Ian W
I absolutely agree with you. These systems are very very complex and you need experienced skilled people to manage them. Sure you can outsource maintenance or terminals and straightforward stuff but the real airline specific and core bits need a lot of ability and corporate memory to manage . Lose those folks and you are in big trouble.
As to it being a power supply issue that is unforgivable since any mission critical equipment or equipment location on a system of this scale should have at least two wholly discrete 'mains' feeds plus a no break system to allow for local diesel generator back up and maybe even batteries for the telecoms elements. No high tech hidden glitches there but they do have to be tested and checked all the time to make sure that if the evil day comes...