QIK

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Computer system used by airline agents

title: "QIK" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["qantas", "travel-technology"] description: "Computer system used by airline agents" topic_path: "general/qantas" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QIK" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Computer system used by airline agents ::

QIK (Qantas Intelligent Keypad) is an intelligent airline agent application first developed in the late 1980s as a front end to mainframe computer reservations systems.

Activity

QIK was designed by a startup within Qantas Airways called Qadrant, as a productivity tool for use in the airline's reservation call centres. The software was developed for Qadrant under contract by Tetra Tech Data Systems (a subsidiary of Honeywell), a small custom software house in San Diego, California. The Q.I.K. acronym was derived from its use of a separate keypad attached to the keyboard. The keys on the keypad acted as function keys. In later versions the physical keyboard was disposed of and replaced with a logical keypad represented as a quadrant on the user's screen mapped to standard QWERTY keyboard (F1-F12) function keys.

Marketed under the brands QIK, QIK-RES & QIK-CHEK these applications encapsulate airline business rules in a PC-based smart application and send the required transactions to the airline mainframe or host for processing. In doing the training time for an airline agent could be reduced from six weeks to two weeks. In addition the automation of host transactions eliminated format entry errors. This reduced the need to resend transactions and led to a reduction in mainframe usage costs for airlines.

In the early 1990s Qantas formed a joint venture operation with DMR Consulting to market QIK and other transportation IT solutions under the name of Qadrant International. In 1997 DMR Consulting purchased the remaining 49% stock of Qadrant from Qantas Airways to become the sole owner of the company. Qadrant went on to develop later versions of QIK in conjunction with Sabre Decision Technologies (SDT), at the time an AMR/American Airlines subsidiary. Sabre was just finishing development its own system called NEW RES. A head to head evaluation of QIK-RES and NEW RES was undertaken in July, 1989 at American Airlines' Southeastern Reservation Office. QIK-RES was found to be 7% faster than the native reservation system, while NEW RES was found to be 15% slower. Shortly thereafter, Sabre licensed QIK was licensed from Qadrant and modified to work with the Sabre reservation system. This joint development exercise expanded QIK from the DOS platform to the OS/2 & Windows platforms and was brought to market as QIK-II. This collaboration continued and QIK-II was migrated to the SITA's Common Use Airport platform CUTE/OS. Now the majority of QANTAS workstations use Novell's Application delivery system to deliver them an emulated version through infoconnect.

QIK-CHEK & QIK-RES are also sold as part of the TurboSabre suite by Sabre Systems. QIK applications are used by more than 70 airlines worldwide.

Airlines known to use QIK

References

References

  1. [https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/it-project-management/9780072232028/ O'Reilly - 0619074736 - IT Project Management, Second Edition]
  2. Sarno, Tony. (1990-08-06). "Qik-Res revolutionises ticketing systems". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  3. Farmer, Monique. (1992-07-13). "Qik-Res". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  4. link. (16 July 2011)
  5. (1997-01-30). "DMR buys remaining 49% of Qadrant". National Post.
  6. "DMR Buys Qadrant - Strategic Move into the Transportation Industry. - Free Online Library".
  7. [http://www.sabreairlinesolutions.com/products/serve/qik.htm Sabre Airline Solutions]
  8. Salamone, Salvatore. (26 November 1990). "Airline reservation network flies into new age of LANS". IDG Network World Inc.
  9. [http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/products/travel_agencies/application_development/qik.html Products and Services]
  10. [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=73098&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=380096&highlight= Sabre Holdings :: Investor Information :: News Releases]
  11. link. (10 December 2007)
  12. [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-5460115_ITM Caribbean Star Airlines and Caribbean Sun Airlines Choose Sabre Airline Solutions' Qik to Customize Reservations and Airport Check-In; User-Friendly GUI Will Reduce Operations Expenses While Increasing Productivity.(Company overview) - Journal, Magazine, Article, Periodical]
  13. QIK-Res Sr. Dev M.Richard
  14. [http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/shipping-air-freight/432838-1.html Lufthansa and South African Airways upgrade to Sabre Qik Developer Tool.. Transportation > Air Transportation from AllBusiness.com]
  15. [http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180207786&pgno=2&queryText= Merger On The Fly – US Airways – InformationWeek]

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