Qantas Airways successfully moved its entire reservations and ticketing system to Amadeus over the weekend, joining…
Qantas Airways successfully moved its entire reservations and ticketing system to Amadeus over the weekend, joining 109 airlines and more than 60,000 travel agencies worldwide.
Qantas Chief Information Officer Fiona Balfour said the switch to Amadeus would enable the airline to offer customers greater accessibility and flexibility when making travel arrangements.
As our business volumes continue to grow, being part of the Amadeus global community for ticket sales will be a key benefit and the new system also offers us a broader range of enhanced e-commerce products, Ms Balfour said.
Our customers’ expectations are changing at a rapid rate and the Amadeus Global Distribution System will allow us to not only meet, but exceed these expectations in the years ahead.
Ms Balfour said Qantas was joining four other oneworld alliance members already part of the Amadeus system – British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and LanChile.
The move to Amadeus involved shutting down the majority of the airline’s key systems for several hours while 31,737 terminals and 202 system links were reconnected.
The transition involved the migration of 1.5 million Passenger Name Records (PNRs) 1.98 million e-tickets and 3.5 million Frequent Flyer profiles.
Ms Balfour said the successful cutover followed two years of meticulous planning.
In the lead-up to cutover about 9,000 front-line staff in Telephone Sales, Retail, Qantas Business Centres and Airports were trained in seven days to use the new system.
The change to Amadeus has been a fantastic demonstration of the skills and commitment of everyone in Qantas and Amadeus from those on the front-line and in the Project Team as well as the affected business and system groups.
Vice President, Airline Business Group of Amadeus, Hans Jorgensen, said: Working with Qantas has been yet another stimulating experience of making two teams and organisations work as one, managing an impressively large project.
Qantas has shown remarkable growth in business and we are proud to have a world-class airline like this migrate to our system, Mr. Jorgensen said.
We are convinced Qantas will experience significant return of investment, not only in terms of customer satisfaction but also in integration with other airlines and efficiency.
Becoming an Amadeus Sales System User is the first step in a phased programme. Between 2003 and 2005, Qantas in partnership with Amadeus, will be implementing a New Generation of world-class airline systems for departure control, inventory and load control.
Eight international (including Australian Airlines) and 10 domestic hosted airlines followed Qantas’ lead and moved their reservations and ticketing systems to Amadeus on the weekend.
The hosted airlines are: International: Air Pacific (FJ); Air Fiji (PC); Solomon Airlines (IE); Air Caledonie (SB); Air Vanuatu (NF); Polynesian Airlines (PH); Air Marshall Islands (CW) and Australian Airlines (AO).
Domestic: Airlines of South Australia (RT); O’Connor Airlines (UQ); National Jet (NC); MacAIR (CC); Air Link (DR); Airnorth Regional (TL); Sunshine Express (CQ); Northwest Regional (FY); Aero Pelican (OT) and Norfolk Jet Express (formerly Yanda Airlines -YE).
Qantas operates a fleet of 187 aircraft across a network spanning 142 destinations in 32 countries. The Qantas Group carried 27 million passengers in the financial year ended 30 June 2002.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
