Amadeus was founded in 1987 by four airlines: Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS. From our origins supporting airline distribution and then IT, we gradually expanded our capabilities to serve customers across the entire travel industry.
Three decades later, Amadeus is one of the world’s largest technology providers for travel and tourism. Over the years, we’ve broadened our scope, launching our Airline IT business in 2000 and building on that with the acquisition of Navitaire in 2016 to expand our portfolio for low-cost carriers.
We accelerated our move into the hotel IT sector with the acquisition of Newmarket in 2014 and TravelClick in 2018, confirming our strong commitment to the hospitality industry and broadening our product portfolio, know-how and global presence. In a highly fragmented market, Amadeus now has the people and the technology to help all hoteliers deliver a great experience for their guests.
We’ve also expanded our portfolio to include merchandising, revenue management, travel intelligence and travel and expense management, harnessing the potential of cloud computing, mobile applications and big data for our customers. We continue to diversify our operations into other businesses linked to the travel industry, such as airport IT and payments, and we’re exploring new opportunities through our innovation teams. Throughout our history, investment in R&D has been integral to our company culture.
In May 2019 the airport division of Amadeus completed the acquisition of the market leader in Self Service solutions ICM Airport Technics, a Sydney based company with teams in Singapore, USA, Japan, France and the UK. This complimented the Amadeus existing product suite of Passenger Processing and Airport Operation solutions. Since the acquisition, the Self-Service product line has grown with new style bag drops and kiosks, end to end biometrics and common use payment.
Amadeus’ purpose is to make the travel experience better for everyone. Our technology powers the global travel and tourism industry, inspiring more open ways of working and more connected ways of thinking, always with an eye on how the industry can evolve and how our customers can better serve travelers. Our technology unlocks the freedom to realize new ideas. It connects our industry and inspires new opportunities for growth while reducing friction and getting us all where we need to go more easily.
Our aim is to help deliver great traveler experiences with more information, more choice and more autonomy. We power progress by connecting ideas, organizations and technology. We have a unique perspective on travel, being at the heart of our industry. By bringing our deep expertise to our customers and partners worldwide, we can solve travel’s biggest challenges and scale ideas quickly.