From what I remember about the air traffic control system, it's pretty old, so it doesn't surprise me that the airlines are running on similar ancient backends.
One of the weird one-off projects that was assigned to my area when I worked for AT&T was this ancient air traffic telemetry device, the only person that knew anything about it was some old dude that had been there since the 50s. That project is probably still tucked away talking telemetry in some places.
I want to be that wizard someday that is in charge of some ancient technology a business depends on and can't get rid of.
The insurance and banking industries generally still rely on COBOL, so there are opportunities out there...
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