Ask HN: Vertical SaaS for Airlines?

[joshuarcher]

In light of the recent Microsoft outage that disrupted several airline operations globally, I'm curious to know who out there is working on vertical SaaS solutions specifically for the airline industry. With the increasing complexity of airline operations and the need for robust, reliable software, I believe there's a huge opportunity in this space.

Are there any startups or established companies developing innovative SaaS products tailored for airlines? What challenges are they addressing, and what unique features are they offering?

Looking forward to hearing about any interesting projects and insights from those in the industry!

[dave4420]

Don’t airlines use their own custom software?

(I have no special airline industry knowledge.)

[Alupis]

Be very careful of typical "Silicon Valley" think... ie. those who know nothing about an industry yet seek to revolutionize it.

The first step would be to find out and truly understand why things are the way they are today. They didn't get there on accident - so before cooking up a plan to "improve" the industry you must first understand what the industry would consider an improvement.

Also, it will be difficult to break out into an industry like Airlines. They will be conservative in nature and risk averse. It's unlikely they will take a gamble on an unknown startup's service/platform.

Lastly - the issue they've experienced over the past few days is not something a startup or SaaS platform would have prevented.

[throwaway4pp24]

That's a lot of words to say nothing about the issue at hand. World is complex - we know.

Aviation industry software is outdated and based on the necessities and limits of 1980s computers. There indeed is a huge opportunity to bring something better and well integrated, especially if you can reliably connect the different businesses that need to cooperate to transport a passenger from A to B - air operators, aircraft owners, ground handling operators, charter brokers, airports, maintenance providers, etc. This all runs on humans and email now. Go for it.

- a software engineer in aviation industry

[Alupis]

There is 0% chance someone without industry experience is going to successfully build new systems to replace what the industry uses...