Soaring to new heights with our technology and our people

Six years have gone by and a lot has changed since then. The travel ecosystem is becoming an increasingly challenging environment where change is the only constant. Both big and smaller digital players are claiming their place and travelers have in turn become much more demanding. That is why, at Amadeus, we actively observe travel trends so our customers and partners, and ourselves, can create better journeys for all.

It’s an inspiring time for the travel industry and that is why I am excited to take on a new role as head of Amadeus’ corporate strategy. My previous experience has prepared me for this role and I’m confident we’ve defined a way forward that puts us in the position to shape the future of travel for decades to come. 

But how? It all starts with a growth mindset. Corporate strategy is about driving value across all of our business areas and embracing cutting-edge open technology, diversifying our business, and fostering promising startups.

Open technology enables our customers to work and develop their own applications on top of our solutions. Moving to the cloud means we can deliver our services faster and in a highly reliable way. From a technology perspective, our ambition is to embrace the cloud in all its potential so our customers can, in turn, reap its full potential. Of course, agility is key in our business and using modern API concepts will help us accelerate the creation and inclusion of new solutions into the Amadeus ecosystem.

We are already well on our way towards diversifying our business. The development of our hospitality platform following the acquisition of TravelClick equips us to solve the challenges of fragmented IT systems and decentralized data that the hotel industry has long faced so they can deliver a personalized guest experience.

Similarly, airport systems that are interlinked with airline departure control systems have not traditionally been well integrated. The recent acquisition of ICM Airport Technics demonstrates our decision to drive the full integration of our complete suite of airport IT solutions. Thanks to open self-service solutions, we will be able to deliver better journeys for passengers in the future. 

The payments sector too has become increasingly complex, impacting our travel customers. Amadeus Travel Payments has developed a portfolio of solutions to simplify and manage our customers’ payment needs, whether airlines, hotels or other travel players.

We are also growing by investing in the future. This is why we have developed a collaborative ecosystem to support promising startups. Through Amadeus Ventures a strategic startup investment program, we are making investments in early-stage startups operating at the intersection of travel and technology. Since its launch, we have introduced more than 150 startups to our business and we have developed more than 20 joint projects with our portfolio companies. We also maintain our focus in R&D and every year devote above 15% of our revenue to R&D. In fact, since 2004 we have invested more than €5.4 billion in R&D.

All of the things mentioned above are a moot point without the right people. Having the top talent will keep us competitive and ensures that we can successfully execute our corporate strategy.

At the end of the day, our focus is on the traveler. And they increasingly expect more. To deliver what they want, our customers expect fast, flexible and robust service delivery, while ensuring data security. At Amadeus, our investments in technology and corporate strategy are centered on what we see as the key enablers to make this happen.