lastminute.com first to launch multi-carrier calendar flight display with Amadeus

Madrid, Spain, 14 December, 2006: Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry has been chosen by lastminute.com to launch the first online multi-carrier flight search display in a calendar format. The functionality will launch on lastminute.com's UK and Spanish websites today (13 December) and be rolled out across lastminute.com’s other European sites in France, Italy and Ireland in the next two weeks, followed by Germany in the New Year.

From today, when a lastminute.com shopper enters an outward and return date as part of a flight search, Amadeus Master Pricer Calendar returns the best available fares for the three days before and three days after the chosen dates of travel. By providing such a wide range of dates and prices in a logical, easy-to-view format, lastminute.com allows its customers to quickly make the best decision about when to travel - based on their budget and flexibility.

lastminute.com has customised Master Pricer Calendar to display the brand of each airline offering the best fare on a given day. This allows shoppers to exercise their loyalty to lastminute.com's airline partners' brands. The ability to customise the solution in this way is thanks to lastminute.com's use of Amadeus' advance application programming interface, which allows online travel agents to seamlessly access Amadeus content and services.

"We are delighted to be the pan-European launch partner for Amadeus's new multi-carrier flight search display technology," said Ian McCaig, CEO of lastminute.com. "Our consumers have been asking for a flexible date shopping option that encompasses our extraordinary range of airline content. We can now offer customers more flexibility on their travel dates and a wider choice of available fares and airline options as part of one search, empowering them to more informed travel choices."

Launched in April 1998, lastminute.com is today Europe's leading online leisure travel retailer, operating in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia as well as the UK and Ireland. The European business sold USD734 million of products and services in the three months to September 2006.

"lastminute.com is clearly dedicated to developing the very best in shopping and merchandising for its customers and partners," says Gillian Gibson, Vice President, Multinational Customer Group, Amadeus, "And our partnership has allowed both companies to significantly advance our respective offers over the years."

Master Pricer Calendar is the second generation of Amadeus' industry-standard low-fare search tool, Master Pricer, which handles over 170 million transactions each month. The third generation of this technology is already in development and due to be launched in 2007.


- ends -



Notes to the editors
About lastminute.com
Lastminute.com was founded in April 1998 by two young entrepreneurs, Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox, in the sitting room of Brent’s London flat. The business, voted 'Best UK Internet start-up' in October 1999 by management consultants Bain & Company and Management Today magazine, floated in March 2000, when company employees had grown to 165 the business had moved to offices in Oxford Circus.
Lastminute.com offers customers worldwide holidays, flights and hotel rooms and has a unique lifestyle proposition offering tickets to shows, gigs, festivals and theme-parks as well as leisure experiences, DVDs, restaurants and gifts.

In addition to the lastminute,com brand, the business operates a number of travel and leisure websites throughout Europe, including Holiday Autos, Travelprice and Resfeber. Headquartered in the UK, the company has offices in Dublin, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia and operates joint ventures in UAE and Australia.

Lastminute.com was acquired by US online leisure firm Travelocity, part of Sabre Holdings, in July 2005 for GBP577m.

About Amadeus
Amadeus is the chosen technology partner for providers, sellers, and buyers of travel. The company provides distribution, IT and point-of-sale solutions to help its customers adapt, grow and succeed in the fast changing travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (airlines, hotels, car rental companies, railway companies, ferry lines, cruise lines, insurance companies and tour operators), travel sellers (travel agencies) and travel buyers (corporations and travellers). Solutions are grouped in four solution categories – Distribution & Content, Sales & e-Commerce, Business Management and Services & Consulting.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters & marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations – data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires and Bangkok. At market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations in 76 countries covering more than 215 markets.

The company is owned by WAM Acquisition, whose shareholders are BC Partners, Cinven, Air France, Iberia and Lufthansa. Amadeus employs over 7,160 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. Amadeus' revenue for the six months year ended 30 June was EUR1,381.6m.


For further information, please click here