British Airways is now managing its complete inventory and route network on Altéa Plan, the Amadeus’ next generation inventory management system. The system, which British Airways helped to design, handles 38 million British Airways customers a year. The managed service gives airlines complete control over their inventory and seat planning, providing the tools to maximise the yield on every seat. British Airways joins Qantas, which has been running Altéa Plan since September 2004, and over twenty other airlines who have entrusted their inventories to the Amadeus system.

Today’s announcement marks the second major milestone in the biggest overhaul of British Airways’ core technical infrastructure in over twenty years. “Together with Amadeus and Qantas, we have designed the industry’s first new generation inventory management system. Altéa Plan gives us the ability to handle the most sophisticated revenue management techniques available today, while at the same time improving the cost-efficiency of our internal processes,” says Paul Coby, CIO, British Airways.

The fundamental importance of the system to the airline’s business demanded meticulous planning, and the transition was achieved flawlessly. “The Amadeus inventory and reservations systems are at the heart of our day-to-day operations. All our revenue flows through these systems, and our profitability is decided by how effectively the inventory and yield management system work,” explains Mr Coby.

Altéa Plan manages 673,000 individual flight/date inventories on a rolling, yearly basis for British Airways - more than 2,000 flights every day. Moving all this data to the new system took just five months, each day planned to the last detail. The new system was initialised during the first two months, and was then run in parallel with the old system as the control of the flights were progressively given to the new system (on a flight/date basis). This process ensured a smooth migration and protected British Airways’ critical business functions with minimal impact to the airlines’ day-to-day business.

“Amadeus has invested EUR 300 million in the development of a new generation, customer-centric inventory [Altéa Plan] and departure control system [Altéa Fly]. As of today, British Airways and Qantas, two of the world’s top-ten global airlines, and over twenty other airlines process their inventory through Amadeus,” says Frédéric Spagnou, Vice President, Airline Business Group, Amadeus.

                                                               
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