Dallas & Madrid - Southwest Airlines Co. and Amadeus IT Group jointly announced the carrier’s transition to the Amadeus Altea Passenger Service System (PSS). At 101 airports across nine countries, all Southwest domestic and international flights operating today and beyond will be managed through Altea functionality, giving the carrier more flexibility to improve the Customer Experience and enhance revenue performance.
During the course of three years, a team of more than 1,500 people from both Southwest and Amadeus collaborated to bring together multiple reservation system capabilities onto one common platform under the Altea Suite of products. The new reservation system brings an array of features designed to allow Southwest to: optimize its flight schedule, including improved connection times; more easily manage inventory between any given origin and destination; govern the value of potential ancillary services; and automate rebookings during flight disruptions, such as those caused by extreme weather and other operational challenges. Southwest expects the new reservation system to generate approximately $500 million in incremental annual earnings before interest and taxes by 2020 through added functionality and operational capabilities.
“Transitioning to a single reservation system is a transformational milestone for Southwest, and in fact, it’s the single largest technology initiative in our Company’s history. I want to congratulate and thank thousands of our Employees and our partners who have worked tirelessly and diligently for several years to bring this home,” said Gary Kelly, Southwest Airlines Chairman & CEO. “Our deepening partnership with Amadeus makes way for a bright future through new tools that empower our People to do what they do best, which is to provide world famous Hospitality.”
As part of the ongoing partnership, the carrier began operating international flights through Amadeus Altea PSS beginning in July 2014. On Dec. 6, 2016, Southwest continued to streamline operations into more of the Altea Suite by channeling bookings beyond May 8, 2017, through a single reservation system.
“This is an exciting time at Southwest, and our work with Amadeus IT Group provides a foundation that propels us into the future,” said Randy Sloan, Southwest Airlines Senior Vice President and CIO.
“Southwest is the largest carrier of passengers within the United States[1], and we are delighted they entrusted Amadeus with developing the new cornerstone of its business,” said Luis Maroto, President and CEO, Amadeus. “We pride ourselves in developing innovative and customized technologies to help our airline partners adapt and evolve their products to reflect the needs of travelers, and we are proud to be collaborating with this leading U.S. airline.”
“We are thrilled to be continuing our relationship with Southwest, and we consider our partnership a testament to the quality of our technology and our people. Our Team is dedicated to helping airlines become next generation retailers,” said Julia Sattel, Senior Vice President Airlines and Executive Committee Member Amadeus IT Group.
Teams for both companies continue to work behind the scenes and on the ground in several of the carrier’s locations to support this transformational change.
[1] Based on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent data, Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier as measured by the number of originating domestic passengers boarded
