Amadeus |
Amadeus was originally created as a neutral global distribution system (GDS) by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS in 1987 in order to connect providers' content with travel agencies and consumers in real time. The creation of Amadeus was intended to offer a European alternative to Sabre, the American GDS. The first Amadeus system was built from core reservation system code coming from System One, an American GDS that competed with Sabre but went bankrupt, and a copy of the Air France pricing engine. These systems were respectively running under IBM TPF and Unisys. At the beginning of Amadeus, the Amadeus systems were functionally dedicated to airline reservation and centered on the PNR (Passenger Name Record), the passenger's travel file. Throughout the years, the PNR was opened up to additional travel industries (hotels, rail, cars, cruises, ferries, insurance, etc.).
Although established initially as a private partnership, Amadeus went public in October 1999, becoming listed on the Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid stock exchanges. Progressively and in line with industry evolution, Amadeus diversified its operations by focusing on information technologies (IT) to deliver services spanning beyond sales and reservation functionalities, centred on streamlining the operational and distribution requirements of its customer base.
In 2000, Amadeus received an ISO 9001:2000 quality certification – the first GDS company to do so. Since 2004, the company has invested €1 billion in R&D and Amadeus's technology has increasingly embraced open systems which provide clients with more flexibility and features, as well as other benefits. Today, 85% of its software portfolio is open system based. In 2005, Amadeus was delisted from the Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid stock exchanges when BC Partners and Cinvenbought their stake from three of the four founding airlines and the rest of the capital floated from institutional and minority shareholders. The transition from distribution system to technology provider was reflected by the change in its corporate name in 2006, when the company name was changed to Amadeus IT Group. In 2009, Amadeus invested about €257 million in R&D. Amadeus is again listed on the Spanish Stock Exchanges as of 29 April 2010 (AMS). Throughout the years, Amadeus acquired:
Company Business and Activities
Distribution
Amadeus CRS is the largest GDS provider in the worldwide travel and tourism industry, with an estimated market share of 37% in 2009. This position permits Amadeus to offer distribution reach for global and local travel content. As of December 2010, over 90,000 travel agencies worldwide use the Amadeus system and 58,000 airline sales offices use it as their internal sales and reservations system. Amadeus gives access to bookable content from 435 airlines (including 60 low cost carriers), 29 car rental companies (representing 36,000 car rental locations), 51 cruise lines and ferry operators, 280 hotel chains and 87,000 hotels, 200 tour operators, 103 rail operators and 116 travel insurance companies.
IT Solutions
The principal service of this business area is the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management System (CMS), a software suite which addresses airlines' sales and reservations, inventory management and departure control.
Unlike the carriers’ legacy IT systems, the Altéa platform is based on a common technical infrastructure and software. With Altéa, airlines outsource their IT operations onto a community platform which allows them to share information with both airline alliance and code-share partners.
The Altéa suite presently consists of four main modules:Altéa Reservation, providing booking, pricing and ticketing management through a single interface; Altéa Inventory, providing schedule and seat capacity management on a flight-by-flight basis; Altéa Departure Control, a departure control system software package; and Altéa e-commerce, a software suite for airline e-commerce sales and support.
In 2009, the number of passengers boarded by airlines using Amadeus Altéa was 238 million. Amadeus is extending its IT solutions business with the ongoing development of similar systems for rail companies, hotel chains, airport operators and ground handling companies.
What is Amadeus Ticketless Access?
Designed for Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) who want to sell their product through you – the professional travel consultant – Amadeus Ticketless Access is a purpose-built solution.
It offers you the facility to book Low Cost Carrier content using the familiar Amadeus reservations environment that you have come to know and trust.
How does it help?
Amadeus Ticketless Access lets you easily compare scheduled and LCC flight availability in a single place. Ticketless Access also saves time and effort by giving the sales consultants the ability to meet their consumers price expectations.
Which carriers are available?
You can book 6 carriers using Ticketless Access entries, including some of the most popular airlines for the UK market:
Although established initially as a private partnership, Amadeus went public in October 1999, becoming listed on the Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid stock exchanges. Progressively and in line with industry evolution, Amadeus diversified its operations by focusing on information technologies (IT) to deliver services spanning beyond sales and reservation functionalities, centred on streamlining the operational and distribution requirements of its customer base.
In 2000, Amadeus received an ISO 9001:2000 quality certification – the first GDS company to do so. Since 2004, the company has invested €1 billion in R&D and Amadeus's technology has increasingly embraced open systems which provide clients with more flexibility and features, as well as other benefits. Today, 85% of its software portfolio is open system based. In 2005, Amadeus was delisted from the Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid stock exchanges when BC Partners and Cinvenbought their stake from three of the four founding airlines and the rest of the capital floated from institutional and minority shareholders. The transition from distribution system to technology provider was reflected by the change in its corporate name in 2006, when the company name was changed to Amadeus IT Group. In 2009, Amadeus invested about €257 million in R&D. Amadeus is again listed on the Spanish Stock Exchanges as of 29 April 2010 (AMS). Throughout the years, Amadeus acquired:
- SMART AB, a travel distribution company in Northern Europe
- Vacation.com, the largest US marketing network for leisure travel
- E-Travel, Inc., a supplier of hosted technology products for corporate travel
- Opodo, a European travel website which it sold on February 2011 for €450 million
- Airline Automation (AAI), a robotic PNR processing company, in 2006
- TravelTainment, a leisure content provider
- Optims, a European hotel software company
- Onerail, a rail IT software supplier
Company Business and Activities
Distribution
Amadeus CRS is the largest GDS provider in the worldwide travel and tourism industry, with an estimated market share of 37% in 2009. This position permits Amadeus to offer distribution reach for global and local travel content. As of December 2010, over 90,000 travel agencies worldwide use the Amadeus system and 58,000 airline sales offices use it as their internal sales and reservations system. Amadeus gives access to bookable content from 435 airlines (including 60 low cost carriers), 29 car rental companies (representing 36,000 car rental locations), 51 cruise lines and ferry operators, 280 hotel chains and 87,000 hotels, 200 tour operators, 103 rail operators and 116 travel insurance companies.
IT Solutions
The principal service of this business area is the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management System (CMS), a software suite which addresses airlines' sales and reservations, inventory management and departure control.
Unlike the carriers’ legacy IT systems, the Altéa platform is based on a common technical infrastructure and software. With Altéa, airlines outsource their IT operations onto a community platform which allows them to share information with both airline alliance and code-share partners.
The Altéa suite presently consists of four main modules:Altéa Reservation, providing booking, pricing and ticketing management through a single interface; Altéa Inventory, providing schedule and seat capacity management on a flight-by-flight basis; Altéa Departure Control, a departure control system software package; and Altéa e-commerce, a software suite for airline e-commerce sales and support.
In 2009, the number of passengers boarded by airlines using Amadeus Altéa was 238 million. Amadeus is extending its IT solutions business with the ongoing development of similar systems for rail companies, hotel chains, airport operators and ground handling companies.
What is Amadeus Ticketless Access?
Designed for Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) who want to sell their product through you – the professional travel consultant – Amadeus Ticketless Access is a purpose-built solution.
It offers you the facility to book Low Cost Carrier content using the familiar Amadeus reservations environment that you have come to know and trust.
How does it help?
Amadeus Ticketless Access lets you easily compare scheduled and LCC flight availability in a single place. Ticketless Access also saves time and effort by giving the sales consultants the ability to meet their consumers price expectations.
Which carriers are available?
You can book 6 carriers using Ticketless Access entries, including some of the most popular airlines for the UK market: