Amadeus North American Q1 bookings near pre-pandemic levels

Amadeus’ revenue recovered to nearly two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter as North American air bookings nearly fully during the quarter.

The company reported its “best quarterly performance since the start of the pandemic” even with the slower start to the year due to the Covid-19 omicron variant, according to Amadeus president and CEO Luis Maroto. Total revenue for the quarter was €917.2 million, which is 65.2 percent of its revenue in the first quarter of 2019, up 4.9 percentage points from recovery levels in the previous quarter.

Amadeus processed 91.7 million air bookings during the quarter, which is 56.4 percent of 2019 levels and 5.6 percentage points better than fourth-quarter recovery levels. The improvement stemmed from both increased bookings and market share gains, according to Amadeus.

Air bookings in North America were down only 2.9 percent compared with the first quarter of 2019. Latin America and the Middle East and Africa both were down about a third compared with 2019, while both Western and Eastern Europe were closer to the 50 percent range. Air bookings in the Asia/Pacific region were down 73.4 percent compared with 2019.

In terms of Amadeus’ IT solutions, the total number of passengers boarded in the first quarter was down 39.5 percent compared with 2019 levels, a recovery improvement of 3.1 percentage points compared with the previous quarter. The total number of passengers boarded in North America was slightly above 2019 levels, the first time that has happened in any region since the onset of the pandemic. New airlines on Amadeus’ platform—particularly Air Canada, which began migrating to the Altea system in late 2019—drove that improvement.

Amadeus reported a profit of €81.3 million for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of €95.3 million in the first quarter of 2021.

Michael B. Baker  www.businesstravelnews.com