Redesigning an airline’s IT strategy, sourcing and architecture.

Client context

The business context.

An airline needed to lower operating costs and improve its digital capabilities while maintaining daily operations. Its IT environment had accumulated heavily customized systems, overlapping integration technologies and fragmented data. A broad outsourcing agreement also concentrated several critical services with one supplier.

Contract negotiations, architecture choices and internal capabilities were closely connected. Reducing supplier costs without addressing those dependencies would leave the airline constrained by the same systems and sourcing arrangements. The strategy needed to give the airline greater control of technology decisions and a feasible sequence for change.

The work

How the engagement was delivered.

• Review contracts against the required services

  Compared major service agreements with market benchmarks on a consistent scope. Assessed service levels, responsibilities, termination terms and options to separate bundled services, providing a basis for supplier negotiations.

• Define the target architecture

  Mapped applications, interfaces, infrastructure and networks. Developed a target with clearer integration layers, common data-management capabilities and a phased approach to cloud services, alongside options for passenger-service and commercial systems.

• Connect sourcing to internal capabilities

  Defined a move from broad outsourcing toward differentiated supplier arrangements, with architecture decisions retained by the airline. Identified capability needs in architecture, portfolio management, supplier governance and digital delivery.

• Sequence the transformation

  Brought contract, organization and technology initiatives into one roadmap. Set out dependencies across digital channels, data governance, integration, corporate systems and security, with nearer-term priorities for the responsible teams.

What changed

One roadmap connecting commercial and technical decisions.

The engagement established an IT baseline, contract-review priorities, a target architecture and a phased transformation plan. Management could assess supplier choices alongside their implications for control, capabilities and system dependencies. The roadmap defined the work needed to reach the target, with cost and efficiency benefits retained as objectives for delivery.