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Amadeus reports Business Results for First Half 2007

Travel News Asia Friday, 31 August 2007

Amadeus has reported its business results for the six months ending 30 June 2007. Total bookings grew by 6.7% to 281.5m, while online air bookings grew by 20.4% and now represent 17.4% of total air bookings. Amadeus claims 32.9% of the market in travel agency air bookings in the first half of 2007, up 2.4 percentage points year-on-year. Amadeus’ total revenue grew by 11% to EUR 1,534.1 million.

José Antonio Tazón, President and CEO, Amadeus, said, “We have calculated that our travel agency partners booked EUR 31.7 billion-worth of air tickets on Amadeus in the first half of 2007 clearly demonstrating the continuing value of the travel agency channel for our airline partners. Airlines also generated EUR 3.6 billion euros through their own websites using Amadeus technology.”

During 2007 we have continued to expand our IT solution business with a ten-year agreement with Cathay Pacific, the first Asian airline to sign for the full Amadeus Altéa suite of customer management solutions.”

The distribution and technology solutions we offer to all our travel industry partners are based on the most advanced technology platform in the industry. By 2010, we will have completely decommissioned our legacy transaction protocol framework technology and will be running 100% on next generation open systems. This gives us confidence that we will continue to deliver high value technology solutions to the industry for many years to come.”

Travel content

Amadeus signed low-fare content agreements with over 150 airlines in 2007.

The company has a specific programme for the European market, Amadeus Full Content Option, under which 71 airlines guarantee access to their complete public inventory of flights and fares with no GDS surcharge on these bookings. Travel agents can now also access the content of 52 low-cost carriers in Amadeus.

Amadeus e-ticket community is one of the largest in the industry with 209 airlines using e-ticket distribution in 143 markets, where 78% of tickets issued by Amadeus in the first six months of the year were e-tickets. Furthermore, Amadeus has agreements with 71 airlines to host and operate their complete e-ticketing technology and has built links to 125 airlines using other electronic ticketing systems. A total of 394 interline electronic ticketing agreements have been implemented for this community of airlines.

Further, in its drive to eliminate the last barriers to industry-wide e-ticketing, Amadeus has also launched Electronic Ticketing Direct solution which brings e-ticketing to non-Billing and Settlement Plan markets.

Hoteliers around the world continue to respond to the value Amadeus channels add. Amadeus has added over 5,000 properties since October 2006, taking the total to 75,000 globally. 2,000 new additions were independent and boutique properties not usually available on electronic distribution systems. Over 130 brands are now members of Amadeus’ Best Available Rate programme, while its commission tracking initiative has received strong industry support. Over 20 major hotel chains have already signed up to the Amadeus Worldwide Commission Manager.

Airlines

150 airlines now use at least one core component of the Altéa Customer Management Solution to help run their business. In 2007 seven more airlines have been migrated onto the platform, four airlines have signed contracts for Altéa CMS, and a further three Star Alliance airlines have signed up to join the Star Alliance Common IT Platform, based on Altéa CMS and hosted by Amadeus. During the first half of 2007, Qantas became the first airline to roll-out Altéa Departure Control­Flight, Amadeus’ next generation load control system. The solution ensures that luggage, cargo and passengers are distributed in a way which streamlines the loading process and optimises the fuel efficiency of the aircraft.

Amadeus also strengthened its position in the low-cost carrier market with Viva Aerobus, AerOasis and Express Jet choosing Amadeus’ LCC-specific CMS platform. With these new signatures, Amadeus now has six low-cost carrier IT customers.

From January to June, 2007, airlines generated EUR 3.6 billion in online booking value through Amadeus e-Retail engine, Amadeus’ online booking solution for airlines. This is 38% more than in the same period last year.

In 2007, eight more airlines chose Amadeus e-Travel Airline Suite and Amadeus migrated six airlines to its e-Merchandise Solution, which enables airlines to structure, manage, display, and efficiently promote their fares online. Amadeus e-Travel Airline Suite is now used, as a complete solution or in part, by over 70 of the world’s leading airlines.

In the first half of 2007, fourteen more airlines chose to outsource the operation and maintenance of their ticketing systems to Amadeus. Twelve chose the Amadeus Ticketing Platform, which provides a comprehensive ticketing solution and a further two airlines decided to host their e-ticketing with the Amadeus Electronic Ticketing Server.

Hotels

Amadeus’ hospitality solutions continue to grow in capability and functionality. Its Revenue Management Solution can now optimise how long a guest stays as well as how much they pay. It has also been equipped with a new module to measure its own effectiveness - quantifying the hotelier’s return on investment.

Hotel chains that have recently adopted Amadeus’ RMS include TAJ, Rocco Forte and Central Hotels and Resorts (now Centara Hotels and Resorts). The Cornell-Nanyang Institute has also made it a key element of their prestigious Master of Management in Hospitality programme. Over 6,700 properties in 75 countries now use Amadeus Property Management Systems.

Travel Services

Travel agents outside Europe can now buy global rail passes and point-to-point tickets for travel in Europe, the US and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India thanks to the implementation of a rail booking solution with Wandrian, a specialist in rail distribution technology. In Asia, East Japan Rail is now displayed to Amadeus travel agents alongside airlines.

In the car rental sector, Amadeus and National Car Rental now offer e-vouchers worldwide. Amadeus also launched seamless car location with AutoEurope and in March adopted the new ACRISS Car Classification System worldwide. The system classifies cars more clearly, reducing search time and helping travel agents to upsell.

During the first half of 2007, Amadeus launched Travel Insurance solutions in four new markets, added new providers in Thailand (Thaivivat) and India (Reliance), and integrated Insurance into the Amadeus Leisure Platform in France. Airlines are also taking advantage of Amadeus Insurance: today, six airlines sell insurance to their customers through Amadeus Insurance.

Cruise Travel

Amadeus e-Cruise, a travel agency and consumer cruise-booking platform for the US, gained its 11th travel agency customer. In addition, cruise lines continued to make use of the reach of Amadeus Cruise, a global travel agency cruise booking tool, to take their offer to new international markets: during the period, MSC Cruises launched in North America and Scandinavia; Star Cruises and Holland America Line launched in the UK; Norwegian Cruise Lines launched in France and Costa Cruise Lines launched in Ireland.

Online Travel Agencies

In February, Amadeus announced contracts with four Indian online travel agencies: Indiatimes, MakeMyTrip, Sify and Yatra.

Amadeus Meta Pricer, a pioneering low-fare search engine to help search companies to efficiently retrieve fares and availability information from their airline partners has gained considerable interest from the market in the first half of 2007. Kayak and Bezurk have already been announced as customers and more are expected to be announced soon.

Corporations

Amadeus’ partnerships with resellers to service the world’s corporate travellers online continue to grow strongly: in the first half of 2007, 52% more bookings were made through resellers than in the same period 2006.

Key features include the ability to use handheld devices to help corporate travellers on the move accelerate their approval process in real-time and choose hotels; the new Quick Shopper user interface; enhanced selection of flight availability from alternative local airports; access to carbon offset providers and localised services in one go; and the ability to minimise unused air tickets. Furthermore, Amadeus announced the Amadeus Adoption Academy, an enhanced end-to-end consultancy approach, which helps drive the use of self-booking tools by corporate clients such as Siemens Nordics.

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