Amadeus, a major provider of services to travel agents and airlines worldwide, has - through its national marketing company, NMC in SA - renewed its service provision contract with Unisys Africa for three years.
In terms of the contract, Unisys will provide Amadeus with an enhanced range of services on top of those it offered during its prior three-year contract. Amadeus is the largest provider of Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) worldwide, with over 200 000 linked terminals in travel agency and airline sales offices worldwide. Amadeus`s travel services are available in 198 countries, reaching more than 50 000 travel agency locations and over 8 200 airline sales offices.
Through the Amadeus System, some 61 870 travel agency locations and more than 10 520 airline sales offices around the world are able to make bookings with:
* Around 470 airlines, representing more than 95% of the world`s scheduled airline seats.
* Over 61 500 hotel properties.
* Some 48 car rental companies, serving around 24 400 locations.
* Other travel provider groups (ferry, rail, cruise, insurance companies and tour operators).
The contract has been awarded against the backdrop of the current tourism and travel industry boom. Providing excellent service to customers has become a critical differentiating factor in this highly competitive market.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) monthly international statistics have shown continuing month-on-month recovery in the industry in numerous regions of the world.
November 2002 saw total scheduled international passenger traffic increase by 21.68% on November 2001. This is a slight decrease on the 25.18% upturn recorded in October, but is again an unusually high growth rate, according to Rowan Nash, statistics analyst, IATA Aviation Information and Research.
Travel agents need to provide customers with rapid responses in catering for all their travel needs, as well as expand their offerings to provide an all-encompassing service to cater for more than merely booking flights for travellers.
"The worst thing that can happen is for a travel agent to lose a customer to another agency because they are not able to secure the flight the customer required, or because they can`t offer a requested service," says Frank Palapies, GM of Amadeus South Africa.
GDS software acts as an intermediary between travel agents and travel service providers, providing agents with the ability to directly book travel requirements via an online computer situated in the travel office.
As opposed to other software providers, Amadeus does not sell its product to travel agents. Based on how many transactions are booked through the Amadeus reservation system, a travel agency normally receives the Amadeus reservation system, the necessary hardware and the connectivity to the Amadeus central host at no cost. Amadeus and other GDSs are remunerated by airlines, car rental companies and hotels for each booking generated through the reservation system and benefit from the global reach.
Palapies notes that Amadeus takes the GDS system further than its competitors by providing a full inventory management service to the travel companies, specifically airlines. "Amadeus integrates the front-end interface directly into the back-end database of the respective company.
"Instead of only being able to access a portion of an airline`s available seating (as is the norm), the Amadeus system can view the entire plane`s inventory from participating airlines and book any seat in any location. This includes the last available seat at the last minute if necessary. More than 130 airlines are using the Amadeus system user concept, running their inventory through Amadeus."
Because providing the software and hardware at no cost requires nationwide presence and service capability at short notice, it had to appoint a service provider that could deliver premium service throughout the country.
Amadeus wanted to appoint a company with a proven track record. Unisys has become the ninth largest services company worldwide, with services contributing 75% of its total revenue of $5.5 billion.
Having partnered successfully with Unisys for three years, Amadeus decided last year to increase the requirements it made on its service provider and formalise the arrangement with defined service levels and response times to ensure it remained ahead of the competition.
"After careful consideration the choice was, again, Unisys, and we signed a contract in January 2003," says Palapies.
Chris Jacks, Unisys Africa`s Managed Services account executive, adds: "Amadeus selected Unisys based on its knowledge of the industry and Amadeus`s GDS, the flexibility of the services offered and a predictive pricing model."
"Both Amadeus and the travel agencies will now benefit from enhanced service levels that enable Amadeus to provide a measurable competitive differentiator in the crowded South African travel marketplace," says Jacks. Amadeus and Unisys are in the process of finalising additional initiatives around the corporate travel sector.
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