Goal is Continued Growth of Airline-Agency Sales

ARLINGTON, Va. – Feb. 13, 2020 – Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) and Amadeus (BMAD: AMS) recently signed a cooperative agreement to facilitate the industry’s adoption of evolving airline retailing technology standards while concurrently enhancing their existing relationship. This alliance provides greater choice for airlines to select between different industry standards for indirect distribution. It also ensures that travel agencies in North America can continue to report and settle airline ticket transactions without interruption or delay regardless of the standard being used, including New Distribution Capability (NDC).

“Last year, U.S.-based travel agencies sold almost $100 billion worth of air travel,” said Mike Premo, ARC’s president and CEO. “We’re excited about this updated agreement as it provides increased support to our airline and travel agency customers to enable their continued growth, and strengthen ARC’s omnichannel distribution options available to the industry. ARC and Amadeus have a long history of working together to serve our mutual customers. We look forward to continuing our work with them.”

The new agreement updates the existing contract between the two companies for reporting and settlement services. ARC continues to work with other technology partners to help the industry move forward by ensuring accurate and trustworthy settlement services across the distribution landscape.

“Amadeus is making a significant investment in our NDC [X] program to facilitate the adoption of the NDC standard in the industry,” said Hervé Prezet, vice president, industry & expertise at Amadeus. “We have been generating live NDC bookings since 2018, and we look forward to continuing to work with ARC and other partners and customers to drive adoption and collaboration in next-generation retailing. ARC has been a dedicated partner for many years and this new level of cooperation will bring benefits to our mutual airline and travel agency customers and the broader travel ecosystem.”