Amadeus has agreed to acquire Navitaire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture that provides technology and business solutions to the airline industry, for US$830 million.

Navitaire, which focuses on the low-cost and hybrid-carrier segments of the airline industry and has a global customer base of more than 50 operators, provides revenue-generation and cost-streamlining solutions in the areas of reservations, ancillary sales, loyalty, revenue management, revenue accounting and business intelligence.

The addition of Navitaire’s portfolio of products and solutions for the low-cost segment will complement Amadeus’ Altéa suite of offerings for its largely full-service carrier customer base, giving the company the ability to serve a wider group of airlines. 

Amadeus intends to market and sell the two product portfolios separately and will continue to invest in both platforms, enhancing the services and functionality availability to all types of carriers.

Amadeus believes that the acquisition will enable it to improve the connectivity between different carriers in the same airline groups or alliances and that the functionality from each platform will enhance the other. 

“Bringing Navitaire’s experience, industry know-how, client base and strong product portfolio is a significant step for Amadeus in the low-cost and hybrid-carrier segments,” said Luis Maroto, president, Amadeus.

“Airlines of all shapes and sizes face an increasingly competitive market for an increasingly demanding traveller, and this transaction will give us the ability to serve all airlines with technology that can enable them to drive new revenues and contain their costs.”

Navitaire has a strong track record of revenue growth, profitability and cash generation.

As part of the acquisition, approximately 550 Navitaire employees, including the company’s senior management team, are expected to transfer to Amadeus.

Amadeus and Accenture expect to close the Navitaire acquisition in the fourth quarter of calendar 2015, following regulatory approvals. 

Amadeus expects the acquisition to have minimal impact on its financial performance in 2015.