Amadeus’ profit plunges more than 60 per cent in Q1

Amadeus has revealed just how bad the impact of COVID-19 was on its financial performance in the first quarter of 2020.

The travel tech giant reported a €117.8 million ($198.4 million) profit during the three-month period, down 60.5 per cent on the €298.5 million ($502.8 million) profit it achieved in Q1 of 2019.

Amadeus’ quarterly earnings dropped 41.3 per cent to €349.4 million ($588.6 million), and total revenue fell 27.3 per cent to just over €1 billion ($1.7 billion).

The company’s distribution revenue experienced the biggest decline, down 45.5 per cent to €457.5 ($770.7 million), while IT solutions revenue only suffered a mild 0.3 per cent drop to €564.2 ($950.4 million).

Amadeus’ total bookings fell 44.6 per cent to 99.6 million, with travel agency air bookings decreasing by 47.7 per cent to 85 million, and non-air bookings declining by 15.4 per cent to 14.6 million.

The Asia Pacific made up 10.8 per cent of all travel agency bookings in the first quarter and suffered the biggest percentage decline of all regions, down a whopping 68.1 per cent on the prior corresponding period to 9.2 million.

The company’s total number of passengers boarded totalled 383.9 million, down 12 per cent on the first quarter of 2019. The Asia Pacific accounted for 32.6 per cent of all passengers and saw a drop of 17 per cent to 125.2 million.

Luis Maroto, president and CEO of Amadeus, said the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the company’s strong start to 2020, with positive growth across all of its businesses in January.

“We have taken a number of significant measures to strengthen our financial position and to support our business, including implementing an overall efficiency plan, cancelling complementary dividend payments and enhancing our liquidity position,” he said.

“Beyond these measures, we have actively been working with our customers to support them in these difficult times.

“We are closely monitoring the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and will adapt our response to it as needed.

“We are confident in the resilience of the travel sector and in the underlying strength of our company, but the coming months will remain challenging for the whole sector.”

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