Amadeus positive despite fall in total bookings
GDS firm Amadeus has revealed that its total bookings dropped by 2.1% during the first three months of the year and has said it will continue to look at ways of diversifying from its core reservations business.
For the three months to March 31, like-for-like total bookings fell from 105.4million to 103.1million. If the leisure bookings of Start Amadeus, which was fully integrated in March are included, total bookings increased by 1.6%.
In North America, Amadeus bookings fell by 11.9%, but because this was less than the decline in the total market, Amadeus’ market share actually increased slightly to 8.6%.
Worldwide, Amadeus saw the strongest growth in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe where share increased by 6.2 points to 53.8%.
The GDS company claimed to have increased its global share of air reservations made by travel agencies by 2.6points to 29.1% which it said made it the largest travel agency GDS for the second consecutive quarter.
In the UK its reservations increased by 32.1%, taking its market share up 5.6points to 17.4%. In Spain which has seen reservations growth of 18.4%, Amadeus’ market share increased slightly to 94.6%. It also reported market share gains in countries including Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and Israel.
Amadeus, which recently announced that it is to become a shareholder in travel website Opodo, saw non-reservation related revenue grow by 35.3% in the period. Of this, revenue from Airline IT Services grew by 52% as more systems for British Airways and Qantas become operational.
Amadeus president and chief executive José Antonio Tazón said that the company would continue to look at ways to diversify. He pointed out: “The SARS phenomenon is significantly affecting global and, especially, Asian travel as our most recent data indicate. The outlook for the industry will remain unclear until more certainty regarding the containment of SARS can be established. We will continue to work at maintaining margins and seeking growth opportunities through business and geographical diversification.”
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