Amadeus expands airline offering with US$830m acquisition of Navitaire.
Amadeus has just announced it will pay US$830 million to buy Navitaire from Accenture, significantly boosting the Amadeus presence in the low-cost segment of the airline industry.
Navitaire has a global customer base of more than 50 operators, with its system providing a range of airline solutions in the areas of reservations, ancillary sales, loyalty, revenue management, accounting and business intelligence.
The addition of the Navitaire portfolio will complement Amadeus’ existing Altea suite of offerings, “giving the company the ability to serve a wider group of airlines.
“Amadeus intends to market and sell the two product portfolios separately and will continue to invest in both platforms,” the company said.
Amadeus also said it expects the acquisition will help it improve the connectivity between different carriers in the same airline groups or alliances “and that the functionality from each platform will enhance the other”.
Approximately 550 Navitaire employees will transfer to Amadeus, and in a separate agreement Accenture and Amadeus have agreed to form an alliance “to help lead airlines through the digital transformation taking place in the industry”.
Accenture will be designated an Amadeus “Strategic Partner” for its Airline IT business, and will also continue to provide hosting services for current and future Navitaire clients.
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.