Vietnam-based Bamboo Airways is turning to IT solutions provided by Amadeus as it looks to continue its growth. The airline is due to begin using three products from Amadeus, a company specializing in IT solutions for various applications within the travel industry.
Few airlines build their booking systems in-house from the ground up. Most use fairly out-of-the-box solutions, such as the Altea reservations platform from Amadeus. This is the IT provider of choice for all three of the big airline alliances. Now, the family of Altea users will grow slightly bigger with the addition of Bamboo Airways.
A new IT partner for Bamboo Airways
Today, Bamboo Airways signed an IT services agreement with Amadeus. The airline will use the Altea Passenger Service System to provide a new reservations system for frontline employees to use when assisting passengers with bookings. This system is already in use by more than 200 global airlines.
Photo: Amadeus
The deal doesn’t stop with the passenger service system, though. Bamboo Airways will also look to use Amadeus’ network revenue management software to boost income across its operations by optimizing ticket prices.
Finally, Bamboo Airways will be using Amadeus’ Reference Experience. This enables workflows that allow passengers to book, self-check in, and re-accommodate themselves in the case of travel disruptions without having to hunt down an airline or airport staff member.
Commenting on the agreement, Nguyen Manh Quan, CEO of Bamboo Airways, remarked,
“Cooperating with a critical partner like Amadeus is the first step in digital transformation of Bamboo Airways to improve the technology systems and leverage customer experiences. Our adoption of the Altéa PSS and other digital solutions marks a crucial breakthrough in our business strategy, thus creating a launch pad to thrive in international markets, join the world’s major airline alliance down the line, and affirm our global status.”
What happens now?
Last month at the Altitude 22 conference in Dubai, Meg O’Keefe, Vice President of Airlines Customer Unit – Airline Offer Suite Solutions, told Simple Flying what happens once an airline decides that they want to use Amadeus’ solutions,
“Our job is to provide the application but also not just saying ‘here’s the steering wheel, you work out how to fit it into the car’. We’re going to make sure that all of the hooks and the data transmission are going to work regardless of who the receiving system is. It’s our job to make sure we can deliver the value at the end, not just provide you with the piece of machinery on its own.”
In other words, Amadeus will now sit down with Bamboo Airways to determine exactly how their respective systems will merge. They will then provide continuous support to ensure that the airline takes full advantage of the software.
Photo: David Velupillai via Airbus
Alaska Airlines’ 2020 switch
During her keynote presentation at Altitude 22, Kisten Amrine of Alaska Airlines explained the process from the airline’s point of view. Amrine explained that Alaska Airlines had planned to switch from its old systems to its new systems market by market, ensuring that it was working for a small part of its traffic before switching altogether. COVID-19 had other ideas, though.
She explained that the airline was making next to no money from bookings in the old system, and the same would be true in the new system as bookings were not forthcoming. Alaska Airlines decided to make one big switch at once. This allowed the airline to learn on the go with the new system. Now that traffic around the globe is recovering, this might not be the changeover model adopted by Bamboo Airways.
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying
Bamboo Airway’s growth
The switch to Amadeus is intended to facilitate the further growth of Bamboo Airways. But since its launch just under four years ago, the airline has already grown significantly. This is despite the roadblocks presented by COVID-19. Four of the airline’s top five months for total number of flights were in 2022, with 5,600 flights scheduled during January 2022, according to schedule data from Cirium.
Graph: Simple Flying | Data: Cirium
The airline’s fleet has also been steadily growing and now includes narrowbody and widebody aircraft. According to ch-aviation.com, the airline now has 30 aircraft, with 11 more due to be delivered. The fleet’s average age is 8.1 years, offering a capacity of 8,600 seats. The current fleet consists of,
- 1x Airbus A319
- 6x Airbus A320
- 6x Airbus A320neo
- 3x Airbus A321
- 6x Airbus A321neo
- 3x Boeing 787-9
- 5x Embraer E190
What do you make of Bamboo Airways’ decision to implement Amadeus IT systems? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!
Source: simpleflying.com
