Amadeus' new group name reflects scope of IT offer

Madrid, Spain, 01 February 2006: Amadeus, global leader in technology solutions for the travel and tourism industry, today announced that it has changed the legal name of its holding company from Amadeus Global Travel Distribution, SA to Amadeus IT Group SA.

"The new name better reflects the scope and diversity of Amadeus’ offer to the travel and tourism industry," comments José Antonio Tazón, Amadeus President & CEO. "While travel distribution remains a significant part of our global business, it is now one element of a broader IT portfolio."

Amadeus is the chosen technology partner for providers, sellers, and buyers of travel. The company provides distribution, IT and point-of-sale 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 distributes content to around 385,000 points of sale located in over 215 markets. Over 85,000 travel agencies and 11,000 airline offices make bookings on around 500 scheduled airlines and low cost carriers. Amadeus provides access to over 57,000 hotel properties and 42 car rental companies serving over 30,000 locations. As a result, in 2005 Amadeus processed over 450 million bookings, making it the biggest processor of travel bookings for airlines and travel agencies worldwide. Amadeus’ data centre in Erding, Germany is one of the world’s largest dedicated to travel, processing more than 280 million transactions daily resulting in two million net bookings per day.

For airlines, Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution is the first new generation IT platform seen by the airline industry for 30 years. Around 150 airlines use Amadeus Altéa Reservation (Sell) as their sales and reservation system, among these are world class airlines including British Airways, Qantas, Finnair, United Airlines and South African Airways.

Amadeus also provides online travel technology to travel agencies, airlines and hotels in 90 countries and corporate travel management solutions to over 600 corporations including Altria, Cemex, Daimler Chrysler, Ericsson, Nestlé, Oracle and Siemens.


Notes to the editors

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters & marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations: data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires and Bangkok. At market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations in 75 countries covering more than 215 markets.

The company is owned by WAM Acquisition, whose shareholders are BC Partners, Cinven, Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa, and has over 6,500 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. For the year ended 31 December 2004, the company reported revenues of EUR2,056.7m and net income of EUR208.0m. For the six months ended 30 June 2005, revenues were EUR1,226.1m and net income EUR154.2m.

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