Amadeus Finds Growth in Businesses Outside of Distribution


Skift Take

Amadeus deserves credit for making strides in reducing its dependence on its original core business of airline distribution. Few companies in any industry succeed in diversifying. But work remains to be done. Plus, the company may not be doing enough to capture Asia's potential as a market.

After 30 years of operation, travel technology group Amadeus is slowly moving toward its goal of having a broad and deep line of businesses. In the second quarter, revenues from distributing airline content to agencies, Amadeus's flagship service, accounted for 56 percent of its overall revenue of $1.58 billion (€1.42 billion). That figure shows the company has been diversifying. As recently as the second quarter of 2017, distribution made up 62 percent of Amadeus's top line. Back in 2010, distribution tech accounted for 76 percent of revenue. The company's distribution unit continues to grow, though weakly. In the second quarter, distribution grew 3.8 percent year-over-year to $888 million (€797.1 million). That weakness underscored why the company needs to grow its other lines of businesses. In the second quarter, the revenue for those newer businesses increased 30.7 percent year-over-year to $698 million (€626.6 million). In the second quarter, Amadeus generated