Virgin Blue's 2nd Navitaire Outage this week.

[Tiger01]

VIRGIN Blue staff are distributing bottled water to passengers stranded at Melbourne Airport after the airline's second check-in breakdown in a week. Passengers say the airline is attempting to process thousands of passengers manually but the scene is chaotic and flights have been delayed.
Thousands of Virgin Blue passengers were delayed in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and Brisbane on Wednesday when the airline's reservations and baggage system also crashed.

Virgin check-in chaos | The Daily Telegraph

The second unplanned outage this week. Forget new uniforms, back to basics like a reliable check in system perhaps?

[VBPCGUY]

This is getting beyond a joke. Amadeus NOW

[VBPCGUY]

Virgin Blue Minor Incident Report

Power outage at the data centre according to this, systems back to normal now.

[bowing]

if VB serious about competing for the business corporate domestic market they gotta be better than this no use new widebodys, uniforms 2 class configuration but an unreliable check in system....

[The Bunglerat]

It was never a joke the first time, VBPCGUY, but I agree with your sentiments.

Like Bowing says, what good does it do to have shiny new uniforms, big new aeroplanes, new image, product, & all the other bells & whistles - if we can't get the bums on seats & off the gate in the first place?!?

This is definitely not the way to enhance customer confidence or generate new business at such a crucial time in the airline's metamorphosis from low cost to full service. Even if/when VB get compensation from Navitaire for all these outages the last few months, it's not about the money, it's about the image. Once the damage is done, it's done.

[Capt Claret]

Originally Posted by The Bunglerat

Even if/when VB get compensation from Navitaire for all these outages the last few months

Are the problems all Navitaire's? Could it be that VB had opted for a less than optimum module in the Navitaire suite, or some other interface between VB & Navitaire?

[lurker999]

whoever is running the data centre should be fired instantly.

it should be able to run for hours without mains power and really as a critical to VB thing it should be able to go for days. without mains power.

very poor if a power outage took them out.

[The Bunglerat]

Claret, I hear ya. Certainly not disagreeing that this is may be a prime example of a poor decision on the part of the previous management now come back to haunt us. Even so, whether I buy the top-of-the-range product or the 'lite' version, I still expect the product to do its job. Navitaire have failed dismally in this regard, but like I said, blame & compensation is no longer the issue. The issue is one of current business being lost, along with potential new business, because we are getting a reputation as circus clowns (whether it's our fault or not) when it comes to providing a reliable check-in system. "Embarrassing" as a word doesn't even come close.

[flying_a_nix_box]

well you get that

I'm not in Aviation but in IT Operations and lurk around here a bit. From and IT perspective the parent company that runs Navitaire is not known for on going IT operational work. They are known for consulting work. It's no surprise having seen this companies idea of what an operational computer system looks like that they have these problems. It's been all over the IT press at times. This is an IBM/HP/CSC/Fujitsu/do it in house job....not something that I'd even consider getting Accenture to do.

The the best "oh crap" moment I had when reading about it was when it was mentioned that the storage subsystem that they use is not designed for "enterprise" use but for high performance computing where speed is the primary concern and reliability can be sacrificed. And seriously who builds a high reliability transactional computer system based on windows and .net?? That is just asking for trouble!! Banks use Mainframes and Unix systems for their core banking applications for a reason!

[mates rates]

In many businesses CHEAP IS EXPENSIVE this is especially so in aviation as those proposing cheap cadet schemes will discover in time.This is just another example of the mentality of the previous management and JB is reaping the "benefits" of such a mentality.

[SgtBundy]

I concur with my IT colleague - Accenture have next to no idea of the work they are paid to do (application architecture) let alone IT operations or management. The major outage last year shows they have no concept of real IT operations (disaster recover, high availability).

Even if they had a power failure on the site (which happens, regardless of UPS or diesel backups) they should have at least a redundant site for this sort of critical application. They should have learned this lesson last year.

[Cactusjack]

The spirit of Brett lingers !!!!!

[bankrunner]

I used to be in aviation (my handle will give you a hint as to what I did), I work in IT security nowadays.

For a true represenative example of Accenture's handywork, google "accenture london stock exchange".

As a quality employer, Accenture make the worst GA operator look like Google

[SgtBundy]

I dunno - in GA they tend to want some experience and skills before they hire you.

[Mr. Hat]

Spade is a spade like it or not

You have to ask how long John Borghetti is willing to put up with this nonsense.

I was sternly told by an IT ppruner that I was out of line in calling for heads to roll back when we had the big outage. I was told to apologise: I looked at the pprune Terms of use and deemed that my reply wouldn't be within the rules. Months down the track and here we are again. Alan Joyce must be having the biggest belly laugh of his life, I know I would in his position!

Somebody has to be responsible. Its interesting, to me it seems that there is a lot of buck passing and blaming of equipment and a lot of people are hiding behind the technical side of it all.

The reality is that every time this happens jobs are more and more at risk. If it happens enough the company will eventually close. There will come a point when the travelling public wont tolerate it anymore particularly the business traveller. In the last year I reckon I've seen 5-6 of these types of outages.

I recognise that under the Godfrey leadership everything that was bought was done on the "cheap" (australian for cheap now expensive later). Someone at some stage needs to be held accountable.

Not good timing for a new brand launch is it? One has to ask what are the chances there is a stuff up on or close to the day of the brand launch. This isn't about egos or hurt feelings its about thousands of jobs.

[bankrunner]

I was sternly told by an IT ppruner that I was out of line in calling for heads to roll back when we had the big outage.

And you were correct. Mission critical systems aren't supposed to **** themselves for as trivial reasons as Navitaire has done.

Imagine if TAAATS had this sort of trouble?

[Tidbinbilla]

Imagine if TAAATS had this sort of trouble?

I spat my beer all over the screen. Now I have to go get a new one!

Who told you to apologise, Mr. Hat?

[Mr. Hat]

Oh some IT dude . I opted for the diplomatic option of not saying anything more than I had. Self sensorship. You've probably worked out I wear the heart on the sleeve.

I was pretty wound up at the time and possibly had offended some. But having just walked from gate F13 Melbourne to the Hilton as 50-70 odd flight numbers had been read out as cancelled I felt pretty ashamed. There were families sitting on the floor. Guess I take pride in my job and delivering a good service. It was embarrassing and shameful.

I think JB is trying but if VB is to become a real success he really does need to continue the spring clean. You can't have that sort of carry on when you have high profile business people or AFL contracts to honour. There needs to be a forensic review of every aspect of the business to iron out the cheap and nasty structures/weaknesses from a past life.

Some not so nice figures about VB coming out tomorrow apparently.