Galileo is a

computer reservations system Computer reservation systems, or central reservation systems (CRS), are computerized systems used to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions related to air travel, hotels, car rental, or other activities. Originally designed and oper ...

(CRS) owned by

Travelport Travelport Worldwide Ltd provides distribution, technology, payment solutions for the travel and tourism industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three global distribution systems (GDS) after Amadeus IT Group and Sabre Corporation. ...

. As of 2000, it had a 26.4% share of worldwide CRS airline bookings. In addition to airline reservations, the Galileo CRS is also used to book

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

travel,

cruise A cruise is any travel on a cruise ship. Cruise or Cruises may also refer to: Tourism * Booze cruise * Music cruise * River cruise Aeronautics and aircraft * Cruise (aeronautics), a distinct stage of an aircraft's flight * Aviasouz Cruise, a R ...

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

rental, and

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

rooms. The Galileo system was moved from Denver, Colorado, to the

Worldspan Worldspan is a provider of travel technology and content and a part of the Travelport GDS business. It offers worldwide electronic distribution of travel information, Internet products and connectivity, and e-commerce capabilities for travel agenci ...

datacenter in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 28, 2008, following the 2007 merger of Travelport and Worldspan (although they now share the same datacenter, they continue to be run as separate systems). Galileo is subject to the Capps II and its successor

Secure Flight Secure Flight is an airline passenger pre-Sampling (statistics), screening program, implemented from August 2009 by the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Secure Flight matches passenger information against watch lists mai ...

program for the selection of passengers with a risk profile. Galileo is a member of the

International Air Transport Association The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

, of the

OpenTravel Alliance The OpenTravel Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association founded in 1999. History OpenTravel was founded in 1999 by a consortium of travel companies - including air, hotel, car rental, and supporting software companies - with a primary foc ...

and of

SITA Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

History

Galileo traces its roots back to 1971 when

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

created its first computerized central reservation system under the name Apollo. During the 1980s and early 1990s, a significant proportion of airline tickets were sold by travel agents. Flights by the airline owning the reservation system had preferential display on the computer screen. Due to the high market penetration of the

Sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

systems, owned by

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

and United Airlines, respectively,

and Galileo were created by other airline groups in an attempt to gain market share in the computer reservation system market and, by inference, the commercial airline market. Galileo was formed in 1987 by nine European carriers --

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij Naamloze vennootschap, N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with i ...

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana Società per azioni, S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of ...

Swissair Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002. It was formed from a merger between Bal ...

Austrian Airlines Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where it also maintains its hub ...

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

Sabena The ''Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne'' (French; ), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its ba ...

Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the currently state-owned flag carrier airline of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and opera ...

and

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish , meaning "air fleet" compare Welsh 'llynges awyr') is the flag carrier of Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 2015 and it is now a wholly owned subsidiary ...

.Two top airline reservations systems to be merged
Baltimore Sun (1992-03-04). Retrieved on 2013-08-20. In response and to prevent possible government intervention, United Airlines spun off its Apollo reservation system, which was then controlled by Covia. Galileo International was born when Covia acquired Europe's Galileo and merged it with the Apollo system in 1992. The Apollo reservation system was used by United Airlines until 3 March 2012, when it switched to SHARES, a system used by its former Continental Airlines subsidiary. Apollo is still used by Galileo International (now part of

GDS) travel agency customers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Galileo UK was originally created from

Travicom Travicom was the trading name of Travel Automation Services Ltd, a travel technology company based in the United Kingdom providing a global distribution system between airlines and travel agencies. In 1976, Videcom with British Airways, British ...

which was the world's first multi-access reservations system using the technology developed by Videcom.

was a company launched by Videcom,

British Caledonian British Caledonian (BCal) was a British private independent airline which operated out of Gatwick Airport in south-east England during the 1970s and 1980s. It was created as an alternative to the British government-controlled corporation airlin ...

and CCL in 1976 which in 1988 became Galileo UK.

Developments

Travel Agent A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinatio ...

s now also book Amtrak Rail on the system and issue the tickets directly. *

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

has entered into a marketing agreement with Apollo/Galileo and travel agents are now able to book reservations on Southwest. These direct connects offer the possibility to sell ancillary services and to differentiate oneself from the competition. Strauss, Michael (2010): Value Creation in Travel Distribution, https://www.amazon.com/dp/0557612462 *The development team at Travelport has developed an online search tool called ASK Travelport where registered users can go and find out the answers to their frequently asked questions and queries.

References

External links

Travelport.com
"Galileo"
Travelport ViewTrip.com
public site for viewing reservations made through Galileo computer reservations system.
Galileo.co.in
Galileo in India
ITQ.in
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galileo Crs Computer reservation systems

History

Developments

See also

References

External links