Altitude 22: Digital transformation did not slow during COVID pandemic, claims Amadeus boss

Altéa vice president Cyril Tetaz welcomed delegates to the airline executives’ event being held in Dubai this week for the first time since before the pandemic

The pace of technological change in the aviation sector showed no signs of slowing down during the COVID pandemic, this week’s Altitude 22 event in Dubai was told.

Cyril Tetaz,executive vice president, Altéa, at Amadeus, told delegates that they must embrace the long-term change that is taking place in the industry.

This week’s Altitude 22 is the first time Amadeus has been able to host the annual airline executives’ event since before the pandemic when it was held in Istanbul in 2019.

Tetaz said: “The first thing we need to acknowledge as capacity comes back and traffic comes back…is we are facing some challenges. We need to recognise that.

“There has been tension at the airports. Restarting has been tough. The expectation from is to come up with very robust operations to deliver on our commitment.”

Tetaz said strengthening the core technology has been a first priority for Amadeus during the two years of the pandemic when he said the pace of transformation has not stopped.

“It was not frozen during COVID,” he said, “there was as much activity, as much work, during the pandemic as there was before. 

“We are ramping up capacity and we are absolutely committed to that. I’m very positive because I think those changes are for the better, but I think there is more to come.”

Amadeus says it saw plenty of focus during COVID on existing technologies like revenue optimisation and order management.

And it has also been able to roll out new dynamic pricing technologies with a number of its airline partners including leading Asian carrier Singapore Airlines.

The development of New Distribution Capability technologies has also continued as the industry moves gradually away from legacy EDIFACT distribution platforms.

Tetaz said delivering a better customer experience has to be the “ultimate goal”. “It’s really not being order centric but customer centric and you need to simplify to do that.”

Ultimately the aviation sector needs to rise to the long-term challenge of providing the sort of online experience that digital natives like Netflix offers, Tetaz added.

It was claimed Amadeus’s move to the cloud in partnership will underpin that transition by strengthening the core technology while supporting new ways of retailing and automation.

“It will be an end to end business transformation,” said Tetaz. “We have a vision for a much more end to end broader transformation.

“We want to support you. It will require a full re-engineering of our airlines portfolio. That’s the commitment we make.”