Madrid, Spain, May 9, 2007: Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, today announced it continues to register a strong demand for e-ticketing technology from airlines.
In the last six months, Air Madagascar, flyLAL, Jat Airways, Pluna, Qatar Airways, Cimber Air, City Airline and Skyways, have all signed up to the Amadeus Ticketing Platform (ATP) to ensure they become 100 per cent e-ticket compliant by the end of 2007. Within the same timeframe, an additional seven airlines also subscribed to ATP as part of broader IT agreements with Amadeus. ATP provides full ticketing functionality that allows airlines to cancel, exchange, refund and revalidate all types of tickets - electronic and paper - together with extensive financial reporting.
"Becoming compliant by the end of 2007 is putting a lot of pressure on the e-ticket responsible teams within the airlines, as well as across the industry," said Lone Koch, E-Ticket Project Manager, Cimber Air. "We required a partner that was able to implement a solution quickly and with the overall expertise to guide us through the total process including the access to a ready made interlining community. This is what made us choose Amadeus."
"Amadeus´ proven technology makes it easier for us to quickly set up full ticketing functionality, while its extensive interlining community eases the process of establishing interline e-ticketing with most of our partners," added Zoran Hudak, Commercial Director, Jat Airways.
Further, to allow them to implement full e-ticketing activity quickly, Rossiya Russian Airlines and Donbassaero have started using the Amadeus e-Ticket Server, an outsourced solution for the full management and distribution of electronic tickets. China Southern and TAIS, a Russian hosting service provider, have also chosen Amadeus e-Ticket Gateway, a standalone interline solution, which will allow them access to Amadeus´ extensive e-ticket interline community.
These new agreements bring the number of airlines connected to the Amadeus e-ticketing hub to over 130, amongst these are 62 airlines whose e-ticketing systems are fully hosted on Amadeus e-Ticket Server.
Frédéric Spagnou, Vice-President, Airline Business Group, Amadeus, commented: "As the IATA deadline approaches it is important that all airlines put in place the systems that will allow them to make the most of the efficiency gains provided by e-ticketing. The strength of our technology, the extent of our interlining community and the ability of our teams to implement solutions quickly and seamlessly, has been key to our continued success in this area. We are committed to ensuring that all airlines, irrespective of their size and geography, are able to meet the deadline at the end of this year."
A preferred IATA partner, Amadeus was able to provide the airlines with solutions from its leading ticketing portfolio designed to help carriers comply with the Simplifying the Business initiative by the end of 2007. All the nineteen new customers also gain access to Amadeus´ unmatched e-ticket distribution network (187 airlines and 143 markets) and interlining community (394 interline agreements).
