Amadeus: Worldwide Travel Booking Through Mobile Phones Goes Live.Business Editors/Technology Writers NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo available on BW PhotoWire/AP PhotoExpress, NewsCom, PressLink and on Business Wire's Web site at www.businesswire.com and www.newstream.com. MADRID, Spain, OSLO, Norway, and STOCKHOLM, Sweden-- (BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2000 Wireless Travel Management solution allows fast, convenient way to book flights on over 500 airlines - any time, any place Amadeus, the world's leading travel distribution system and technology provider, today introduced its Wireless Travel Management (WTM WTM World Travel Market (London) WTM World Tamil Movement WTM What's the Matter? WTM Windows Task Manager WTM Web, Trattamenti e Materiali (Italian) WTM Winner Takes Most WTM Wind Tunnel Model ) solution which enables customers to check flight availability and book or cancel flights from a mobile device. The service has begun with the Scandinavian regional carrier Wider0e and will be expanded to other regions in the future. WTM uses Wireless Application Protocol (WAP (1) (Wireless Access Point) See access point. (2) (Wireless Application Protocol) A standard for providing cellular phones, pagers and other handheld devices with secure access to e-mail and text-based Web pages. ) technology for mobile phones, which is powering mobile commerce worldwide. Using the WAP standard, WTM gives all of Wider0e's customers a fast, simple and convenient way to check flight availability and book or cancel flights with over 500 airlines around the globe from a mobile device. Using the WAP standard ensures that the service is both device and network independent, enabling access from any WAP-enabled handheld wireless equipment, such as the Nokia 7110 phone, Ericsson's MC218 handheld organizer See PDA. and Ericsson's upcoming R380 phone organizer. Unlike other systems, WTM allows travelers to choose from multiple carriers (other airline web and WAP sites restrict users to their own flights only). Passengers can make reservations for any flights leaving between 2 hours and 12 months from the moment they access the service. The booking process is takes around 2 minutes, as travelers can choose to store their profile in the site which will automatically incorporate information such as the traveler's name, frequent flyer frequent flyer Hospital practice A popular term for a Pt who is regularly admitted to a particular ER or health care facility, for various reasons data, payment preferences, seating and meal requirements. After a booking has been made, it can be called up and cancelled if necessary. Wider0e passengers can also receive real-time 1. real-time - Describes an application which requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process control at a chemical plant is the classic example. updates about flight departure and arrival times. This feature will become available for other airlines within months, with the next market release of WTM, scheduled for summer 2000. Other new features will include re-book capability, automatic compliance with corporate travel policy and negotiated fares, and car and hotel bookings - making WTM the complete mobile travel management solution. In November 1999 Amadeus, Ericsson and Smart (Amadeus' Scandinavian and Baltic distribution partner) set up a joint Competence Center, located in Stockholm, Sweden, to develop and market WTM. Amadeus is providing its powerful travel reservation engine - the world's largest dynamic database of travel service providers - with over 500 airlines, 51,000 hotels and 48 car rental companies, and its expertise in advanced technological solutions for e-commerce. Ericsson, a pioneer of WAP, wireless connectivity and mobile Internet Refers to gaining access to the Internet using a lightweight, handheld device. See Mobile IP, PDA, smartphone and mobile TV. initiatives, brings its devices, technological and telecommunications Communicating information, including data, text, pictures, voice and video over long distance. See communications. market know-how to WTM. Smart is one of the most prominent players in Scandinavia's vibrant mobile Internet marketplace and contributes its experience of applying new Internet See Web 2.0 and Internet2. and mobile technology to the travel business. Philippe Chereque, Amadeus SVP SVP S'il Vous Plaît (French: Please) SVP Senior Vice President SVP Schweizerische Volkspartei (Swiss People~s Party) SVP Society of Vertebrate Paleontology SVP Social Venture Partners SVP St Vincent de Paul Corporate Strategy, said, "WTM represents a real advance for today's connected traveler. Together with Smart and Ericsson we have produced a consumer-friendly application in record time which is the first of its kind available to the general public. WTM is a cornerstone cornerstone Ceremonial building block, dated or otherwise inscribed, usually placed in an outer wall of a building to commemorate its dedication. Often the stone is hollowed out to contain newspapers, photographs, or other documents reflecting current customs, with a view to in Amadeus' strategy to bring the power of its travel database to the consumer." "And this is just the beginning. Fast advancing wireless technology, such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) The first high-speed digital data service provided by cellular carriers that used the GSM technology. GPRS added a packet-switched channel to GSM, which uses dedicated, circuit-switched channels for voice conversations. (general packet radio service) and 3G (third generation) mobile, will enable more exciting mobile applications. Over the coming months you will see Amadeus develop and roll out new features and services to bring even more convenience, speed, and ease of use to the mobile professional." "Wider0e is continuously seeking to make it easier and faster for our customers to benefit from the wide range of travel products at our website," declared Per Arne Watle, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Wider0e. "The launch of WTM solution confirms our ambition of being in the forefront, together with our partners, in developing and utilizing the latest mobile technology." Notes to the Editor: Photos and a product demo demo - /de'moh/ 1. A demonstration of a product, often of an early version or prototype. A demo is a far more effective way of inducing bugs to manifest themselves than any number of test runs, especially when important people are watching. 2. demo version. 3. are available at http://www.global.amadeus.net/news/press/2000/45875.html. High resolution photos available on request. About Amadeus Amadeus, with U.S. operations in Miami, Florida “Miami” redirects here. For the Native American tribe, see Miami tribe. Miami is a major city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. It is the county seat of Miami-Dade County. Miami is a gamma world city with an estimated population of 404,048. , is the world's number one global distribution system (GDS GDS Global Distribution System GDS Google Desktop Search (Google) GDS Goodie Domain Service (Vienna University of Technology, Austria) GDS Guards ) and technology provider serving the marketing, sales and distribution needs of the world's travel and tourism industries. Worldwide, Amadeus is chosen by more travel agency locations, receives more billable bookings and processes more international travel reservations than any other GDS. Its comprehensive data network and database, amongst the largest of their kind in Europe, serve over 48,400 travel agency locations and some 8,200 airline sales offices worldwide. Through the Amadeus system, travel agencies and airline offices are able to make bookings on over 500 airlines, representing more than 95 per cent of the world's scheduled airline seats. The system also provides access to over 51,000 hotels, 48 car rental companies, as well as serving newer provider groups, including ferry, rail, cruise, insurance and tour operators. Amadeus is a significant provider of information technology and an enabler of e-commerce for the travel industry. Amadeus also delivers the powerful booking engine behind the web pages of more than 3,000 travel agencies, and some 80 Web sites serving 25 airlines. Aditionally, it provides similar e-commerce solutions for partners ranging from Wal-Mart (USA) to Gruppo L'Espresso (Italy). Founded in 1987, and fully operational from 1992, Amadeus is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Its data centre is in Erding (near Munich), Germany and its development offices are located in Sophia Antipolis Sophia Antipolis is a technology park northwest of Antibes and southwest of Nice, France. Much of the park falls within the commune of Valbonne. Created in 1970~84, it houses primarily companies in the fields of computing, electronics, pharmacology and biotechnology. (near Nice), France. The company has almost 3,000 employees worldwide, including 750 in the U.S. Further information about Amadeus is available at http://www.global.amadeus.net About Smart Operating in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia, Smart is Amadeus' distribution partner for the region, and the leading supplier of electronic distribution of travel information and services to 1750 travel agencies working from 11,500 terminals. More information about Smart can be found at http:// www.smart.se NOTE TO EDITORS: In the company name Wider0e noted in this news release, between the letters r and e, there is a Scandinavian symbol which is the letter o with a right slash through the middle. This symbol appears as a 0 in this release. Note: A Photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.032300/bw2 |
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