Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co is mad as hell about being held to ransom by the big airline reservation system operators, and it’s not going to take it any more: instead, reports Reuter, it has cobbled together its own personal computer-based system, Southwest Airlines Travel for travel agents that who sell at least 15 Southwest tickets daily; the system includes a toll-free telephone line with access to Southwest ticket agents, a modem and a ticket printer; Southwest is a paying member of AMR Corp’s Sabre system, but the systems owned by other airlines have clamped down on Southwest and are gradually eliminating information provided about non-member carriers, and Southwest reckons it would cost it at least $30m a year to join Apollo as well as Sabre – and it would no longer be the most profitable US carrier.
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