Amadeus IT has recorded a 12.2 per cent increase in adjusted profit for the first half of financial 2011 to reach €263.7 million.

This was backed by a growth in revenue from continuing operations of 3.9 per cent to €1.4 billion and an improvement in EBITDA of six per cent to €572 million.

Amadeus IT is parent company of the Amadeus Group, a transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

Excluding the impact of the sales of equity stakes in Vacation.com and Hospitality Group during 2010, and the impact of a change in treatment of certain bookings within IT Solutions, revenue grew by 5.8 per cent.

During the second quarter of the year Amadeus successfully refinanced its debt with a new €2.7 billion senior unsecured financing.

Amadeus president, Luis Maroto, said: “This has been a positive and active first half of the year.

“At an operational level, both our Distribution and IT Solutions businesses continued to grow and in particular had significant successes in the Asia-Pacific region, adding further visibility to our future growth.”

In distribution, Amadeus saw its global market share of air travel agency bookings increase by 0.8 percentage points over the period, while an important partnership was signed with TOPAS, a subsidiary of Korean Air, to launch a reservation system using Amadeus technology which will handle more than 50 per cent of all travel agency bookings in Korea.

In IT Solutions, the number of passengers boarded increased by 32.5 per cent, while Amadeus signed further Amadeus Altéa Suite contracts with leading global airlines such as All Nippon Airways (ANA) for its international flights, Korean Air and Thai Airlines.

“We are confident that our ongoing investment in developing the best technology will continue to produce long-term results and now expect our annual passengers boarded to be more than 700 million by 2014,” added a statement.