Damascus, Syria, July 21 2010: Amadeus Syria, a leading technology provider to the travel and tourism industry, today announced the launch of Amadeus SMS solution for travel agencies in Syria.
This web-based tool will allow travel agents to update their customers with their latest travel itinerary via SMS. Travel agents will be able to alert travellers on important travel details, including travel itineraries, e-tickets, flight information, Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, and any changes to the Ticketing Time Limit (the date by which a booked ticket must be issued) through their mobile phones. Amadeus SMS is fully integrated into the Amadeus Selling Platform, allowing travel agents to quickly generate traveller information directly from the Amadeus PNR database.
Amadeus Syria, who launched its direct operations in January 2009 is a joint partnership between Amadeus and Syrian Arab Airlines, and today has a market share of over 70 percent.
"At Amadeus our focus is to understand the travellers' changing preferences and develop solutions that help travel agents respond to these changes efficiently. Amadeus SMS solution is one such product that has been developed with the travel agents and their customers in mind. The new SMS solution corresponds closely with the trend of technology convergence on mobile devices, and we are pleased to be the first to introduce this concept in Syria," said Mazen Kokash, General Manager, Amadeus Syria.
Additionally, Saudi Arabian Airlines has migrated to the next generation Amadeus Altéa customer management solution and Amadeus e-commerce solutions as part of a long-term IT partnership. The objective of the partnership is to improve the traveller experience through enhanced recognition, speed up passenger processing with greater automation and drive more sales and operational efficiencies.
Following last month's migration, the airline has already registered a significant increase in bookings with online sales now representing over 20 per cent of total bookings which shows a healthy growth on previous figures.
"Our partnership with leading players in the travel industry demonstrates the confidence they have in our solutions, of offering specialized services and helping our partners achieve greater productivity and efficiency through Amadeus," added Mazen.
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Notes to the editors
Amadeus is the chosen technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry. The company provides distribution and technology solutions to help its customers adapt, grow and succeed in the fast changing travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (airlines, hotels, car rental companies, railway companies, ferry lines, cruise lines, insurance companies and tour operators), travel sellers (travel agencies) and travel buyers (corporations and travellers).
Amadeus operates under a transaction-based business model that offers IT solutions to virtually all players in the travel industry. The Amadeus system processed more than 670 million billable travel transactions in 2009.
Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters & marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations - data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Dubai. At market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations through 72 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations covering 195 countries.
The company is majority owned by AMADEUS IT HOLDING, S.A., whose shareholders are BC Partners, Cinven, Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa. The Amadeus group employs over 9,300 employees worldwide, with 123 nationalities represented at the central offices.
More information about Amadeus is available at: http://www.amadeus.com
© Press Release 2010