Amadeus
today announced the appointment of Stephane Durand as Managing Director of Amadeus UK, effective 01 November. Stephane will replace Arnaud Debuchy who is returning to Amadeus Headquarters in Madrid to take up a director role.

Since 2001 Amadeus UK has more than tripled its market share to over 20% and established itself as a leading challenger in both the corporate and leisure travel sectors. This has been achieved on the back of its unmatched combination of solutions and first-rate customer service.

Amadeus Vice President, EMEA and Latin America, Julia Sattel, said, “Amadeus has seen dramatic growth in the UK in the past few years under Arnaud’s leadership and we wish him well as he relocates back to Amadeus’ headquarters in Madrid. As Amadeus continues to strengthen and build on its success, Stephane’s managerial experience and industry knowledge mean he is perfectly equipped to spearhead Amadeus’ ambitious growth plans for this market.”

Stephane Durand, Managing Director of Amadeus UK, continued, “The UK is one of the most dynamic travel markets in Europe and I look forward to helping drive Amadeus’ success here. Amadeus UK has achieved more than 300% growth over the past three years, and I fully intend to build on this solid foundation and take Amadeus into the clear second position in the UK based upon our winning strategy of service excellence and advanced technology.”

Stephane is no stranger to bringing value to travel agencies, helping them improve their productivity and accelerate their revenue diversification. Amadeus agencies everywhere have benefited from Stephane’s strong track record of creating growth opportunities and increasing revenue from the ‘non-air’ channels such as car, hotel, rail and insurance.

Stephane joined Amadeus in 1999 as Director, Travel Service Partners (TSP). During his tenure Amadeus launched the industry’s most advanced GDS cruise booking tool, and he played a key role in improving travel agencies’ access to cars and hotel reservations overseeing the introduction of seamless connectivity, intuitive graphical user interfaces and automatic commission settlement. He also instigated the ambitious project to provide a suite of IT solutions to hotels with the acquisition of 30% of Optims.

Stephane’s leadership skills during his five years at the helm of TSP were key in bringing together a diverse range of travel providers and travel agents and in helping them to work together to accelerate business growth. This experience will be crucial as Stephane spearheads the next stage of growth for Amadeus in the fast-moving and complex UK travel market.

Stephane joined Amadeus after nine years at Europcar where he held a variety of managerial positions in the US and Europe.
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