A significant percentage of bookings made on the Amadeus system are created through interline partnerships, presenting a huge commercial opportunity for the industry

Move facilitates the interline sale of ancillary services

IATA estimates move to save industry US$0.9 billion annually

Dubai, UAE, 19 February 2012: Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, has announced the launch of the world's first interline Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) link to facilitate payment for and the delivery of ancillary services across airline partnerships and alliances.

Amadeus estimates that up to 20 per cent of air bookings made through its system are the result of interline partnerships, representing a huge opportunity for airlines to increase revenues through the sale of ancillary services via their partner carriers. EMDs remove the need for paper documents to account for the sale of ancillary services, which IATA believes will save the industry over US$0.9 billion annually.

Interline EMD processing between launch partners Finnair and Egypt Air means the carriers' customers can now buy ancillary services across interline flights, safe in the knowledge that the operating airline will know the service has been purchased. Previously, the only way the operating airline would know a customer had purchased an ancillary service such as extra baggage allowance was through a paper document provided by the traveller at the airport.

Antoine Medawar, Vice President, Middle East & North Africa, Amadeus, commented: "Ancillary services are a crucial component that could determine the success of the airline. In fact, Amadeus research estimates that ancillary services were worth over US$35 billion to airlines in 2011, contributing nearly 20 per cent of total revenues for some carriers.

"Airlines adopting the interline EMD link will undoubtedly incur tangible benefits that will directly impact their revenue growth. The initiative is testimony to Amadeus' continuous efforts to developing new and improved technology that will significantly influence the aviation sector across the globe and match the demands of the industry."

Yasser EL Ramly, VP Commercial, Egypt Air, said: "We are proud to be the pioneering airline to put into production a true interline EMD. This is clearly a landmark achievement for the industry, and we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to both Amadeus and Finnair for working together with us to make this happen.

"In addition to serving as a time-saving tool, EMD will enable our customers to gain principle and tangible benefits in terms of convenience and efficiency. It gives me great pleasure to say that we are far ahead of the IATA target date of 2013 for full application of EMD across the industry."

Fifty-six airlines have contracted Amadeus' EMD Server to enable the provision of EMDs in order to facilitate the sale of ancillary services. To date, 22 carriers have implemented Amadeus's EMD Server resulting in 4,098,842 EMDs processed during 2011 and IATA states that 47 are currently EMD compliant.

Amadeus is a leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

Customer groups include travel providers (e.g airlines, hotels, rail, ferries, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and individual travellers).

The group operates a transaction-based business model and processed 850 million billable travel transactions in 2010.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters and marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations - data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Dubai. At a market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations through 73 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations covering 195 countries.

Amadeus is listed on the Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia stock exchanges and trades under the symbol "AMS.MC". For the year ended 31 December 2010, the company reported revenues of EUR 2,683 million and EBITDA of EUR 1,015 million. The Amadeus group employs around 10,000 staff worldwide, with 123 nationalities represented at the central offices.

To find out more about Amadeus please go to www.amadeus.com.

To visit the Amadeus Investor Relations centre please go to www.investors.amadeus.com.

Contact details
APCO Worldwide
Tara Basrur
Tel: +971 4 3613596
Mob: +971 50 4692774
e-mail: tbasrur@apcoworldwide.com

Amadeus
Corporate Communication
tel: +34 91 582 0160
fax : +34 91 582 0188
e-mail : mediarelations@amadeus.com

© Press Release 2012