South African Airways and its franchisees select Amadeus Passenger Revenue Accounting

SAA becomes the first Star Alliance member and third major airline to select Amadeus Passenger Revenue Accounting

Madrid, 2014-9-5 — /Travel PR News/ — South African Airways (SAA), South Africa’s national carrier, and Amadeus, a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, today announce a landmark agreement that will see the airline and its franchisees migrate to Amadeus Passenger Revenue Accounting.

SAA, which flies nine million passengers annually and has an international network that connects South Africa to every major continent in the world, will now adopt the latest addition to Amadeus’ portfolio of airline IT solutions, enabling it to manage complex revenue accounting processes.

Amadeus Passenger Revenue Accounting, which is fully integrated with the Altéa Suite, provides real-time sales and usage data for all types of revenue. Interline information is also processed instantly, which streamlines revenue-sharing between airline partners and accelerates the interline cash flow cycle.

Wolf Meyer, Chief Financial Officer, South African Airways, said: “As a large airline with complex revenue streams, including ancillary service sales, it is increasingly important for us to gain an immediate and accurate view of company revenues. At the same time, we were looking for a provider with a proven track record to secure our implementation. We are confident we have found the right partner in Amadeus.”

Julia Sattel, SVP, Airline IT, Amadeus, said: “We look forward to working closely with South African Airways as we implement our next-generation revenue accounting solution. In the increasingly competitive airline industry, accurate revenue accounting is crucial to a carrier’s business, its merchandising activities and of course profitability. At Amadeus we understand that partnerships have become key for our airline customers, and we are committed to facilitating more seamless processes to allow alliance members to fully leverage them”.

Sattel continues: “Together with our customers and partners we can shape the future of travel, and deliver services that not only meet the needs of the evolving 21st Century traveller but also deliver long-term business sustainability in the process”.

South African Airways’ adoption of Amadeus’ Passenger Revenue Accounting solution follows customer signatures from two other major airlines, Saudia, a member of Sky Team; and British Airways, a member of the oneworld Alliance.

-Ends –

Notes to the editors

About Amadeus
Amadeus is a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (e.g. airlines, hotels, rail and ferry operators, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and travel management companies).

The Amadeus group employs around 10,000 people worldwide, across central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters), Nice (development) and Erding (operations), as well as 71 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations globally.

The group operates a transaction-based business model. For the year ended December 31, 2013 the company reported revenues of €3,103.7 million and EBITDA of €1,188.7 million.

Amadeus is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under the symbol “AMS.MC” and is a component of the IBEX 35 index.

To find out more about Amadeus please visit www.amadeus.com, and for more on the travel industry www.amadeus.com/blog.

About SAA
South African Airways (SAA), Africa’s most awarded airline, operates from Johannesburg, South Africa, to 38 destinations worldwide.

In its domestic market SAA has an extensive schedule operating 554 flights in total per week between Johannesburg – Cape Town, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth, from its Johannesburg hub, as well as code-shared flights between Lanseria – Cape Town and Durban. SAA offers more frequencies than any other airline in South Africa.

Regionally, SAA offers 24 destinations across the African continent including Abidjan, Accra, Blantyre, Brazzaville, Cotonou, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Douala, Entebbe, Harare, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Lilongwe, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, Mauritius, Nairobi, Ndola, Pointe Noire, Victoria Falls and Windhoek.

SAA’s international network creates links to all major continents from South Africa through 10 direct routes and code shares, with daily flights from Johannesburg to London (Heathrow), Frankfurt, Munich, Mumbai, Perth, Hong Kong, Beijing, New York, Washington, and Sao Paulo. SAA has codes share agreements with 29 other airlines across the markets it serves. The airline has extended its code share agreement with Mango, its low cost operator, to also include coastal cities in South Africa (between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and George), as well as Johannesburg – Bloemfontein; Cape Town – Bloemfontein and Cape Town – Port Elizabeth.

SAA’s core business is the provision of passenger airline and cargo transport services together with related services, which are provided through SAA and its four wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA and South African Travel Centre (SATC).

SAA is a Star Alliance member which offers more than 18,500 daily flights to 1,316 airports in 192 countries. SAA is the winner of the ‘Best Airline in Africa’ Award in the regional category for twelve consecutive years. Mango and SAA hold the number one and number two successive spots as South Africa’s most on-time airlines.

Contact details:

Amadeus IT Group
Malek Nejjai
+34 91 582 01 60
mediarelations@amadeus.com

South African Airways
SAA Spokesperson
+27 82 333-3880
TlaliTlali@flysaa.com