SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ENHANCES ONLINE RESERVATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH IONA'S ORBIX 2000

Industry's Largest E-Commerce Site Leverages Existing Infrastructure To Expand Service with Enterprise Portal Platform

June 19, 2000 - Waltham MA - IONA, the Enterprise Portal Company™, (NASDAQ: IONA) today announced that Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) has chosen Orbix 2000™, the standards-based e-business infrastructure of IONA's iPortal Suite™, for the continued development of the airline industry's leading Internet reservation system. Orbix 2000 will enable Southwest to leverage its existing technology infrastructure and integrate its back-end systems with new web-based applications to deploy enterprise portals and other consumer friendly e-commerce applications.

Utilizing Orbix 2000's standards-based open architecture design, Southwest can seamlessly integrate ticketing systems, customer databases and other customer support applications to enhance the ease-of-use of southwest.com and extend greater benefits to its customers. Southwest was the first major U.S. airline to introduce online ticketing in April of 1996 and recently announced it has the largest airline e-commerce site with revenues of $250 million in online sales during the fourth quarter of 1999. Southwest is expected to record in excess of $1 billion in revenues from www.southwest.com in 2000.

"In today's competitive market it's imperative that we offer our customers the same functionality and service online as we would in the traditional ticket sales process," said, Joyce Rogge, VP Marketing, Southwest Airlines. "By helping us leverage our existing technology and develop new capabilities, IONA is helping us develop a web site that supports our corporate strategies; providing our customers the best service available and offering Southwest Airlines a business advantage."

Southwest's decision to adopt the latest version of IONA's Orbix technology is a result of the two organizations' standing technology relationship. IONA began its relationship with Southwest in 1996 when the airline made the decision to utilize Orbix OTM to create its initial CORBA-based infrastructure in the development of its online ticketing system. With the adoption of Orbix 2000, Southwest is ensuring the strength of its existing e-business applications including online ticketing. As the foundation of IONA's iPortal Suite, Orbix 2000 also provides Southwest with a scalable e-business platform that supports the extension of CORBA throughout the enterprise, enabling the deployment and management of distributed applications.

"As a leader in the airline industry, Southwest realizes how critical e-business infrastructure is to the future of their business," said Ed Gaudet, VP, Worldwide Marketing at IONA. "We've worked with Southwest for years, and we're thrilled to extend our relationship to help them deliver a world-class enterprise portal."

About Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines is the only "major" shorthaul, low-fare, high-frequency, point-to-point carrier in the U.S. The fourth largest domestic U.S. air carrier in terms of passengers boarded, Southwest currently serves 56 cities in 29 states and operates more than 2,600 flights a day with a fleet of 321 Boeing 737s. For more information, log on to www.southwest.com

About IONA Technologies
IONA Technologies, the Enterprise Portal Company, is a leading provider of e-business infrastructure that helps organizations build and deploy enterprise portals, Internet commerce sites, and other large-scale distributed applications. IONA supports the full diversity of languages -including Java and C++ - and distributed computing technologies - including XML, Enterprise JavaBeans, CORBA, Microsoft's Windows DNA 2000 and IBM OS/390, CICS and IMS - used by today's development organizations. Founded in 1991, IONA Technologies is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company had revenues of $105 million in 1999 and employs more than 650 people in 25 offices worldwide. For more information, please see www.iona.com