Travel agencies worldwide connected to Amadeus
can
now sell seats on Germanwings, the new German low fare carrier.

On 1 April 2003, Germanwings
joined other low fare airlines already
available through the Amadeus System, such as Virgin Express (Europe), Zip
Air (Canada), Norwegian Air Shuttle, (Norway) Sterling (Europe), AirTran
Airways (USA) and AirAsia (Malaysia).

Germanwings started flying out of Cologne, Germany, in October 2002. It now
flies to nineteen European destinations with a fleet of five Airbus A319 and
three Airbus A320.

“The huge demand for low cost air fares today has generated a very
competitive environment. To reach the largest number of potential
passengers, we are happy to sell through travel agencies as well as through
our own website. With its reach, Amadeus allows us to do this effectively,”
says Joachim Klein, Managing Director of Germanwings.

Increasingly, low fare carriers are looking to Amadeus as an additional
distribution channel to reach travel agents in order to maximise their
revenue and the commercial penetration they can achieve beyond their home
markets.

“Germanwings in the Amadeus System is further proof that we are in a
position to offer a profitable distribution solution for the low fare
carrier sector,” says Holger Taubmann, Director, Airline Marketing and
Sales, Airline Business Group at Amadeus. “A growing number of carriers are
successfully using our Standard Access product which allows them to reach a
new audience, especially in their destination markets, where their
advertising spend is less effective. Standard Access meshes well with the
carriers` internal systems and allows them to distribute through Amadeus
without changing their existing operational blueprint.”

“For Amadeus, the addition of low fare carriers on the system is part of our
strategy to provide new content and revenue sources to travel agents,”
Taubmann adds. “Travel agencies welcome this move, as their corporate
customers are increasingly demanding access to low fare airlines. As these
become available on Amadeus, travel agencies can offer them to executive
travellers without resorting to other methods of booking, which reduces
their service cost.”

Germanwings has chosen Amadeus as its global distribution system (GDS) due
to Amadeus`s leading market position in Europe, where more than half of the
air bookings made by travel agencies are carried out through the Amadeus
System. Besides Germany, Germanwings flies to ten countries in Europe;
Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain,
Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Amadeus is currently in discussion with more low fare carriers and expects
to increase the number of carriers available in the system during the year.
Related stories on ITN:

(17/03/2003) Amadeus Helps Agents Increase Non Air Revenues

(11/02/2003) Amadeus Delivers Low Fare Search Engine for Online Sites

(06/02/2003) Amadeus to Supply Finnair with New Generation IT Systems

——-