ITA uses Allegro Common Lisp, developed by Franz, if they wanted to rewrite in something more palatable to Google maybe then http://github.com/franzinc/cl-python could be the answer, maybe!!
Yes, it's a throwback to a bygone era, pre-open-source. The Smalltalk vendors shot themselves in the foot this way.
How can Franz not realize that they're guaranteeing their own obsolescence by stubbornly sticking to that model? The new generation of Lisp hackers cross them off the list immediately because of it. I don't get it. Perhaps they just make enough money the old way and don't care.
I seem to remember recently reading that they're looking for other ways to make money besides selling ACL per se. Looking at their web site they most prominently feature Semantic Web Technologies: http://www.franz.com/
