Galileo is a computer reservations system (CRS) owned by Travelport. As of 2002, it had a 26.4% of worldwide CRS airline bookings.[1]
In addition to airline reservations, the Galileo CRS is also used to book train travel, cruises, car rental, and hotel rooms. The Galileo system was moved from Denver, Colorado, to the Worldspan datacenter in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 28, 2008, following the 2007 merger of Travelport and Worldspan (although they now share the same datacenter, they continue to be run as separate systems). Galileo is subject to the Capps II and its successor Secure Flight program for the selection of passengers with a risk profile.
Galileo is a member of IATA, OTA and SITA.
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Galileo traces its roots back to 1971 when United Airlines created its first computerized central reservation system under the name Apollo. During the 1980s and early 1990s, a significant proportion of airline tickets were sold by travel agents. Flights by the airline owning the reservation system had preferential display on the computer screen. Due to the high market penetration of the Sabre and Apollo systems, owned by American Airlines and United Airlines, respectively, Worldspan and Galileo were created by other airline groups in an attempt to gain market share in the computer reservation system market and, by inference, the commercial airline market.[2] Galileo was formed in 1987 by nine European carriers -- British Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Alitalia, Swissair, Austrian Airlines, Olympic, Sabena, Air Portugal and Aer Lingus.[3]
In response and to prevent possible government intervention, United Airlines spun-off its Apollo reservation system, which was then controlled by Covia. Galileo International was born when Covia acquired Europe's Galileo and merged it with the Apollo system in 1992.[4]
The Apollo reservation system is still used by United Airlines and Galileo International (now part of Travelport GDS) travel agency customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan.
Galileo UK was originally created from Travicom[5][6][7][8] which was the world's first multi-access reservations system using the technology developed by Videcom. Travicom was a company launched by Videcom, British Airways, British Caledonian and CCL in 1976 which in 1988 became Galileo UK.