Editing Computer reservation system (section)

== History ==
[[File:MARS1(1).jpg|thumb|Preserved [[mainframe computer]] unit of the MARS-1 at the [[East Japan Railway Company|JR East]] [[Railway Museum (Saitama)|Railway Museum in Saitama]], September 2015.]]

=== MARS-1 ===
The [[MARS (ticket reservation system)|MARS-1]] train ticket reservation system was designed and planned in the 1950s by the [[Japanese National Railways]]' R&D Institute, now the [[Railway Technical Research Institute]], with the system eventually being produced by [[Hitachi]] in 1958.<ref name="mars1">[http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/dawn/0030.html 【Hitachi and Japanese National Railways】 MARS-1], [[Information Processing Society of Japan]]</ref> It was the world's first seat reservation system for trains.<ref name="dawn">[http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/dawn/history.html Early Computers: Brief History], [[Information Processing Society of Japan]]</ref> The MARS-1 was capable of reserving seat positions, and was controlled by a [[transistor computer]] with a [[central processing unit]] and a 400,000-bit magnetic drum memory unit to hold seating files. It used many [[Processor register|registers]], to indicate whether seats in a train were vacant or reserved to accelerate searches of and updates to seat patterns, for communications with terminals, printing reservation notices, and [[Cathode-ray tube|CRT]] displays.<ref name="mars1"/>

=== Remote access ===
In 1953 [[Trans-Canada Airlines]] (TCA) started investigating a computer-based system with remote [[Computer terminal|terminals]], testing one design on the [[University of Toronto]]'s [[Ferranti Mark 1]] machine that summer. Though successful, the researchers found that input and output was a major problem. [[Ferranti Canada]] became involved in the project and suggested a new system using [[punched card]]s and a [[transistor]]ized computer in place of the unreliable [[Vacuum tube|tube]]-based Mark I. The resulting system, [[ReserVec]], started operation in 1962, and took over all booking operations in January 1963. Terminals were placed in all of TCA's ticketing offices, allowing all queries and bookings to complete in about one second with no remote operators needed.

In 1953 American Airlines [[chief executive officer|CEO]] [[C. R. Smith]] chanced to sit next to R. Blair Smith, a senior [[IBM]] sales representative, on a flight from [[Los Angeles International Airport|Los Angeles]] to [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|New York]]. C.R. invited Blair to visit their Reservisor system and look for ways that IBM could improve the system. Blair alerted [[Thomas Watson Jr.]] that American was interested in a major collaboration, and a series of low-level studies started. Their idea of an automated [[airline reservations system|airline reservation system]] (ARS) resulted in a 1959 venture known as the [[Sabre (computer system)|Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment]] (SABRE), launched the following year.<ref>R. Blair Smith, OH 34. Oral history interview by Robina Mapstone, May 1980. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/display.phtml?id=9 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020816141010/http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/display.phtml?id=9 |date=2002-08-16 }}</ref> By the time the network was completed in December 1964, it was the largest civil [[data processing]] system in the world.

Other airlines established their own systems. [[Pan Am]] launched its PANAMAC system in 1964. [[Delta Air Lines]] launched the Delta Automated Travel Account System (DATAS) in 1968. [[United Airlines]] and [[Trans World Airlines]] followed in 1971 with the [[Apollo Reservation System]] and [[Programmed Airline Reservation System]] (PARS), respectively. Soon, travel agents began pushing for a system that could automate their side of the process by accessing the various ARSes directly to make reservations. Fearful this would place too much power in the hands of agents, American Airlines executive [[Robert Crandall]] proposed creating an industry-wide computer reservation system to be a central clearing house for U.S. travel; other airlines demurred, citing fear that [[United States antitrust law]] may have been breached.

=== Travel agent access ===
In 1976, United Airlines began offering its Apollo system to travel agents; while it would not allow the agents to book tickets on United's competitors, the marketing value of the convenient terminal proved indispensable. SABRE, PARS, and DATAS were soon released to travel agents as well. Following [[Airline Deregulation Act|airline deregulation]] in 1978, an efficient CRS proved particularly important; by some counts, [[Texas Air]] executive [[Frank Lorenzo]] purchased money-losing [[Eastern Air Lines]] specifically to gain control of its SystemOne CRS.

Also in 1976 [[Videcom international]] with [[British Airways]], [[British Caledonian]] and CCL launched [[Travicom]], the world's first multi-access reservations system (wholly based on Videcom technology), forming a network providing distribution for initially two and subsequently 49 subscribing international airlines (including British Airways, British Caledonian, [[Trans World Airlines]], [[Pan Am]], [[Qantas]], [[Singapore Airlines]], [[Air France]], [[Lufthansa]], [[Scandinavian Airlines System]], [[Air Canada]], [[KLM]], [[Alitalia]], [[Cathay Pacific]] and [[Japan Airlines]]) to thousands of travel agents in the UK. It allowed agents and airlines to communicate via a common distribution language and network, handling 97% of UK airline business trade bookings by 1987. The system went on to be replicated by Videcom in other areas of the world including the Middle East (DMARS), New Zealand, Kuwait (KMARS), Ireland, Caribbean, United States and Hong Kong. Travicom was a trading name for Travel Automation Services Ltd. When British Airways (who by then owned 100% of Travel Automation Services Ltd) chose to participate in the development of the Galileo system Travicom changed its trading name to Galileo UK and a migration process was put in place to move agencies from Travicom to Galileo.

European airlines also began to invest in the field in the 1980s initially by deploying their own reservation systems in their homeland, propelled by growth in demand for travel as well as technological advances which allowed GDSes to offer ever-increasing services and searching power. In 1987, a consortium led by Air France and West Germany's Lufthansa developed [[Amadeus (computer system)|Amadeus]], modeled on SystemOne. Amadeus Global Travel Distribution was launched in 1992. In 1990, Delta, [[Northwest Airlines]], and Trans World Airlines formed [[Worldspan]], and in 1993, another consortium (including British Airways, KLM, and [[United Airlines]], among others) formed the competing company [[Galileo GDS]] based on Apollo. Numerous smaller companies such as KIU have also formed, aimed at niche markets not catered for by the four largest networks, including the [[low-cost carrier]] segment, and small and medium size domestic and regional airlines.