airberlin strengthens its ancillary offering to travel agents with the Amadeus solution

Travellers can book preferred seats, meals and extra baggage through Amadeus travel agencies as well as on the carrier’s website, amongst other channels.

Madrid, Spain, 2012-10-3 — /travelprnews.com/ — airberlin, the second largest carrier in Germany and one of Europe’s leading airlines, has adopted Amadeus Ancillary Services (AAAS) to distribute its ancillary offering to travel agencies, as well as through its website and other channels, including call centres and ticket offices.

The solution now enables Amadeus travel agents in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to sell additional luggage, preferred seats and meals using EMD (Electronic Miscellaneous Document) and helping them provide a more customized service to travellers.

The electronic messaging standard EMD facilitates the distribution and payment of ancillary services and is part of the e-Services IATA initiative to eliminate the use of paper and ease processes.

airberlin is also using Amadeus EMD when distributing a selection of its optional services in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

“airberlin wants to offer a consistent service to flight guests regardless of how they book,” saysJacob Fischer, Vice President Sales Servicing & Alliance Sales, airberlin. “Thanks to the Amadeus solution our guests can select a number of optional services when purchasing their ticket on airberlin.com or with any travel agent, or add on the service to their booking at any time before departure. This increases the reach of our offer as well as travellers’ loyalty”.

Holger Taubmann, SVP Distribution Amadeus, adds: “Our ancillary solution helps airlines merchandise their optional services, gives travel agents a bigger chance to reinforce Their role as travel consultants to the customer, and generates additional revenue by making the booking process more efficient and straightforward for the agent”.

AAAS is an end-to-end solution, compliant with industry standards, which enables users to offer services across all channels. Amadeus has integrated a unique interactive catalogue in its travel agency selling platform which clearly displays the range of airline optional services available. In this way, the travel agent can view, book and up-sell ancillary services quickly and efficiently. The content of the catalogue – the service and its description – is controlled by the airline, which will use this space to differentiate its offer.

To date, 46 airlines have signed up for Amadeus Ancillary Services for the direct and/or indirect channel; 21 airlines have signed up to sell ancillary services using the Amadeus solution in the travel agency channel; and 9 airlines – amongst which Air France, KLM, Iberia, Finnair, Qantas and Corsairfly – are currently selling ancillary services through travel agencies in 16 Markets.

Notes to the editors

Amadeus is a leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

Customer groups include travel providers (e.g. airlines, hotels, rail, ferries, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and individual travellers).

The group operates a transaction-based business model and processed more than 947 million billable travel transactions in 2011.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters), Nice (development) and Erding (operations – data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Dubai. At a market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations through 73 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations covering 195 countries.

Amadeus is listed on the Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia stock exchanges and trades under the symbol “AMS.MC”. For the year ended December 31, 2011 the company reported like-for-like revenues of €2,712 million and EBITDA of €1,039 million. The Amadeus group employs around 10,000 people worldwide, with 123 nationalities represented at the central offices.

To find out more about Amadeus please visit www.amadeus.com

To visit the Amadeus Investor Relations centre please www.investors.amadeus.com 

Contact details

Amadeus
Corporate Communication
tel: +34 91 582 0160
fax: +34 91 582 0188
e-mail: mediarelations@amadeus.com

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