The move comes as the airline industry scrambles to update its IT systems to handle the competitive pressures created by the Internet. Hewlett-Packard Co. Unix servers, which will allow the TPF mainframe to focus on transactions.
Delta is one of the five partner airline owners of that site.
The challenge of e-commerce is finding ways to improve the things you've always done to do them better. Internet-based sales have created a particular problem inside the travel arena. While many dot-com businesses have failed, travel sites are booming as consumers purchase increasingly greater numbers of airline tickets and hotel rooms online. David Beitel, vice president of product development at online travel agency Expedia Inc. in Bellevue, Wash., pointed out that archaic airline reservations systems weren't constructed with messaging in mind. He noted that computer reservations systems like Worldspan LP and Sabre Inc. cache availability and often push that out to online channels.