NEW YORK -- The major CRSs and online agencies were working to cope
with what could be unprecedented numbers of airline ticket
rebookings.
Within hours of the terrorist attacks, Galileo said it increased
CRS capacity by 25% to handle the expected volume increase as
agents and airlines rebook passengers. The Galileo/Apollo system
normally can process 8,000 transactions per second, a capacity that
was boosted to 10,000.
At Sabre, a spokeswoman said the company is "doing everything we
can to be fully prepared to manage volume on the system, and we
anticipate no problems."
Sabre prepared a Travel Bulletin Central page on Sabre Virtually
There that agents can e-mail to clients. It contains supplier
contact numbers and policy information, as well as FAA updates and
State Department travel advisories.
An Amadeus spokesman in Madrid, noting that less than 12% of its
bookings are from North America, said the situation is
unprecedented and that the firm is monitoring it.
Internationally, there have been flight delays and "a volume of
cancellations, but the system has a lot of capacity and is able to
handle these kinds of things," the Amadeus spokesman said.
A Worldspan spokeswoman said the vendor will work with suppliers
to handle problems.
In the Web arena, an Expedia spokeswoman said its call centers
are experiencing increased volumes. Expedia's refund policies in
this crisis vary by supplier and were subject to constant changes,
she added.
A Hotwire spokeswoman said its call centers were "very busy."
The company was reaccommodating travelers and granting refunds at
least through Sept. 16.