Southwest To Use Amadeus Altea for Domestic Reservations

Southwest Airlines signed a contract to implement the Amadeus Altéa reservations solution to support its domestic services.

Amadeus has been a leading contender for the job, having migrated the carrier’s international flights to Altéa in January.

The carrier has been taking reservations for those services since that time. In the airline’s most recent earnings call, Southwest chief Gary Kelly described the system’s performance as flawless.

Southwest will begin flying the international routes on July 1.

Move to one res system
Southwest and Amadeus said they will work on moving to a single reservations system “over the next few years.”

Currently, Southwest uses three systems: Altéa for international flights, Navitaire’s Open Skies for AirTran flights, and a version of Sabre SAAS for domestic Southwest flights, which represent the bulk of its operations.

The AirTran brand will sunset at the end of this year; by then, former AirTran flights will have been converted to Southwest.

GDS participation?
The deal with Amadeus does not include participation in its GDS, but a Southwest spokeswoman said, “We remain interested in Amadeus’ GDS capabilities, and conversations are ongoing.”

Should Southwest choose to participate in the GDS, Amadeus subscribers will have certain advantages.

Airlines that distribute via the Amadeus GDS and that are hosted on Altéa essentially share the same real-time platform with Amadeus subscribers worldwide, a spokeswoman said.

That gives Amadeus travel agencies seamless integration with Altéa carriers’ reservation, inventory and check-in systems due to shared PNR information, fares and ticketing systems, she added.

For example, a single PNR is shared by both the airline and agent, so if either side makes changes to the reservation, the other has access to see all changes. An agent can keep their customers better informed on flight changes, aircraft details and other items that are subject to change, the spokeswoman said.

Largest airline IT partner
Southwest is the largest carrier of domestic passengers in the U.S. When the Altéa deal is implemented, Southwest will become Amadeus’ largest airline IT partner worldwide in terms of passengers boarded.

In a statement, Sabre said it remains under contract to be compensated through Dec. 31, 2016, for continuing to provide reservations services for all Southwest domestic flights.

In 2013, Southwest’s reservations system contributed approximately 1% of total Sabre revenues and 3% of adjusted EBITDA, it said.