Agreed on the airline management example though. It's insane how patchy that all is.
I have worked with passenger rail transport. Knowing the quirks of that domain, I am quite impressed with air travel software. Anecdotally, I have rarely heard of cases of «Computer says no» in air travel, which are abundant in most other domains.
I was referring to the competing GDS platforms that airlines like Southwest opted not to use. I was trying to be charitable to the author here, because I am partial to how the terminal booking interface just works and allows for almost universal interoperability. You just have to learn how to use it. Of course, there is still greater functionality when using the airline's website directly (dynamic pricing, seat choice), which is "patchy".
Opted not to use /until recently/
I assume what the parent was referring to is the backend systems like Sabre that coordinates travel and ticketing between airlines, travel agents, etc. It is a truly ancient system by today’s standards, with origins in the 1960s and mainframes. Systems like this actually have started to limit what airlines can do and how many flights they can manage.
See: https://viewfromthewing.com/airlines-are-running-out-of-flig...