An IT failure has shut down all of Frankfurt airport today, and the whole of Lufthansa Groups' global operations. This after the NOTAM crash in the US, and Southwest's spectacular meltdown over Christmas.
This video offers an interesting (super dorky) look into the self-made problem of airline IT infrastructure. I thought some here might appreciate the insights.
U.S. airlines received $54 billion in direct payments to preserve jobs. It's disappointing that more of that money wasn't used to transform their technology into the 21st century.
Evidently I like “dorky” because I found this video very interesting. Thanks for posting this, Scudder.
Today's Lufthansa failure has nothing to do with ancient IT. Construction workers accidentally cut broadband cables.
BBC News - Lufthansa tech failure leaves planes grounded
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64652835
Frank- You're right that today's LH failure wasn't to do with infrastructure age. While LH didn't dut the line, that they didn't have backup connections to backup datacenters is certainly an IT failure.
Germany sets the standard for infrastructure. Very impressive.
Yep. A LOT of the airline industry is built on, and still relies on, systems that date from the 1960s or even earlier. The technical debt that has been piling up every hour since these systems were created is absolutely frightening. Step carefully lest anything break.
For the airlines to ramp up to the 'latest and greatest', they need to have customers ( us ) to not care what the price is and to have investors, who provide the capital to make the business happen, not care when or if ever they get something back on their investment..
I found it interesting that there are things an airline can do, regarding ticket booking, that except in rare circumstances, is not done because of the financial dis-incentive built into the system.
I recently took a road trip, and it cost about 14 cents per mile for gas ( 34 mpg) . Applying that 14 cents per mile for a SEA-LHR flight the cost would be $672, BUT the airline has to provide the plane, crew, food etc, in addition to the fuel to make the trip. People seem to not realize what a bargain air travel is and still pressure the airline to do more for le$$.
So that there are occasional systems breakdowns should not be a surprise.
To plagiarize a saying, "We have met the problem; it is us"
It’s all about the math. From their side and ours. However, failure on their part does not translate into any meaningful consequence. On our part, missed flight, cancel, change flights, and delays, etc have immediate and meaningful consequences.
We need to fly, and they know it. Once they sell youthe ticket, you are at their mercy. And IT failures mean nothing except a brief press headache.
The IT meltdown of SW airlines is an example of nothing meaningful done. Lots of platitudes. Big talk from the dept of transportation.
Ho-hum.
Old news now.
Thank you Scudder for posting this. It was fascinating...and depressing.
Back when I worked in Telecom (SW engineer) we referred to those as BIFs: Backhoe-Induced Faults.
Seriously :-)
For those who follow along in German (but no subtitles) :
Die Deutsche Bahn bittet ausdrücklich alle Fluggäste für die
entstandenen Unannehmlichkeiten um Entschuldigung.Deutsche Bahn apologizes to all flight passengers for the
inconvenience caused.
“U.S. airlines received $54 billion in direct payments to preserve jobs. It's disappointing that more of that money wasn't used to transform their technology into the 21st century.”
Yes, it’s really a shame that the airlines didn’t violate the terms of those deals and fix that IT department. That money was given to them to keep their staff employed. I don’t think you can take the average flight attendant and turn them into an IT programmer. Some of them yes not all of them.
It’s disappointing that people don’t understand the purpose of those funds
