Continental chief Larry Kellner hinted that the carrier may migrate to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform at some point after it joins the alliance in October.
Continental chief Larry Kellner hinted that the carrier may migrate to the Star Alliance Common IT Platform at some point after it joins the alliance in October. In a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings, Kellner said, "I and other members of the Continental management team meet regularly with Glenn Tilton [United chairman, president and chief executive officer] and his team at United as we develop plans to co-locate at airports, deliver mutual cost savings, share airport lounges, bring benefits to each other's elite customers and ultimately move to a single IT platform so that we can provide excellent service to each other's customers." Following the Continental conference call, a spokeswoman responded to an email enquiry that "We are evaluating a number of options and no decision has been made, but having commonality around one system with UA would facilitate our work together." In 2005, the Star Alliance selected Amadeus to build a common IT platform. The Star CITP is a customized version of its Altéa platform. United and Lufthansa were the first Star carriers to commit to migrating to the CITP. United is slated to begin migration in 2010. Lufthansa was already using the Altéa reservations module when the Star deal was signed, and it implemented the inventory module a year ago. Continental's reservations system has been managed by EDS since 1991. In October 2007, it awarded a new seven-year IT services contract to EDS and HP.