Virgin Atlantic Airways has recently signed a new information technology services agreement with EDS, an HP company.

Published: 12 Dec 2008

Virgin Atlantic Airways has recently signed a new information technology services agreement with EDS, an HP company.

As part of the five-year deal, EDS will provide the next generation of its airline reservations solution, EDS Reservation Services.

New features included in the solution are Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMD), which allow Virgin Atlantic employees to electronically capture and account for ancillary sales, and Ticket Re-issue and Refund (TRR) software that automates a formerly labour-intensive function and improves customer service.

EDS has provided IT services for Virgin Atlantic since its inaugural flight in 1984.

Mike Cope, IT director at Virgin Atlantic, said the airline was "impressed with EDS' vision for their new reservations platform and how this will enable Virgin Atlantic to exploit a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to provide improved customer services, greater agility and lower costs."

Also new to the agreement, EDS will use its airline service-oriented architecture (AirlineSOA) that connects software and systems to better integrate Virgin Atlantic's operations and help meet the airline's unique market needs. Each of these new functionalities helps Virgin Atlantic lower core reservations services costs and add new revenue opportunities.

EDS will continue to provide passenger-processing services that include applications development and hosting of EDS Reservation Services, which handles approximately six million revenue passengers boarded annually for Virgin Atlantic.