Amadeus tells the industry to 'open' up

Airlines, travel agents and other travel providers are being urged to embrace 'open source' software to keep up with the pace of technological change.

A report out today from Amadeus tells travel companies that now is the time to start thinking about making the switch from 'closed' systems in order to cut costs and speed up innovation.

According to Amadeus, the vast majority of travel providers are still using legacy, or closed, systems which use 'secret' codes and are locked into one provider.

The report claims that by moving to open systems, where codes are made freely available and shared, travel businesses could reduce IT costs by 20% in the long term and would be able to develop their systems more quickly and easily.

The report's author, expert professor Jim Norton, said: "The road from proprietary to open systems is long and often challenging but represents nothing less than a revolution in the IT industry.

"Almost every major business will need to make at least some elements of this transition over the medium term, so understanding how open source software can bring benefits, but also realistically evaluating the challenges of transition, is critical."

Amadeus claims to be a forerunner in using open source software with most of its systems now running on Linux, an open system.

"We passionately believe that this news business model is absolutely essential for the future of the industry," said Herve Couturier, executive vice president of development at Amadeus.

"The long-term benefits in terms of innovation, implementing new developments more quickly, attracting the right talent and driving cost savings are extremely compelling both for us and our customers."

For more on the report, click here