Complexity Makes Airline Computer Systems Vunerable - by David Koenig, Associated Press/ AP/ apnewsarchive.com
"DALLAS (AP) — Twice in less than a month, a major airline was paralyzed by a computer outage that prevented passengers from checking in and flights from taking off.
Last month, it took Southwest days to recover from a breakdown it blamed on a faulty router. On Monday, it was Delta's turn, as a power outage crippled the airline's information technology systems and forced it to cancel or delay hundreds of flights. Delta employees had to write out boarding passes by hand, and at one airport they resurrected a dot-matrix printer from the graveyard of 1980s technology.
Why do these kinds of meltdowns keep happening?
The answer is that airlines depend on huge, overlapping and complex IT systems to do just about everything, from operating flights to handling ticketing, boarding, websites and mobile-phone apps. And after years of rapid consolidation in the airline business, these computer systems may be a hodgepodge of parts of varying ages and from different merger partners..."
Jenna Raspanti and other travelers talk on their cell phones as they stand in line at the Delta ticketing counter at Washington's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Raspanti is trying to get to San Francisco after her Delta flight was delayed. Delta Air Lines delayed or canceled hundreds of flights Monday after its computer systems crashed, stranding thousands of people on a busy travel day. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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