Amadeus IT Group SA history, profile and corporate video
Amadeus IT Group SA provides transaction processing solutions to the global travel and tourism industry. The company offers its solutions to various travel providers, including full-service carriers, low-cost airlines, hotels, rail operators, cruise & ferry operators, car rental companies & tour operators, travel agencies, both online and offline. It also offers Information Technology Solutions to the travel industries. The company was founded on October 20, 1987, and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.
Amadeus IT Holdings History
A quick look at the history of Amadeus and all the important milestones.
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 center opens in Nice, France. We begin construction of our data processing center 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 center 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 a 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 program, we adopt ‘Your technology partner’ as our tagline.
2006
Another result of the brand evolution program sees us change our official name from Amadeus Global Travel Distribution to Amadeus IT Group. We also create a new innovation department. We reorganize 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).
2012
25th Anniversary
2013
SriLankan Airlines becomes the first carrier to sign for Altéa in the Indian Subcontinent.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, and amadeus.com/en
**Video published on YouTube by “Amadeus IT Group“