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12 August, 2020

“Very difficult” second quarter sees Amadeus limp to $324m half-yearly loss

Amadeus says it has remained “highly active” despite the major financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company in the first six months of 2020.

The travel tech player’s half-yearly results revealed a €196.9 million ($323.6 million) loss, compared to a €594.4 million ($976.9 million) profit during the prior corresponding six-month period.

Amadeus’ overall earnings fell by 83.6 per cent to €194.1 million ($319 million), while revenue contracted by 54.7 per cent to €1.3 billion ($2.1 billion).

Travel agency bookings plummeted by 78.6 per cent to 65.9 million in the first half of 2020, and passengers boarded via its IT solutions arm dropped by 56.2 per cent to 415.2 million.

Luis Maroto, president and CEO of Amadeus, said the large-scale lockdowns across regions in the second quarter marked a “very difficult” moment for the travel industry and, consequently, had a considerable impact on the company’s earnings and revenue.

“Since late May, we have begun to see an increasing number of flights being scheduled, and air traffic and bookings have been responding. However, the situation remains highly uncertain,” he said.

“Despite this difficult background, we have remained highly active, supporting our customers closely to overcome this situation and adapt their operations.

“We continue to monitor the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic closely. To strengthen our business for the future and to offset the sustained effects of the pandemic, we have taken additional actions to increase our liquidity and, at present, we have liquidity available of €4 billion ($6.6 billion).

“We are also taking measures to improve the way we operate, the way we serve our customers, to foster innovation and most importantly, to protect our business.”

These include a simplified business and customer unit structure, with Amadeus bringing together its distribution and airline IT businesses under the leadership of Decius Valmorbida, who was previously leading the distribution unit.

The company is also reframing and consolidating its technology and operational resources, which will be managed under a single chief technology officer, Christophe Bousquet, who will be adding this role to his current one as head of airline research and development.

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amadeus financial results Luis Maroto travel tech travel technology