Amadeus ‘to claim No2 GDS slot in UK’
Amadeus UK expects to become the clear number two GDS in the UK by the end of the year.
The forecast came from managing director Arnaud Debuchy in advance of two announcements by the company expected this week. Amadeus declined to discuss the detail prior to the information being released.
Amadeus has repeatedly refused to comment on speculation that it may launch a takeover bid for Worldspan.
But Mr Debuchy revealed that Amadeus was well on its way towards achieving a goal of 25% market share in the UK by the end of the year – up from 7.5% when he joined the company in September 2001.
The GDS now claims to have the No 3 slot with 20% market share but is juggling with Worldspan for the second place behind Galileo, with Sabre in fourth position.
Mr Debuchy said the company was “on target” to claim the second slot by the end of 2004 after achieving year on year growth of nine per cent in the first four months of the year.
The GDS also signed 49 new customers in the first quarter of the year, which went towards compensating for the loss of Travel 2/4 to Galileo after Galileo owner Cendant took over the operator.
“By the end of the year we will clearly be the No 2 to Galileo. I am very positive about that,” said Mr Debuchy.
Meanwhile, Amadeus claims to have overtaken viewdata by 50% in terms of cruise sales – reversing the position a year ago.
Mr Debucy admitted business in May had been slow in the leisure sector but could not give an explanation why other than recent good weather in the UK preventing consumers from booking holidays.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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