> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://compile.la/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Expanding From Airline to Software: Surf Air's Bet on OperatorOS - URL: https://compile.la/expanding-from-airline-to-software-surf-airs-bet-on-operatoros/ - Published: 2026-10-13T16:35:10.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T16:35:10.000Z - Description: The Hawthorne-based airline is working with Palantir. - Author: Darren Alfonso At 6:30 AM on Christmas Eve 2022, my wife and I sat waiting to board our 7:25 AM flight to SJC. At 7:00 AM, we overheard that the flight was delayed because our crew hadn’t arrived yet. After *two hours* of delays and false hope and then more delays, I saw a flight at the gate across from us. Departure time: 10:15AM, destination: SFO, 30 miles north of SJC. I booked it. We arrived. I thought we escaped the holiday travel chaos relatively unscathed. I thought wrong. The next day (Christmas Day) our flight to LAX had a scheduled departure time of 4:05 PM. Notifications popped up that the flight was delayed to 6 PM, then 8 PM. We relaxed and I took some naps. At 3 PM, we got the notification that our flight was rescheduled to… 4:10 PM. We shoved our clothes in our bags and rushed to the airport. Sweating profusely, we arrived just in time. Then more chaos. Our gate was changed. We overheard the familiar, “The crew isn’t here yet.” My gut told me that this flight would get cancelled. I followed my gut and rented a car for double the price of our flights and drove six hours back to LA. Over the next week, Southwest canceled over 14,000 flights that affected two million passengers. According to Southwest Airlines Pilots Association president Casey Murray, in a written testimony to the US Senate, Southwest Airlines’ "failure to modernize its 1990s-era crew scheduling processes and technology was a causal factor in the meltdown." Southwest used a proprietary aircraft and passenger routing system called Baker and another system, SkySolver, for crew scheduling. Murray added, “\[Southwest’s\] scheduling practices are outdated and its patchwork use of multiple technology systems lacks the capacity to provide crew solutions for massive, close-in flight cancellations.” As a software engineer, phrases like “failure to modernize…processes and technology” and “patchwork use of multiple technology systems” scream tech debt, refactor, or rewrite. If software isn’t working, we need to fix it or replace it. Bad software ruined people’s holidays in 2022\. I don’t want that to happen to anyone. Flight operations software isn’t an unsolved problem. CAE and Lufthansa Systems already sell software built to run commercial airline operations. In Hawthorne, California, Surf Air is building SurfOS for private and regional aviation. One feature of SurfOS is OperatorOS and it’s used by airlines to coordinate scheduling, dispatch, crew planning, and maintenance data in one platform. When I first read about OperatorOS, I immediately remembered Southwest’s disparate, dated systems causing the holiday meltdown. Surf Air is actually an airline itself. In 2023 it acquired commuter airline Southern Airways Express, which had previously acquired Mokulele Airlines. Mokulele flies more than 100 flights across nine airports in the Hawaiian Islands. It’s the only airline serving the general public at Molokaʻi airport and its roughly 7,300 residents. It's a critical link for those traveling for work, medical care and family. ![Mokulele airport desk Photo: Surf Air Mobility](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a4/b1/a4b18877-561a-494f-b192-85940e5b9e31/content/images/2026/10/MOKULELE-HONOLULU-STATION-a-scaled-1-1-1.jpg) Mokulele airport desk Photo: Surf Air Mobility In 2021, Surf Air started working with Palantir to build software for internal use. Eventually, Surf Air started selling OperatorOS to other airlines. Over the past few weeks, they've announced four OperatorOS customers: Sprintbach Aviation, SkyDance Air, Air Fuga, and Clipper Aviation. This cycle is reminiscent of Amazon and Amazon Web Services: build software and expertise to support your own operations, then make it available to the public. Surf Air hired Barrett Brown as President of SurfOS after he spent over ten years at Palantir. The company said late last year that it planned to scale its engineering and sales capabilities. It’s a bold plan to build a software business out of an airline, but it’s worth a shot. Surf Air’s stock (NYSE: SRFM) is down over 95% since 2023\. It’s fallen below the New York Stock Exchange’s $1 minimum share-price standard, prompting a continued-listing notice in July. I applaud the effort and innovation associated with creating better software for any legacy industry, especially air travel. Surf Air may never sell OperatorOS to an airline the size of Southwest, but the more airlines adopt modern software, the more pressure there is on others to follow. We barely notice how remarkable the logistics of air travel are until a delay or cancellation. There’s something ultimately noble about transporting people across long distances and not screwing it up. \- *Work on airline operations software or other systems that keep aviation running? I'd love to hear about what you're building.* [*Send a story idea to Compile LA*](https://compile.la/)*.*