Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "John R. Levine" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Why Texas Air Uses So Much Phone Service Message-ID: <8477@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 31 May 90 02:28:57 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Lines: 33 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 401, Message 9 of 13 In article <8410@accuvax.nwu.edu> wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) writes: >"Texas Air" is the holding company that owns not only the airline by >that name, but also New York Air, Continental, and TWA. ... >Also, Northwest merged its reservations system into TWA's, so all those >airlines' phone usage is merged under the "Texas Air" entry. Texas Air operates Eastern, Continental, and a few small regional carriers. Their CRS is named System One. TWA still belongs to Carl Icahn, and TWA's CRS, which is indeed jointly owned with Northwest, is called PARS. It is unlikely that Texas Air could buy TWA even if they wanted to, they're in hock up to their eyebrows. On the other hand, AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, owns a CRS called Sabre, which is used by a lot more travel agents than System One or PARS is. UAL, parent of United Airlines jointly owns a CRS called Apollo. AMR is somewhat larger than Texas Air in assets, sales, and number of employees. UAL is larger in sales, about the same in assets and employees. It's hard to believe that Texas Air has a larger telecom budget than either UAL or AMR does. I suspect that since there is no standard way to measure the size of an organization's telecom budget, and since most organizations are under no obligation to tell any outsider what their telecom budgets are, the list that started this discussion in the first place has to be considered no more than an educated guess. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl