Amadeus
today announced that Continental Airlines, a
major U.S. carrier, will use the Amadeus Electronic Ticket Server (ETS)
Interline Gateway to interline electronic ticketing with other carriers. The
first of these will be Hawaiian Airlines.

ETS Interline Gateway is the first, fully neutral interline solution, which
allows any airline to make their electronic ticket flight coupons available
to previously designated “interline partners”, regardless of the hosting
system either airline uses. Carriers can achieve this with a single
communication link to Amadeus, which receives, translates and relays the
necessary information between the airlines` different systems.

Continental Airlines

has developed several successful interline connections
with other carriers. The airline has decided to adopt ETS Interline Gateway
as an additional option for interline development.

“In addition to bringing seamless service to customers who use electronic
tickets for their interline journeys, ETS Interline Gateway will allow
Continental another option for interline development with other airlines,”
said Janet Wejman, Continental Airlines` Senior Vice President and Chief
Information Officer.

“Due to our existing network of communication lines with many airlines,
Amadeus has the competitive advantage of being able to offer a ready-made
and reliable solution to help airlines fully exploit the potential of their
electronic ticketing activities and add multiple airlines through a single
connection to the ETS Interline Gateway,” commented Hans Jorgensen, Vice
President, Airline Business Group, Amadeus.  “This is especially significant
as major airlines aim to move to 100% electronic tickets in the next couple
of years, which will necessitate that they are linked to all their interline
partners.”

“Furthermore, ETS Interline Gateway can be integrated easily with an
airline`s existing ticketing and reservations architecture, without making
significant changes. The only other similar solution in use today requires
that at least one of the interlining partners is hosted on the technology
provider,” he says.

Continental Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines will be the first US carriers to
use Amadeus ETS Interline Gateway for their interlining activities, which
will commence in September, 2003.

Related stories on ITN:

(22/07/2003) Eurostar Expands Global Distribution Through Amadeus

(04/07/2003) Amadeus to Invest in Optims

(03/07/2003) LOT Polish Airlines Integrates to Amadeus Sales System

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