Amadeus
has teamed up with HitchHiker Software, the European fare data management company, to provide a simple to use fare management solution that is the first system with filing facilities to be made available through a GDS. This solution will cut down the administration time to file, manage and update fares by up to 80 per cent.
Allowing users to quickly upload and file net and negotiated fares, as well as rules, routing and ticket information in Amadeus` database, the solution will use HitchHiker`s visualFares Entry, a fully graphical fare management software widely used within the travel industry and seen as the industry`s most advanced fare management tool today. The solution will include an XML structured data interface designed to transfer all fare data into the Amadeus Fares database.

Combining HitchHiker
and Amadeus unrivalled fare expertise, it enables airlines, on and off-line travel agencies, tour operators, consolidators to significantly cut down on the administration time previously required to load fares and service and communicate fare information quickly, smoothly and efficiently to all their sales channels: sales offices, travel shops, web-sites, call centres.

End to end, the system simplifies the entire fare management process. Through an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), the most complex tariffs and conditions can be managed quickly, simply and precisely before being filed into the Amadeus system and distributed to the company`s sales channels.

“As travellers become more and more price sensitive, the travel market is becoming more demanding on fare management and fare distribution tools. For example it is now commonplace for an on-line agency to manage several hundred thousands of negotiated fares which itself can take days every week/day to input and re-input into the system. Through our partnership with HitchHiker and its extensive fare management experience, we are now able to respond to the increasing expectations in the market and help our customers save money by reducing both the time required to manage and communicate fare information through the Amadeus system and in turn reduce the time-to-market of their negotiated fares” said Philippe Chereque
, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy from Amadeus.

Thomas Boffo, Managing Director of HitchHiker added, “We see this partnership as recognition of our ability to offer sophisticated solutions to the travel industry. Being the first company that offered automated upload facilities into the Amadeus Negotiated Fares System, we are now extremely pleased to be extending our partnership with Amadeus to provide their customers with visualFares Entry. Entry seamlessly integrates fare maintenance and distribution both internally and externally significantly reducing time to market and revolutionising this process for all suppliers of fares to the industry. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Amadeus to offer other high end solutions that meet the needs of today`s travel providers.”

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(04/02/2002) HitchHiker Achieves Amadeus Certification

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