Amadeus: More low fare carriers available to travel agents

Germanwings uses Amadeus to reach customers through the travel agency sales channel

London, 3 April 2003: Travel agencies worldwide connected to Amadeus can now sell seats on Germanwings, the new German low fare carrier.

On 1 April 2003, Germanwings joined other low fare airlines already available through the Amadeus System, such as Virgin Express (Europe), Zip Air (Canada), Norwegian Air Shuttle, (Norway) Sterling (Europe), AirTran Airways (USA) and AirAsia (Malaysia).

Germanwings started flying out of Cologne, Germany, in October 2002. It now flies to nineteen European destinations with a fleet of five Airbus A319 and three Airbus A320.

“The huge demand for low cost air fares today has generated a very competitive environment. To reach the largest number of potential passengers, we are happy to sell through travel agencies as well as through our own website. With its reach, Amadeus allows us to do this effectively,” says Joachim Klein, Managing Director of Germanwings.

Increasingly, low fare carriers are looking to Amadeus as an additional distribution channel to reach travel agents in order to maximise their revenue and the commercial penetration they can achieve beyond their home markets.

“Germanwings in the Amadeus System is further proof that we are in a position to offer a profitable distribution solution for the low fare carrier sector,” says Holger Taubmann, Director, Airline Marketing and Sales, Airline Business Group at Amadeus. “A growing number of carriers are successfully using our Standard Access product which allows them to reach a new audience, especially in their destination markets, where their advertising spend is less effective. Standard Access meshes well with the carriers’ internal systems and allows them to distribute through Amadeus without changing their existing operational blueprint.”

“For Amadeus, the addition of low fare carriers on the system is part of our strategy to provide new content and revenue sources to travel agents,” Taubmann adds. “Travel agencies welcome this move, as their corporate customers are increasingly demanding access to low fare airlines. As these become available on Amadeus, travel agencies can offer them to executive travellers without resorting to other methods of booking, which reduces their service cost.”

Germanwings has chosen Amadeus as its global distribution system (GDS) due to Amadeus’s leading market position in Europe, where more than half of the air bookings made by travel agencies are carried out through the Amadeus System. Besides Germany, Germanwings flies to ten countries in Europe; Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Amadeus is currently in discussion with more low fare carriers and expects to increase the number of carriers available in the system during the year.

For further information please contact:

Amadeus UK
Rob Golledge
T: 0870 990 7851
F: 0870 990 9299
E: [email protected]
W: www.amadeusuk.com

Amadeus Press Bridget Agnew / Anya Velzeboer
Financial Dynamics
T: 020 7269 7219/7174
F: 020 7831 8438
E: [email protected]