in 1953,the president of American Airlines and a senior sales representative for IBM, happened to be on the same American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York.

The two would spend the nearly 10-hour flight talking about their work, their lives and, of course, the travel industry. It was during that conversation that they came up with the idea for a data processing system for airline reservations. They pictured a system that could create and manage reservations and instantly make that data available electronically to any agent at any location.

 Six years later, American Airlines and IBM launched the Semi-Automated Business Research Environment, or Sabre, capable of completing 7,500 reservations every hour, faster than anything else available at the time. Sabre, which would go on to become its own company, changed the way that we book business and leisure travel today. All thanks to one chance meeting.

https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/100thanniversary/american-airlines-ibm-sabre/