Amadeus rules out acquisitions

Amadeus has no plans to follow in the footsteps of Sabre or Cendant by buying up consumer-facing channels.

Commenting on the decision by Sabre to make a bid for leading online travel portal, Lastminute.com, Amadeus managing director UK and Ireland, Stephane Durand says the GDS is sticking to technology.

“We believe the level of investment from Sabre and Cendant is very high, and getting that return on investment back is not easy,” he said.

“We want our customers to know that we are not about to equip their competitors. We want to invest with them, not against them.”

Amadeus remains the majority shareholder of Opodo.com, an online agent. But mirroring the comments of Galileo UK country manager, Jason Clarke, in an interview with TravelMole this week, Mr Durand said: “The management of Opodo is completely autonomous to that of Amadeus.

“Opodo is one of the distribution partners we have. It is not the major one and does not have an ambition to be the major one.”

He added: “Opodo chooses what technology it wants to use, and isn’t forced by Amadeus to use our technology, for example, it is not currently using our hotels product, but is with a niche supplier.”

Durand told TravelMole that Amadeus was “first and foremost a technology company”. He said not to expect acquisitions such as those made by its GDS rivals.

“We believe the success of a technology company like us is dependent on not taking over ownership of content. We believe that for us the vertically integrated route is not a successful one. Amadeus provides value by building a relationship between buyer and seller.

Durand says the GDS keeps its technology up-to-date with a generous R&D spend topping £100 million per year and regular meetings with customers and suppliers in each sector, such as the Global Cruise Forum, which it held in Brighton this week.

“Our product plan and potential investment is rooted in consumer behaviour,” he said.

According to Durand, Amadeus can help agencies in three ways through the application of its technology: Firstly to diversify, secondly, boost productivity and thirdly, to retain customers.

He claims the technology-focussed approach adopted by Amadeus is helping it to win customers. “In three years we have moved from a 6% market share of airline tickets issued in the UK to an average 23% this year. It is a massive accomplishment.”

Report by Ginny McGrath