Amadeus has been highlighted as one of the leading companies in Europe for investment in Research & Development (R&D) by the European Commission (EC). Amadeus is a leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

The 2010 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, an annual report published by the EC, examines the largest 1,000 European companies investing in R&D during 2009 and ranks them according to the total amount invested.

Amadeus’ investment of €250 million during 2009, a 10% increase on the amount invested in 2008, to research and develop technologies for use in the travel sector was recognised by its inclusion in the following results:

First place in Europe by total R&D investment in the computer services category
Number one in Europe by total R&D investment in the area of travel and tourism
Third largest investor in R&D in Spain for all business sectors

Innovation is one of the drivers behind Amadeus’ progress and growth, which has allowed the company’s technology to achieve an outstanding competitive position within the market.  Total investment since 2004 stands at more than €1.2 billion, reflecting a consistent investment every year of around 10% of consolidated revenues.

Jean-Paul Hamon, Executive Vice President, Development at Amadeus and Head of all the company’s software development branches, says: “We are very pleased that our investment in R&D has been recognised by this prestigious European Commission study and encouraged by our top ranking in two areas and number three position in Spain overall. Amadeus has a proven history in innovation, with pioneering products and initiatives in the travel industry. R&D will continue to be key to the evolution of our position as a large-scale technology leader”.

Amadeus has sixteen R&D centres around the world (Nice, London, Sydney, Antwerp, Aachen, Frankfurt, Munich, Boston, Miami, Toronto, Strasbourg, Tucson, Bangalore, Bogota, Warsaw and Bangkok), which currently house a team of 4,000 people working in R&D.

In terms of products and services, Amadeus’ R&D efforts in recent years have been particularly focused on:

-      Continued development of the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution (CMS), a community-based airline IT platform that consists of three solutions covering reservation, inventory management and departure control. The Altéa portfolio has marked a technology and functional breakthrough in the airline industry.

-      Development of the Amadeus Hotel Platform, a solution for hotel chains which combines central reservation, property management and global distribution systems into one fully integrated platform. This recently-launched platform is designed to support hotels in the current age of globalisation and expansion, enabling them to respond to changing traveller demands.

-      Development of sophisticated search engines with new parameters, such as budget, destination preferences, etc. Amadeus Affinity Shopper, a solution based on the original Amadeus Extreme Search concept, is a widely-acclaimed example of recent developments in this field.

-      Development of products related to travel agency management, designed to facilitate work processes and maximise productivity.

With regard to the resources dedicated by the company to improving its own operations, one aspect that stands out is the progressive migration of the company’s platform to next generation technologies such as Linux and Unix. At the end of 2009, 85% of Amadeus’ software was supported by next-generation open systems, which allow for improved efficiency and decreased dependence on a single provider whilst providing greater flexibility in terms of the architecture and scalability of the platform compared with traditional systems. This makes Amadeus the first and only distribution and passenger management system provider that primarily adopts open systems.