Key security role for Amadeus Rex

MUNICH – A dog called Rex, together with his handler, are in no small measure responsible for making sure that the global travel industry operates without a hiccup.

Every night Rex, a German shepherd, patrols the boundary of the Amadeus Data Centre in the town of Erding, close to the Bavarian capital of Munich.

The 18-year-old Erding facility is the central base of all Amadeus operating systems and as such is heavily secured, internally and externally.

Along with Rex there is an anti-tank moat around the perimeter of the complex.

Inside the building there are firewalls, an uninterrupted power system, and surveillance cameras operated by a private security company, to ensure that every bit of sensitive data is protected from any contingency.

And just in case there is a serious threat to operations, Amadeus has a data recovery centre 40 kms from the Erding facility.

As the world’s No 1 processor of travel and tourism transactions, Amadeus handles more than 500 million transaction per day – about 50-60 percent of the daily transactions handled by Google.

It responds to 10,000 transactions per second, a similar number to those processed by the New York Stock Exchange.

Amadeus has an average service uptime if 99.99 percent, which means that its systems are down for less than 50 minutes per year.

The company has its corporate headquarters in Madrid, and its development team at Sohpia Antipolis, in the hinterland of Nice on the French Riviera.

It also operates a Follow the Sun policy – sites around the world in Miami, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, London and Sydney ensure that as the sun goes down on one Amadeus centre, it is rising on another.

“This arrangement has allowed us to have less people working at night in the Erding facility, and people coming fresh into work in the morning in Miami and Sydney,” said Eugene Hamilton, director Amadeus technical planning and central services.

The Miami and Sydney centres are flagged for expansion and a key role as Amadeus rolls out its Altéa IT customer management solution, recently adopted by Singapore Airlines among others, to drive its sales and reservations, as well as manage its global inventory and departure control operations.


With its latest offering to the industry, Amadeus has launched the first module of Amadeus Airline Service Fees

Amadeus Airline Service Fees comprises two modules: the first one, which is now available, enables airlines to automatically collect ticketing, credit card, and miscellaneous fees in their direct sales channels (airport & city ticket offices, call centre, website).

The second module that is due to be rolled as part of the Amadeus Retailing Platform, will allow airlines to collect credit card fees through their indirect sales channel, the travel agencies. 


By Ian Jarrett