Amadeus and British Airways Enter Major IT Partnership.

Business Editors/Technology & Travel Writers

MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2000

British Airways selects Amadeus as its preferred partner to

provide Distribution and Customer Service systems including

inventory, reservations, and departure control

British Airways has selected Amadeus as its preferred information technology partner for Distribution and Customer Service systems on a 10-year contract. Amadeus will operate and further develop the airline's reservations, inventory and departure control systems. Additionally, it will take over the contracts of British Airways subsidiary Speedwing to provide similar services to other airlines. Detailed contract negotiations will begin now and, if successful, are expected to conclude in the summer.

Amadeus was chosen to partner with British Airways after seven months of detailed study and evaluation of responses, based on a request-for-proposal (RFP) process. The company was selected because its global travel distribution systems offer British Airways the opportunity to substantially reduce operating and development costs, while delivering comprehensive functionality. The decision also positions British Airways to further exploit e-commerce and other commercial distribution opportunities.

British Airways values the Amadeus System User concept that already enables over 110 airlines to run their sales and reservations functionality in airport and city ticket offices on the Amadeus global distribution system (GDS). This common platform concept brings significant benefits to airlines operating in partnerships and alliances. British Airways will be able to share a reservation and sales system and interact in a seamless way with those members of the oneworld Alliance who are also Amadeus System Users, such as Iberia, Finnair and LanChile.

For Amadeus, which today is a leading global distribution system for travel and a major e-commerce player in the industry, the agreement represents a significant step in broadening its activity as a technology services provider. Amadeus will now have the capability to provide inventory and airport passenger service systems, as well as its traditional distribution systems.

Under the proposal, Amadeus will establish a support and development site near London's Heathrow Airport to support existing applications and to develop new generation inventory and departure control systems.

Amadeus will incorporate the existing expertise of the British Airways transaction processing facility (TPF) team, who, as a key part of Amadeus, will help develop the next generation of IT travel related applications.

"This partnership should enable us to operate our core commercial systems more cost effectively, and improve time to market delivering better functionality, faster and cheaper," said Bryan Wilson, British Airways' Director of Information Management. "We chose Amadeus because they combined an exciting vision to support the new world of e-commerce, with the practical advantages of functional excellence in reservations systems, and technical capability to deliver the new generation of departure control and inventory systems.

Jose Antonio Tazon, President and CEO of Amadeus, added, "This strategic partnership with British Airways is a further recognition of the technologically advanced and flexible solutions Amadeus provides to global travel industry customers."

"We are looking forward to working very closely with BA to support its business objectives by providing it with best solutions for its present and future distribution and customer services needs. The BA TPF staff, with their special expertise, are a welcome addition to the growing Amadeus family."

Notes to Editors

Amadeus Global Travel Distribution

Amadeus, with U.S. headquarters in Miami, Florida, is a leading global distribution system (GDS) 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 globally. In 1999, Amadeus processed 372 million passenger bookings.

Through the Amadeus system, travel agencies and airline offices are able to make bookings with over 500 airlines, representing more than 95 percent 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 81 Web sites serving 28 airlines. Additionally, it provides similar e-commerce solutions for partners ranging from Gruppo L'Espresso (Italy) to Wal-Mart (USA).

Amadeus provides outsourced distribution services around 110 airlines worldwide.

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 (near Nice), France. The company has almost 3,000 employees worldwide, including 750 in the U.S. Additional information available at www.global.amadeus.net.

British Airways PLC

BA's reservations and departure control system "BABS" was originally developed in the 1960's and has given excellent service, however British Airways recognises that it is now more advantageous to share basic functions with other airlines and to concentrate its IT resource on e-Commerce and e-Working.

Amadeus is also taking over British Airways subsidiary Speedwing's business to provide passenger service systems to around 40 other airlines.

Approximately 250 British Airways and Speedwing staff are affected by the deal, they will be offered the opportunity to transfer to Amadeus or to second as British Airways employees. These jobs will be secured in a new Amadeus development and support centre close to London Heathrow.