Delta Reacquires Res & Operations Systems From Travelport

Delta Air Lines acquire the data and intellectual property rights of its passenger services and flight operations systems from Travelport, effective July 1, becoming the only U.S. airline to have direct control over the systems.

Travelport will continue to run the system infrastructure for the Delta platform in its Atlanta data center.

About 175 Travelport employees will transfer to Delta.

More flexible product development
In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Richard Anderson said the reacquisition will give the airline greater flexibility and control for developing products and services that further advance the customer experience.

“This includes using our data to tailor highly-relevant product offerings to customers to give them more personalized service when booking, checking in, checking a bag and sitting onboard a Delta flight,” he said.

Delta systems back in the fold
The ties of Delta and Travelport run deep. The transition, in fact, will be a sort of homecoming for the Deltamatic and OSS systems.

Delta developed its DATAS II computerized reservations system (which is what such systems were called before they became GDSs) in the 1980s. DATAS II merged with PARS, owned by TWA and Northwest, in 1990; the combined system was renamed Worldspan.

Worldspan was acquired by an investor group in 2003, which sold it to Travelport in 2007. Throughout the years, Deltamatic and OSS were hosted on the variously named platform.

It also will be a homecoming for a few former Delta employees who have remained with the systems throughout their journey from owner to owner.