there is no quick fix for airlines’ IT problems
When Antony Knights and his wife, Louise Firth, first noticed that their British Airways flight to Berlin from London’s Heathrow airport was listed as delayed, they were neither surprised nor very concerned. But shortly afterwards they and others waiting for the flight, on May 25, were shocked to be told to leave the airport terminal. Their service, like around 80 other British Airways departures that day, had been cancelled because of a computer fault leading to misery for thousands of travellers as knock-on disruption forced the cancelling of more departures the following day. The experience of the couple — who had planned the trip to Berlin since September — has become increasingly common for airline passengers as the companies have been hit with repeated IT failures. Carriers in Germany’s Lufthansa Group in February had to cancel around 200 flights after construction workers severed a fibre optic cable vital for the group’s booking systems. Southwest Airlines in the US last year had to cancel around 15,000 flights in a week in December thanks to a mixture of severe weather and IT and telephone systems that crumbled under the extreme demands. British Airways has suffered repeated similar incidents, in February and March last year. The incidents highlight how ageing electronics across the airline industry have combined with some carriers’ operational issues to make systems’ fragility an urgent concern. John Strickland, a London-based aviation consultant, said airlines depended on computer systems whose oldest elements were sometimes decades old. Many now need very sensitive handling. “Over the years, new updates in stages have been bolted on to make very complicated systems,” Strickland said. Yet the question, according to Becrom Basu, a partner at the management consultancy LEK, is whether airlines can introduce wholesale changes in an industry that never fully shuts. “I think if you ask someone in the industry, they would say it’s like open-heart surgery while you’re still trying to run,” Basu said of introducing new, more reliable systems. “It’s one of those things most people don’t want to tackle if they can avoid it.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-06-05/general/why-there-is-no-quick-fix-for-airlines2019-it-problems
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Why there is no quick fix for airlines’ IT problems
When Antony Knights and his wife, Louise Firth, first noticed that their British Airways flight to Berlin from London’s Heathrow airport was listed as delayed, they were neither surprised nor very concerned. But shortly afterwards they and others waiting for the flight, on May 25, were shocked to be told to leave the airport terminal. Their service, like around 80 other British Airways departures that day, had been cancelled because of a computer fault leading to misery for thousands of travellers as knock-on disruption forced the cancelling of more departures the following day. The experience of the couple — who had planned the trip to Berlin since September — has become increasingly common for airline passengers as the companies have been hit with repeated IT failures. Carriers in Germany’s Lufthansa Group in February had to cancel around 200 flights after construction workers severed a fibre optic cable vital for the group’s booking systems. Southwest Airlines in the US last year had to cancel around 15,000 flights in a week in December thanks to a mixture of severe weather and IT and telephone systems that crumbled under the extreme demands. British Airways has suffered repeated similar incidents, in February and March last year. The incidents highlight how ageing electronics across the airline industry have combined with some carriers’ operational issues to make systems’ fragility an urgent concern. John Strickland, a London-based aviation consultant, said airlines depended on computer systems whose oldest elements were sometimes decades old. Many now need very sensitive handling. “Over the years, new updates in stages have been bolted on to make very complicated systems,” Strickland said. Yet the question, according to Becrom Basu, a partner at the management consultancy LEK, is whether airlines can introduce wholesale changes in an industry that never fully shuts. “I think if you ask someone in the industry, they would say it’s like open-heart surgery while you’re still trying to run,” Basu said of introducing new, more reliable systems. “It’s one of those things most people don’t want to tackle if they can avoid it.”<br/>
