Packing your suitcase, arriving hours early at the airport, waiting on stopovers, presenting your passport again and again. To avoid these inconveniences, perhaps dreaming of teleporting is too much to ask, but why not imagine the possibility of making transfers a little less uncomfortable? It may sound as much like science fiction as it would seem to a traveler in 1987 to be told that he could access dozens of offers for a ticket through a wireless telephone.
That was possible, among other things, thanks to the technological development that Amadeus deployed in the 80s of the last century with a travel reservation system that connected airlines. Now, converted into the largest Spanish technology company and one of the ten largest in the world, according to Brand Finance, the company has just taken another step in its commitment to the future. Last week it acquired Vision Box, one of the world’s leading biometrics (facial recognition) providers, for 320 million euros. “Amadeus has a unique position in the market to anticipate trends and work with the industry to offer our clients cutting-edge solutions,” explains Juan Jesús García, vice president of Institutional Relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Amadeus.
The acquisition comes when it is about to recover financially from the pandemic debacle, and the stock market is still 12% lower. The profit in the first nine months of 2023 was 841 million euros compared to the more than 1,200 million that it earned in all of 2019. “We hope that 2024 will be the year of full recovery of normality. Air traffic, which in Asia has a later recovery, still weighs heavily on its business. It is a company that has always known how to adapt to a continuously changing tourism environment both with its organic growth and with the acquisition of new businesses,” says Juan Tuesta, Bankinter analyst.
The history of Amadeus dates back to 1987 when four European flag airlines (Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS) came together to develop joint ticket booking technology. Madrid was chosen as the corporate headquarters and years later, as the financial center in which to list on the stock market. It currently has a capitalization of 24,245 million euros, the seventh largest in the Ibex 35, its business extends to 190 countries and it has more than 18,000 employees.
What started as technology for selling reservations between airlines and travel agencies around the world has transformed into a company that offers technology for airlines, airports, hotels and even payments. It is awaiting a license from the Bank of Spain for its payments subsidiary, Outpayce. With it he wants to speed up payments between suppliers and issue virtual payment cards between companies. “They are aware that the air distribution business is affected by the tendency of the different operators in the tourist chain to sell directly. But they have managed to diversify successfully. The hotel and payments divisions are already above 2019. The company is very healthy, it generates a lot of cash, so we do not rule out seeing more strategic purchases in the future,” says Ivan San Felix, an analyst at Renta.
A growth that is not foreign to Amadeus. In 2018 it bet on the hotel business with the purchase of Travelclick, for 15,000 million. Added to this modality is its strong commitment to R&D (40 centers around the world and 8,000 developers) and organic growth, for which it has created Nexwave, an internal business incubator dedicated exclusively to finding new businesses to create better business experiences. journey. “We anticipate that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play an important role in helping to make these trips more efficient, easier to manage, transparent and accessible to all travelers. Amadeus has been working with AI for years and has recently accelerated with the collaboration between Accenture and Microsoft” explains Juan Jesús Gracia. In this case, AI is looking to develop a travel assistant aimed at helping corporate travelers with the elements of their trip (from planning, booking and pre-departure, to travel and post-departure). -journey).