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Beyond PNR: Exploring airline systems

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Beyond PNR: Exploring airline systems
31. Chaos Communication Congress

Ever wondered what the cryptic QNY27R on your airline reservaton means? This talk explores typical computing environment as seen in the air transport industry. Discover ancient software, old communication protocols and cryptic systems. What data are stored and how they are exchanged to keep the air transport industry running.

Airport environment

  • Air traffic control systems
  • Flight information systems (FIDS)
  • Terminal environment
  • Baggage control
  • Access control
  • Networks and networks

Airline environment

  • Reservations/ticketing
  • Airline inventory
  • Departure control (check-in)
  • Flight management
  • Load control
  • Avionics
  • In-flight entertainment

Global Distribution Systems

  • SABRE
  • Galileo
  • Worldspan
  • Amadeus

Your data with the airline

  • Passenger Name Record
  • Departure control data
  • Electronic Ticket
  • Frequent Travel Data

No human is illegal

  • APIS data
  • TIMATIC
  • PAXLST message
  • APP/AQQ
  • PNR data exported to the US

Communication networks and protocols

  • Telex
  • SITA network
  • AIRIMP manual

Typical airport workstation

  • Terminal emulated on PC
  • Boarding pass printers (thermal)
  • Bag tag printers
  • Document printers (dot matrix)
  • Device standarization

Software enviroment

  • Direct terminal access
  • (Java-based) Terminal emulators
  • CUTE enviroment
  • Departure from direct mainframe access: EDI

Speakers: saper