Introduction to Amadeus GDS

Introduction to Amadeus GDS

Amadeus is a computer reservation system (or global distribution system, since it sells tickets for multiple airlines) owned by the Amadeus IT Group with headquarters in Madrid, Spain. The central database is located at Erding, Germany. In addition to airlines, the CRS is also used to book train travel, cruises, car rental, ferry reservations, and hotel rooms. Amadeus also provides New Generation departure control systems to airlines. The company is structured around two key related areas – its global distribution system and its IT Solutions business area.Amadeus Hotel Front Office generates text files for multiple use (for example: printing labels or creating mailings etc). Select guests according to a variety of criteria such as number of stays, turnover achieved, country, postal code area, segment code, birthday, age etc and aim your direct mail at the right segments easily. Amadeus Hotel Front Office generates text files for multiple use (for example: printing labels or creating mailings etc). Select guests according to a variety of criteria such as number of stays, turnover achieved, country, postal code area, segment code, birthday, age etc and aim your direct mail at the right segments easily.

History of Amadeus

1987
Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS agree to create a new global distribution system. As a result, Amadeus is born on 21 October 1987.

1988
Amadeus becomes the first European company to operate in the new European Currency Unit (ECU), doing so until the introduction of the Euro. Our software development centre opens in Nice, France. We begin construction of our data processing centre in Erding, Germany. The first of our national marketing companies (NMCs) launches in Finland, followed by Austria and France.

1989
Seven airlines become system users and Thai Airways International becomes our first Asian partner. The Amadeus Network (Amanet) goes live. It is used by travel agents to connect to the Amadeus system.

1990
We open our data processing centre in Erding, Germany and travel agents begin to use the Amadeus system for bookings. Amadeus Fare Quote is now used in France, Belgium and select African countries.

1991
Amadeus Air offers users worldwide access to schedule displays, extensive flight solutions, unbiased rankings, and extended display options.

1992
The first Amadeus Passenger Name Record (PNR) is created. System user airline sales offices migrate to Amadeus for all reservation requirements. We launch Amadeus Cars and Amadeus Hotels.

1993
Amadeus is voted Top Computer Reservation System (CRS) in Europe at the European Travel Awards.

1994
Austrian Airlines becomes the 100th Amadeus Access carrier. 47,500 travel agencies and 34,500 airline sales offices are now connected to Amadeus worldwide.

1995
Amadeus becomes world leader in travel agency locations following our acquisition of System One in North America.

1996
www.amadeus.net is launched, offering online airline availability and destination information. A special unit is established within Amadeus to research and develop additional online applications. We reach 300 million bookings.

1997
Amadeus now employs more than 1,300 people, representing 45 different nationalities, and operates in 119 markets worldwide. Icelandair launches the first Amadeus-powered travel website.

1998
Amadeus successfully connects all System One users into the Amadeus global distribution system (GDS), in the largest migration in travel industry history to date. Amadeus becomes the world’s largest GDS, processing one million bookings in a single day for the first time.

1999
Amadeus becomes a public company, listed on four stock exchanges.

2000
British Airways and Qantas partner with Amadeus to develop the next generation of customer IT management solutions for their reservation, inventory and departure control systems.

2001
We begin developing the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution.

2002
British Airways and Qantas are now full Amadeus system users. We launch our global business unit for online corporate and leisure travel solutions.

2003
Amadeus now handles nearly 2,500 transactions a second and there are over 23 million active PNRs in our central system.

2004
Amadeus’ annual revenues surpass €2 billion for the first time. Qantas becomes our first Amadeus Altéa Inventory customer. Amadeus introduces the ground-breaking value-based pricing system for airline distribution.

2005
We win the contract to build the Star Alliance’s common IT platform. The Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) of Amadeus by Cinven and BC Partners becomes one of the largest in European history, taking us off the stock market once more and back into private hands. As part of the brand evolution programme, we adopt ‘Your technology partner’ as our tagline.

2006
Another result of the brand evolution programme sees us change our official name from Amadeus Global Travel Distribution to Amadeus IT Group. We also create a new innovation department. We reorganise our commercial operations with National Marketing Companies (NMCs) becoming local Amadeus Commercial Organisations (ACOs).

2007
Our 20th anniversary! Amadeus manages up to 2 million travel reservations daily and processes more than half a billion travel bookings annually. We launch our Middle East regional hub in Dubai. Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution becomes a huge success. We migrate 13 airlines to the system this year, with 14 new contracts signed. Qantas is the first airline to become operational on the complete Amadeus Altéa platform.

2008
The Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) deal is signed by 13 leading carriers in the Middle East.

2009
Amadeus makes history in online search with the introduction of the Amadeus Extreme Search concept. We roll out our Amadeus Altéa Departure Control System. 162 airlines are contracted to use Amadeus Altéa for reservation, inventory or departure control. We also move into the mobile technology arena for airports thanks to our partnership with Air France, IER and Nice Airport to develop a mobile boarding pass.

2010
Amadeus becomes a public company again with a successful IPO on the Spanish stock market in April. We sign up our 100th customer for the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management System – AviancaTaca.

2011
The European Commission (EC) highlights Amadeus as one of the leading companies in Europe for investment in Research Development (RD). Amadeus enters the IBEX 35 index of leading Spanish companies. We sell Opodo, the leading pan-European online travel agency. Amadeus announces the first customer for our flagship Hotel IT solution, Amadeus Hotel Platform – Dynamique Hôtels Management (DHM).201225th Anniversary2013SriLankan Airlines becomes the first carrier to sign for Altéa in the Indian Subcontinent.

Various Modules/ Customer Solutions offered by Amadeus:

• Amadeus Air
• Amadeus Rail
• Amadeus Traveler
• Amadeus Office
• Amadeus Cars
• Amadeus Hotels
• Amadeus Tours
• Amadeus Cruise

TECHNOLOGY

Travel industry’s leading technology delivers efficient solutions to meet customer’s critical business needs -increasing revenues, productivity, reducing costs and improving customer service. Amadeus invests in the latest technology solutions and operating environment making it a forerunner in innovative products and service development.

ADVANTAGES

• Increased revenue: Travel industry-leading solutions help customers to maximize their revenue from existing channels and explore new ones, thus keeping their businesses successful, both now and in the future.
• Reduced costs: Amadeus solutions are designed to maximize productivity through ease of use. Continuous innovation and enhancements to the solutions include the incorporation of state-of-the-art graphical interfaces, making it easier to book travel while Business Management solutions include value added features that increase efficiency saving time and cost.
• Service Differentiation: Amadeus designs solutions may be customized and personalized so that travel providers and sellers can deliver the most effective customer service and benefit from increased adoption and customer loyalty.
• Easy system migration/connectivity: The combination of Amadeus robust leading–edge technology and inside knowledge of the travel industry allows seamless integration of solutions.

AMADEUS HOTELS ( PMS)

With the integration of Optimism, the leading hotel IT provider fully owned by Amadeus since 2005, Amadeus has added to its hotel distribution technology a sample of portfolios of IT solutions for the hotel industry. In 2010, Amadeus is reported to have sold its PMS division to SoftBrands, a provider of business software.

Benefits/Advantages

1. Time saving as it provides all travel, client and agency information through single screen access to travelers round the clock.
2. Easy to find and understand information.
3. Better control as the entire travel agency business can be integrated and hence increase profitability.
4. Possibility of cross selling the products and larger offers to clients is possible.
5. Amadeus caters to all hotel needs from hotel management software to distribution to all sales channels.
6. Amadeus can anticipate the needs of the guests in advance and be ahead of the competition in delivering them.

Features of Amadeus-Hotels

• Technology to distribute hotels in both online and travel traditional environments.
• PMS for individual hotels.
• Centrally managed PMS for hotel chains and hotel groups.
• Revenue Management System both for hotels and central reservation offices.
• Direct connection to GDS to streamline the distribution.
• Central Reservation System to connect individual properties and hotel groups to the GDS and online distribution.

Amadeus Property Management System (PMS) is a fully integrated solution for hotel chains that offers a single view of rates, inventory, content, guest information and reservations for all properties within the chain.