Amadeus IT Holding, S.A. - parent company of transaction processor Amadeus Group - has announced year-on-year financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2011.

In the three months ended March 31st, adjusted profit at the group increased 11.7 per cent to reach €144.0 million.

This was backed by a growth in revenue from continuing operations of 2.8 per cent to €704.3 million and an improvement in EBITDA of 6.8 per cent to €291.4 million.

Excluding the impact of the sales of equity stakes in Vacation.com and Hospitality Group in 2010 and the impact of a change in treatment of certain bookings within IT Solutions, revenue grew by 4.8 per cent.

Amadeus president, Luis Maroto, said: “We have made a good start to the year with both of Amadeus’ business lines continuing to show healthy growth during the quarter.

“In airline IT we processed 94 million ‘Passengers Boarded’ during the quarter, 38.8 per cent more than a year ago, with 97 airlines now using the Amadeus Altéa suite of solutions to drive their mission-critical business processes.”

Consolidated net financial debt on March 31st at the provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry was €2,439.9 million

Both the Distribution and IT Solutions businesses contributed to the company’s positive performance during the quarter.

Revenue in the Distribution area increased by 2.8 per cent (3.4 per cent excluding the impact of the sale of Vacation.com), rising to €553.5 million.

Total bookings increased by 4.3%, up from 119.5 million to 124.7 million. Amadeus also maintained its leadership position with 37.4% of the global market share of travel agency air bookings during the first quarter of 2011.

“We further improved our financial position by reducing debt, down by more than €130 million since December, and now at 2.35x EBITDA,” added Maroto.

“Year-on-year our EBITDA grew by 6.8 per cent to €291 million, and our adjusted profit for the quarter was up by 11.7 per cent to €144 million.”