Overview of Amadeus
Founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS, Amadeus is the
youngest of the four GDS companies. Amadeus is a leading global distribution system
and technology provider serving the marketing, sales, and distribution needs of the world’s
travel and tourism industries.
Its comprehensive data network and database, among the largest of their kind in
Europe, serve more than 57,000 travel agency locations and more than 10,500 airline sales
offices in some 200 markets worldwide. The system can also provide access to approximately
58,000 hotels and 50 car rental companies serving some 24,000 locations, as well as other
provider groups, including ferry, rail, and cruise, insurance, and tour operators.
They are the leading transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry,
providing transaction processing power and technology solutions to both travel providers
(including full service carriers and low-cost airlines, hotels, rail operators, cruise and ferry
operators, car rental companies, travel insurance companies and tour operators) and travel
agencies (both online and offline).
The company acts both as a worldwide network connecting travel providers and
travel agencies through a highly effective processing platform for the distribution of
travel products and services (through our Distribution business), and as a provider of a
comprehensive portfolio of IT solutions which automate certain mission-critical business
processes, such as reservations,
inventory management and operations for travel providers
(through our IT solutions business).
Corporate Preview
Upon its inception, Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS held equal shares of
Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A. Shortly after the formation of the company,
however, SAS sold its shares to Amadeus Data Processing. The three founder airline
shareholders currently hold 59.92% of the company: Air France (23.36%), Iberia (18.28%),
and Lufthansa (18.28%). Remaining shares are held publicly(Das 2009).
The Amadeus group has three primary corporate headquarters. Their data processing
division, product research and development division and the official corporate headquarters
are located in three different regions of Europe (Amadeus 2009).
67
Market Size
Amadeus is offering to marketing, sales, and the distribution services of the travel
and tourism sectors. The database of this system is one of the largest in the world, as it
operates in over 15,000 markets (Amadeus 2009) and contains more than 57,000 travel
agencies sites, and also 10,500 airline sales office spread in 200 markets across the world
(Das 2009).
Along with that they have also developed a new system; made operational in 2007,
their new system features a “next generation distribution technology platform” which
operates based on open systems technology; the upgraded technology can now access
78,000 hotels (Amadeus 2009), up from 58,000 hotels and 50 car rental firms, among other
services (Das 2009).
Products and Services Offered
Amadeus provides a range of technologies designed to deliver tangible results in the
travel & tourism industry. The category of clients and the services rendered are listed below.
i. Travel Providers
➢ Airlines: network airlines, regional airlines, low cost and leisure carriers
➢ Hotels: chains, representation companies, and independent hoteliers
➢ Ground & Maritime: car rental, railway, ferry, cruise and insurance companies
➢ Tour operators: specialty, mass-market and vertically-integrated tour operators
ii. Travel Sellers
➢ Travel Agencies: including travel management companies, business and leisure
travel agencies of all sizes, online travel agencies and consolidators
iii. Travel buyers
➢ Corporations: self-booking solutions for companies looking to maximise value
from
➢ their travel spend.
➢ Travellers : trip planning and checking through amadeus.net and Amadeus
checkmytrip.com
Amadeus- Client categories and the services offered
Source: Amadeus (2009).
68
AMADEUS enables the traveller to organise the trips from A to Z through one and
unique website
