Content area
Full Text
INTEGRATING THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY systems of America West Airlines and US Airways, carriers with vastly differing operating methodologies and cultures, may be a watershed event for IT vendors and airline users alike.
US Airways Senior VP and CIO Joe Beery says the merged airline is an industry "pioneer" owing to the noticeable differences between the large, inflexible legacy IT systems of US Airways and the more nimble in-house applications developed by America West, which Beery joined in 1999 from Motorola Semiconductor.
To IT expert Richard Eastman, president of The Eastman Group, the new US Airways has turned its back on the established legacy systems in favor of a "mix-and-match, home-managed solution" that fits its specific goals and objectives of becoming a nationwide LCC. "When combined with the new distribution pricing models being adopted by US carriers, plus the re-tooling of the major legacy hosts, US Airways seems to be leading a move to lower-cost, airline-managed technology solutions," states Eastman.
Most airline mergers typically involve one larger carrier absorbing a smaller or comparably sized one, such as American Airlines' acquisition of TWA in 2001 or SkyWest's purchase of Atlantic Southeast Airlines last year. This time, the smaller carrier, America West, acquired a legacy airline more than twice its size (ATW, 5/06, p. 32). It is a case of the "minnow swallowing the whale," Forrester Research VPAirline and Travel Research Henry Harteveldt observes. Only in this instance the minnow was a better swimmer.
"Integrating the IT systems and cultures of the two airlines are by far the most important and complex parts of this integration process," says Beery's boss, Executive VP-Marketing and Planning Scott Kirby, who also comes from the America West side of the aisle. He gives a B grade to the integration effort thus far. "We've avoided the big problems," he says, but he concedes there are limits to customers' patience with the go-slow approach. In the carrier's defense, he points out that "the downside of flipping the switch too soon is much [worse] than waiting and spending a little more money."
For Beery, sifting through the various systems presents its own challenge. "I feel like Noah because after the merger I had two of everything," he jokes. Rationalizing the IT systems of any two...