Amadeus, Asia Pacific’s largest and fastest growing travel reservations system, today announced the launch of e-ticketing for ten major airlines in the Philippines and a further six in Malaysia.  With the recent deployment of e-ticketing in these markets, this brings the number of implemented airlines in Asia Pacific to more than one hundred airline-market pairs, making Amadeus the region’s leading e-ticketing technology provider. Globally, more than eight million e-tickets were issued in 2003.  That figure is expected to more than double this year.  In Asia Pacific alone, the number of e-tickets issued in the past two years has increased fivefold, with more than one million e-tickets issued last year.  The rapid region-wide uptake of this technology is set to continue, with growth here already outstripping other regions.  This trend is supported by recent surveys indicating that more than a third of airlines in Asia Pacific expected e-tickets to represent more than fifty percent of ticket sales within the next three years.

Amadeus’ e-ticketing strategy involves delivering the technology on an individual basis to airlines, while fully implementing markets according to a strategic integrated rollout plan.  Already the global e-ticketing leader, Amadeus has now implemented more airlines in more Asia Pacific markets than any other technology provider. 
Mr. David Brett, President of Amadeus Asia Pacific, said, “Amadeus pioneered this ‘Big Bang’ approach in cooperation with the airlines and the travel industry.  We feel our initiative has added the critical mass required for an effective uptake of this technology in the region.  With market leadership positions in around three-quarters of the individual markets in which we have implemented (and almost half of these implemented this year), we expect to see an even stronger take-up now, and will continue our region-wide rollout to meet the needs of airlines, agents and consumers.”

Amadeus e-ticketing has already been successfully implemented in eleven markets, and is in the process of being rolled out in a further three markets in the region within the next couple of months, bringing the total number of Asia Pacific markets to fourteen.  Amadeus currently supports e-ticketing for twenty-five airlines in the region, and expects to enable e-ticketing for another seven major airlines by the end of this year. 

Amadeus e-ticketing offers airlines considerable cost savings as well as the advantages of faster ticket processing and monitoring, while also allowing travel agents to improve operational efficiencies by reducing the workload associated with the issuing, storage and distribution of traditional tickets.  It also offers time savings to travellers through faster check-in.

Amadeus is Asia Pacific’s largest and fastest growing travel reservations system, based on number of bookings and geographic coverage.  Amadeus has a market share of around 30% of the approximately 120 million bookings generated in the region, and a presence in 32 countries and territories.  Amadeus is also investing more in Asia Pacific than any other Global Travel Distribution System, and has around 900 staff in the region.
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