Orbitz (www.orbitz.com) is a consortium of major US air carriers (
American Airlines,
Continental,
Delta,
Northwest and
United Airlines) which have joined forces to start an internet travel company. Apparently they weren't satisfied to sit back and let the likes of
Sabre (travelocity.com) or
Microsoft (expedia.com) dominate the market. The
FTC launched an anti-trust investigation, but apparently found that there was no danger of monopoly.
They're currenly having a little squabble with Southwest Airlines, who didn't get invited into the consortium, and is attempting to sue to have their flight listings removed from the site. IBM developed the site, but was reportedly pestered into using rival BEA's Weblogic environment instead of their own Websphere.