Southwest to Provide ‘Entire’ Inventory to Amadeus Booking Tools

Amadeus and Southwest Airlines signed a new multi-year agreement that will provide Amadeus’ corporate travel booking tool users worldwide with access to Southwest’s fares and inventory.
 
Kevin Krone, vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer at Southwest, said the agreement will offer “a new dimension in distribution to deliver world-class access to our entire available inventory of seats to more than 90 destinations” with “seamless functionality and booking ease.”

The agreement will provide users of Amadeus’ e-Travel Management and i:FAO’s Cytric corporate booking tools with:

Greater functionalities, including live availability and last-seat inventory delivered via an integrated display.

• Functionality supporting all pricing rules, fare rules and return of ticket number.
• Fare searches returning the lowest fares available.
• Booking and ticketing capabilities for the carrier’s loyalty program, Rapid Rewards.
• Additional functionality related to deferred ticketing, retrieving and canceling reservations, and exchange funds toward new itineraries.

Amadeus acquired Frankfurt, Germany-based i:FAO last year. Its Cytric system is used by 2,600 corporations worldwide, primarily in Europe. In 2001, Amadeus acquired e-Travel, a U.S. company that now has 6,000 corporate users worldwide.
 
Amadeus said it is working on “other customer-focused, high-priority efforts around corporate booking tool innovation, which will begin rolling out later this year.”

Delivering on a promise
The Southwest deal makes good on a promise Krone made last October to revisit the carrier’s relationship with the corporate market.
 
As the “Hot Seat” subject at The Beat Live business travel conference, Krone came under fire from travel agents and travel managers about the difficulties in booking Southwest because its participation in GDSs is limited and its full inventory is not available in the booking channels they use.
 
“We take deliberate steps in distribution so that it doesn’t result in fares going up,” Krone responded. “We are trying to find solutions that provide all the inventory, and we are trying to be as fair and transparent as we can be.”

Another corporate milestone
The deal also is another milestone in the increasingly close relationship between Southwest and Amadeus.
 
Southwest is the first U.S. carrier to use the Amadeus Altéa Suite, a passenger services system that includes reservations, inventory control and departure control. Amadeus is the largest provider of PSSs in the world.

Currently, Southwest’s international flights are processed by Altéa, with domestic services to follow.
 
Scott Gutz, president and chief executive officer of Amadeus North America, said the two companies will explore how the hosting of Southwest’s inventory on Altéa’s open-system solution can be leveraged to deliver improved capabilities to the airline’s customers.