Claude, Will you post this for me? Hi all, I see that there is a thread about Open Skies and Vanguard going here. I would like to point out a few things that might show better the 'rest of the story'. Vanguard is the first customer of Open Skies since it's inception in 1994 that has chosen to leave Open Skies (out side of bankruptcies and mergers). It is important to look at the financial and operational condition of Vanguard Airlines at this time. The functionality they have requested from us that we have chosen not to develop yet - due to other development priorities and the lack of other airline support - is not going to help them. It is also important to note that Vanguard was using our "old" software suite that has not been added to for about 2 years. Look at a few of the other Open Skies customers: Jetblue ( www.jetblue.com ) in the news today as being one of the most successful airline startups in aviation history; Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) - the most successful low cost carrier in Europe; Airtran (www.airtran.com) - the airline that has come from one of the worst airlines (after the valuejet crash) to one of the most profitable and fastest growing airline in the US; Westjet Airlines (Calgary CA www.westjet.com ) - Canada's most successful airline startup in Canada's history. Open Skies software is a tool ... some people know how to use tools, others don't. We have our limitations and we don't have all the functionality a 40 year old company like Sabre does - but we are miles ahead of Sabre in other aspects. This really does not have anything to do with HP hardware or the HP3000. Our limitations are that we don't have the time or the resources to do everything for everyone. We are very pleased with the HP3000 and will continue to use them. We have outstanding up and response times. We have some airlines booking over 10 million passengers a year on a 989/650. We also have the highest percentage of Internet bookings - over 70% for a very large customer. The HP3000 is taking millions of internet hits per day. Thanks, These opinions are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of Open Skies or Navitaire, Inc. Dave Evans [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kubler [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 10:16 AM Subject: Re: Disappointing article on Open Skies Mark, I looked at the article and it does sound rather disappointing. It is especially so when you know that this is a software design issue and not related to the hardware available. Added to this is a realization that companies often make decisions on out dated information. I have seen this several times. A decision is made to go away from a software solution, but in fact that solution had never been totally implemented in a proper manner. Compounding this, once the decision is made it may be several years and the functionality that was lacking initially, is now present but no one will look again. They have too much of themselves invested to reconsider. Thanks, Jeff Kubler At 07:46 AM 4/17/01 -0500, Mark Landin wrote: >Follow this link for an article on an Open Skies customer dropping >them. If the description of the functionality/limitations of Open >Skies is true, then I don't blame them: > >http://www.informationweek.com/832/vanguard.htm > >I checked and Vanguard Air is listed as a customer on >www.openskies.com. > >If Open Skies is supposed to showcase HP hardware, software, and >services, and the software is limited in the areas mentioned in the >article, then I'm embarassed for HP. > >* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * >* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html * Jeff Kubler Kubler Consulting, Inc. 541-745-7457 Fax: 810-885-1840 email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] www.kublerconsulting.com * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *