Simon Vincent takes new role at Hilton Hotels Corporation

Madrid, Spain, 30 October, 2006: Amadeus IT Group is today announcing the resignation of Simon Vincent as Chief Executive Officer at Opodo Group. Simon will take up his new role as President, UK&I Hilton Hotels Corporation early in the New Year. In the meantime, he will support the process of finding a new CEO to take Opodo through the next stage of its development.

During his two years at Opodo, Simon has overseen significant expansion across Europe by way of organic growth and acquisition, such that today Opodo operates in 10 markets across Europe, has gross sales in excess of €1bn and is firmly established as a leading Pan European brand in the online travel sector.

Commenting on his departure Philippe Ch‚rèque SVP Corporate Strategy Amadeus said: “we are sorry to see Simon leave and we would like to thank him for his significant contribution to developing the Opodo business across Europe in the last two years. At the same time we wish him well in his new career at Hilton.”

Commenting on his decision to leave Opodo Simon Vincent said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Opodo and the decision to leave has been an extremely hard one to take. However, I have been offered a significant career opportunity by one of the world’s leading hotel brands that was simply too good to turn down. I would like to thank the Opodo Board and the Opodo team for their support over the past 2 years.”

Amadeus has already begun the process for replacing Simon, who will help manage the transition to a new CEO.
 

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Notes to the editors

Opodo was created in 2001 by nine of Europe's leading airlines - Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa. Amadeus, the travel technology company took a controlling interest in the company in June 2004.

Opodo addresses the real needs of today's traveller by offering an unbiased and competitively priced online travel service for world travel. Customers can enjoy excellent offers from 500 airlines, 65,000 hotel properties, car hire, city breaks, lifestyle holidays, ski deals, tailor made and dynamically packaged holidays, comprehensive travel insurance and value added services such as airport parking.

Opodo operates in ten European markets: Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Companies within the Opodo Group: Opodo.co.uk, Opodo.de, Opodo.fr, Opodo.es, Opodo.it, Quest Travel, (UK independent long-haul travel specialist), Karavel, (a leading French online tour operating company), Vivacances (French online travel agency) and Travellink (Nordic online travel agency).

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). Solutions are grouped in four solution categories – Distribution & Content, Sales & e-Commerce, Business Management and Services & Consulting.

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 76 countries covering more than 215 markets.

The company is owned by WAM Acquisition, whose shareholders are BC Partners, Cinven, Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa. Amadeus employs nearly 6,700 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. Amadeus’ revenue for the six months year ended 30 June was EUR1,381.6m.