Air France-KLM flies high with TIBCO integration

A unified system created by integrating many others solves the integration problem, reduces costs and ensures high-quality services in the future.

“The airline industry has changed a lot over the years,” explained Technical Architect, Alex de Hes. “In the past, everything was done via sales agents and ticket offices, and now people do everything themselves online or on their mobile phone. From just transporting people, we’ve added services to notify customers when their flight will arrive and depart and other information. The mobile platform is one of the big changes.

“Air France and KLM merged about seven years ago. We had multiple reservation systems, legacy systems, commercial off-the-shelf systems, and homemade systems. We needed an integration platform that would connect all these systems with their different technologies, different protocols and different vendors so they would work together as one. We had to integrate all of them while we maintained service levels. We also had to do it fast and at low cost. Our systems have to work 24/7 and provide one seamless service to our passengers.

“If we could not solve our integration problem, we would not be able to deliver new functionalities, for example, provide a new distribution channel or deliver personalised services to our customers. What we really needed was a future-proof integration platform suitable for the needs we have today and those of the future.”