SINGAPORE, 9 May 2018: Amadeus continues growth momentum into 2018 clocking up gains in revenues and profitability in both distribution and IT solutions for the first quarter of the year.
During the first quarter of the year ending 31 March revenue increased 3.1%, to €1,230.0 million (8.2% growth excluding foreign exchange effects)
Growth was largely attributed to the distribution segment and IT solutions.
Travel agency air bookings through the Amadeus GDS reached 160 million, which represents growth of 3.7%
In IT solutions, passengers boarded increased 22.7% to 416.9 million
Amadeus IT Group achieved an adjusted profit of €305.6 million for the first three months of 2018.
This represents an increase of 4.3% compared to the same period last year.
Asia Pacific, Central and Eastern and South Europe and North America were the company’s fastest growing regions in terms of travel agency air bookings.
Western European bookings decreased compared to the first quarter of 2017, dragged by the industry decline in western Europe, impacted by the timing of Easter and a number of effects.
Amadeus’ revenue grew 3.1% from January to March compared to the first quarter of 2017, reaching €1,230.0 million, while EBITDA increased 7.4% to €539.0 million.
However, financial performance in the quarter was negatively impacted by US dollar depreciation relative to the Euro, but underlying business performance continued to be very strong.
Excluding foreign exchange effects, both revenue and EBITDA grew at a high single-digit growth rate.
“Air volumes in our distribution segment grew at a steady pace. We also continued to secure and expand content for our subscribers by renewing or signing content agreements with nine airlines,” said Amadeus, president & CEO Luis Maroto.
“In IT Solutions, we saw progress throughout our customer base, with new contracts such as the one with Philippine Airlines for Altéa or the one with ASA Cape Verde Airports, which contracted ACUS Mobile during the quarter. We also progressed well on our up selling efforts, with existing customers like Qantas contracting further Amadeus solutions. Our international footprint continued to expand: 65.3% of our passengers boarded were generated outside Europe. In Airport IT, we now serve 280 customers around the world.”
Last week, Amadeus signalled its intent to break into the “Smart Cities” IT solution market. It hope to provide IT services to cities in Indonesia and Thailand particularly on the eastern seaboard.
Amadeus confirmed it has set up a task force dedicated to marketing IT solutions to Smart Cities in Asia-Pacific.
Led by Amadeus, vice president, corporate strategy and business development, Asia-Pacific, Simon Akeroyd, the Smart Cities offer will help cities best adopt new technology in order to improve residents’ daily commutes, tourism and lifestyle activities.
“The future of travel will be driven by multi-modal journeys and data to deliver more personalized and smart experiences. The rise of Smart Cities will boost travel and tourism, and so the public and private sector must collaborate to share data and use technology. When done successfully, we believe that this will enable the immersive travel experiences and services that citizens and travellers expect in the future, ”Akeroyd explained.
