Are Airlines Really Special? The need for specialised systems to manage airline offers and orders.

Some say that the move to OOSD will allow airlines to move away from specialist technology to use mainstream commercial products. This would probably result in substantial cost savings but so far there is little sign of it happenning. What are the barriers to entry that prevent airlines using general retailing/ecommerce solutions? What would the vendors of those systems need to do to address the airline requirement? They need to address extreme perishability of inventory (once the door is shut all unsold seats have no value) and complexity/non fungibility of inventory (seat 1a on today’s flight from LON to NYC on a 777 is a completely different product to seat 1a on today’s flight LON HKG on the same model of 777. Tomorrow’s seat 1a to NYC on a 777 is different too, but in some circumstances would be a viable substitute)