Google and ITA Software abandon airline reservations business


Skift Take

This is a bitter pill for the geeks at Google's ITA Software. They wanted to transform the back-end of the airline industry with a new kind of airline reservations system. Huge ambitions, but the project never got marketplace traction. Now, the focus will be on powering airline websites, Google Flight Search and Google Hotel Finder.

Eight years after signing a deal to power Air Canada's reservations system and two years after Google acquired ITA Software, the company is withdrawing from the airline reservations business. ITA Software's website states: "We're discontinuing the Passenger Services System (PSS) for airlines. We're doing this to enable our team to focus on other travel solutions for users and partners such as Google Flight Search and Hotel Finder, and ITA's QPX software suite.   "Cape Air is live on this system and we'll continue to work with them under our agreement. We won't be launching PSS with other clients. Goin