British Airways selects Amadeus as its preferred partner to provide Distribution and Customer Service systems including inventory, reservations, and departure control.
British Airways has selected Amadeus as its preferred IT partner for Distribution and Customer Service systems on a ten year contract. Amadeus will operate and further develop the airline`s reservations, inventory and departure control systems. Additionally, it will take over the contracts of British Airways subsidiary Speedwing to provide similar services to other airlines. Detailed contract negotiations will begin now and, if successful, are expected to conclude in the summer.
Amadeus was chosen to partner with British Airways after seven months of detailed study and evaluation of responses, based on a request for proposal (RFP) process. The company was selected because its global travel distribution systems offer British Airways the opportunity to substantially reduce operating and development costs, while delivering comprehensive functionality. The decision also positions British Airways to further exploit e-commerce and other commercial distribution opportunities.
British Airways values the Amadeus System User concept that already enables over 110 airlines to run their sales and reservations functionality in airport and city ticket offices on the Amadeus GDS. This common platform concept brings significant benefits to airlines operating in partnerships and alliances. British Airways will be able to share a reservation and sales system and interact in a seamless way with those members of the oneworld Alliance who are also Amadeus System Users, such as Iberia, Finnair and LanChile.
For Amadeus, which today is a leading global distribution system for travel (GDS) and a major e-commerce player in the industry, the agreement represents a significant step in broadening its activity as a technology services provider. Amadeus will now have the capability to provide inventory and airport passenger service systems, as well as its traditional distribution systems.
Under the proposal, Amadeus will establish a support and development site near London`s Heathrow Airport, to support existing applications and to develop new generation inventory and departure control systems.
Amadeus will incorporate the existing expertise of the BA TPF team, who, as a key part of Amadeus, will help develop the next generation of IT travel related applications.
Commenting on this Bryan Wilson, British Airways` Director of Information Management, said:
“This partnership should enable us to operate our core commercial systems more cost effectively, and improve time to market delivering better functionality, faster and cheaper.”
“We chose Amadeus because they combined an exciting vision to support the new world of e-commerce, with the practical advantages of functional excellence in reservations systems, and technical capability to deliver the new generation of departure control and inventory systems.”
Jos-Antonio Taz, President and CEO of Amadeus, added: “This strategic partnership with British Airways is a further recognition of the technologically advanced and flexible solutions Amadeus provides to global travel industry customers.”
“We are looking forward to working very closely with BA to support its business objectives by providing it with best solutions for its present and future distribution and customer services needs. The BA TPF staff, with their special expertise, are a welcome addition to the growing Amadeus family.”
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