Amadeus introduces visual and intelligent advertising capabilities

• Finnair is the first airline to use this solution to better communicate their offer to travel agents who can thus provide enhanced consultation to the end customer

Madrid, Spain, 28th of July, 2008: Amadeus, a global leader in technology for the travel and tourism industry, today announced the successful roll-out of Amadeus Banners. Finnair was the first airline to use this solution to launch a graphical campaign and better promote their offer to travel consultants. Amadeus Banners is the first new development from a range of airline merchandising features through the Amadeus Airline Retailing Platform, a new distribution proposition launched earlier this year.

Amadeus Banners introduces a more intelligent approach to advertising as it allows airlines to communicate their news to a selected target audience and at the most opportune time, in a highly cost-effective way. Displayed in a graphical format, or banner, the advertising messages are triggered based on the flight entry request, facilitating greater awareness and ensuring the relevancy of the information to travel agents. In this way, airlines can communicate more efficiently on routes, promotions, special offers and ancillary products to the travel agent´s desktop who can thus provide enhanced consultation to the end customer.

Jarkko Konttinen, Head of Global Marketing Communications, Finnair, said: “Amadeus Banners allows us to differentiate our brand through the use of images and graphic displays to better feature our messages. This format is more visually powerful and has provided us with the maximum impact for our campaign. In addition to this, with the advanced reporting capabilities we have been able to accurately analyse the effectiveness of the campaign and track our return on investment.”

Frédéric Spagnou, Vice-President, Airline Business Group, Amadeus, said: “Being able to promote and retail their products through the travel agency channel will help airlines gain competitive edge by maximising their selling opportunities beyond simple price and route differentiation. This enhances their ability to drive incremental revenues and also helps travel agencies to better understand qualitative or quantitative differences between offers, therefore enabling customers to select their perfect choice with more accuracy.”

Amadeus Banners brings significant benefits to travel consultants providing them with key tools that can help them deliver enhanced service to their clients. By being able to instantly access additional and relevant information about the product to sell, it offers the agent the possibility to give extended consultation and the ability to easily compare, highlight additional services and alternatives relevant to the passenger´s travel plans.

Amadeus has also launched Amadeus Flight Features, which complements Amadeus Banners in helping airlines differentiate their brand and better communicate their offer through the travel agency channel. With this functionality an airline can choose to display the added value features of their on-board, ground or other services linked to a specific flight that could determine the traveller´s choice.

The Amadeus Airline Retailing Platform, developed in collaboration with major carriers, transforms the GDS from a pure distribution channel to a retailing platform which will provide airlines increased efficiency, target marketing and brand differentiation opportunities today offered by airlines’ direct channels. Additional functionality will be introduced over the next two years.

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Notes to the editors:

About Amadeus
A world-leading technology and distribution solutions provider, Amadeus delivers unparalleled expertise to the travel and tourism industry, including leading-edge solutions that cover airlines’ unique business needs, independent of their size, business model or market reach.

Amadeus’ pioneering new-generation Customer Management Solution (CMS) portfolio, Amadeus Altéa CMS, serves network and regional carriers. The Altéa portfolio, based on a pioneering community platform concept, enables improved operational efficiency and increases revenue. The portfolio consists of the Altéa Reservation, Altéa Inventory and Altéa Departure Control solutions.

Low Cost Carriers have alternative Customer Management Solutions – Amadeus Pioneer CMS and Results CMS by Amadeus - based on adaptive technology that provides robust options that easily adjust to their evolving operational requirements.

Further complementing these integrated IT solutions is the Amadeus e-Travel Airline Suite that includes the Amadeus e-Retail engine, which powers more than 120 websites of over 65 airlines.

Other standalone IT solutions include: revenue integrity and automatic ticket reissue tools, in addition to full e-ticket interlining and ground-handling management technology services.

More information about Amadeus’ solutions for airlines is available at:http://www.amadeus.com/airlines.

Press Contacts:

Amadeus Media Relations
Corporate Marketing
Tel : +34 91 582 0160
E-mail: mediarelations@amadeus.com