Cathay Pacific selects Unisys ahead of IBM

Cathay Pacific selects Unisys ahead of IBM    Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways has awarded a “multimillion dollar” three-year contract to Unisys Corp. to take over the running of the airline’s core business applications from IBM.
   Under terms of the contract, Unisys will handle Cathay’s reservations, departure control, and cargo platforms from its data center in Rhodes, just west of Sydney in Australia.
   IBM had handled the airline’s management applications, based on Unisys’ software, also from a data center in Sydney.
   “Cathay chose Unisys because of its technical expertise, its deep experience in the airline industry, its competitive pricing and a low-risk migration plan for moving our systems,” said Anthony Yeung, Cathay Pacific’s general manager, information management. “We needed to be assured of high availability for these critical systems as well as having sufficient flexibility to cater for growth and fluctuations in demand.”
   “Cathay has used Unisys reservations, departure control and cargo applications for more than two decades and during that time we have demonstrated a commitment and expertise in supporting the airline’s IT applications,” said Andrew Barkla, vice president of Unisys Asia-Pacific.
   Cathay has an option to extend the contract with Unisys for another two years after the initial three years.