Navitaire Asked to Explain Meltdown

IT company Navitaire is being asked by its clients Jetstar and Virgin Australia after a major outage disrupted the reservation bookings of thousands of their passengers.

It appears that the reservations system of Navitaire encountered a power outage that lasted for three hours. The power outage occurred in Navitaire’s data center in Sydney. The data center, which is run by a third-party agency, required air conditioning after the power outage to cool its equipment before it can be fully operational.

Virgin Australia public affairs head Danielle Keighery said the company would meet with Navitaire officials to address possible power outages in the future. Virgin Australia, however, said it is too early to tell if the company would ask for compensation from Navitaire.

Virgin Australia once sought damages from Navitaire after an 11-day outage that affected its reservation systems in 2010.

Jetstar, meanwhile, has been communicating with the senior management of Navitaire. Sources said Jetstar is asking for an official explanation.

The latest power outage gives Virgin Australia more justification on its decision to change its reservations system. Last January, the airline switched to a new system that is managed by Sabre.