Amadeus expands further into mobile

Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 7:18 pm
Press Release: Amadeus

15 March, 2011

Amadeus expands further into mobile by signing global strategic partnership with leading mobile services integrator conTgo

Amadeus to become a global re-seller of conTgo’s Mobile Travel Assistant solution for business travellers fulfilling duty-of-care obligations, maximising policy compliance and saving money for all parties

Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, today announces that it becomes an official global reseller of all conTgo mobile solutions, integrating conTgo products into its corporate product portfolio and marketing and selling those solutions to existing and prospective Amadeus customers.

The deal will enable the Amadeus Mobile Travel Assistant solution to be made instantly available to all travel management companies and corporations that use Amadeus technology to book and manage their corporate travel. Mobile Travel Assistant distributes relevant travel information directly to travellers’ mobile phones at precisely the time they need it. This includes ground transportation and hotel details and any location-specific information identified by the traveller’s employer or travel management company.

Michel La Bianca, VP Global Travel Technology Strategy at American Express Travel said: “American Express Global Business Travel was the first to globally partner with conTgo and uniquely integrate their mobile capability into its new mobileXtend solution. This proprietary means of integration allows the mobile solution to work across platforms, including Amadeus. We are pleased to have our approach with conTgo confirmed with Amadeus signing this agreement."

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Mobile Travel Assistant significantly increases the safety of corporate travellers as it provides specific warnings and global risk information to selected travellers. In the case of emergency or during crisis situations, it allows companies to effectively communicate with travellers through a graphical and informative user interface. At the same time, the service allows for genuine cost savings by ensuring improved compliance to the defined travel policies.

Mika Kiljunen, CEO of Kaleva Travel Group commented: “The Amadeus conTgo partnership has been in place for a while, but with the new closer level of co-operation between the two companies, the overall value of Mobile Travel Assistant combined with the Amadeus distribution system increases substantially. Amadeus provides Kaleva Travel with the most efficient point of sales solution for a TMC looking to provide mobile-enabled procurement, security and traveller experience services for its global customers.”
Furthermore, Mobile Travel Assistant customers, such as the launch customer Microsoft, can use the unique MapCast module to create a visual overview of all travel activity in the company. The corporation can communicate directly with travellers from the map interface, using a combination of itinerary filtering and geo-spatial selection. MapCast can be opened from anywhere using a normal web browser and regular Internet access, and works for any booking imported into Mobile Travel Assistant.
Albert Pozo, Director Multinational Business & Corporate Travel, Amadeus says: “Corporations and TMCs require technology that considers duty of care to staff, corporate travel policy restrictions and cost saving objectives. Mobile Travel Assistant is the clear industry leader – its system is tried and tested and works faultlessly worldwide. Furthermore, conTgo’s outstanding performance during disruption events such as the volcanic ash cloud crisis, the December snow chaos and the Queensland flooding is a strong sign of its bandwidth and capability to deliver superior service to our joint customers.”

Johnny Thorsen, Co-founder and CEO, conTgo comments: “This important agreement with Amadeus cements our relationship and marks the official integration of our products into the Amadeus portfolio for use throughout the corporate traveller community. We are delighted and look forward to working closely with Amadeus.”

Ends

Notes to the editors

conTgo is the leading provider of integrated mobile services for the Travel and Meetings industries. Their solutions are designed to enable corporations to reduce travel expenses, increase policy compliance, optimise traveller security and enhance the overall traveller experience.

More than 400,000 unique travellers in 70+ countries are receiving services from conTgo via their mobile devices. In 2010, conTgo processed over 1 million travel bookings for more than 5,000 companies around the world.

The vision is to provide travellers with instant access to relevant travel information and services anytime, anywhere from any mobile device.

CEO and co-founder Johnny Thorsen was named one of The 25 Most Influential Executives Of The Business Travel Industry Of 2010 by BTN. conTgo was awarded the 2010 BTTB Traveller Services Provider of the Year and was a nominee in the 2010 Global Mobile Awards.
For a demonstration of how the Mobile Travel Assistant works, SMS the word “DEMO” to 0416 907 366. For more information about conTgo please email info@conTgo.com or visit www.contgo.com.

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 850 million billable travel transactions in 2010.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters and marketing), 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 31 December 2010, the company reported revenues of EUR 2,683 million and EBITDA of EUR 1,015 million. The Amadeus group employs over 10,270 employees worldwide, with 123 nationalities represented at the central offices.

To find out more about Amadeus please go to www.amadeus.com.

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

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