About Amadeus
Amadeus builds the critical solutions that help airlines, airports, hotels, railways, search engines, travel agencies and all types of travel players run their operations and improve the travel experience. Amadeus believes in the power of seamless travel, and we are consistently innovating and investing in the technology to make that happen.
We have invested over €5 billion in R&D in the past few years, which on average is 16% of our annual revenue, to improve our technology, advance open source systems, big data, and cloud-based architecture. We are the first and only GDS to fully migrate all systems and platforms to open systems technology. The Amadeus Travel Platform is evolving to allow all our customers access to more content, including flight, hotel, ground transport, and destination services, via more channels and devices, helping them remain competitive and sell travel in an efficient and personalized way. We believe that the only way for the travel industry to keep growing is to keep innovating with the traveler in mind.
Get Started in Online Travel
To learn how to get started in Online Travel, please click on the questions below
What is an Online Travel Agency or a Metasearch player?
What are the legal requirements to start an online travel business?
Where can you find our travel APIs? What is the best option to become an Online Travel Agency? How can you build an air booking engine using our online APIs? What are airline consolidators? How can we connect you with airline consolidators? What is the best option to become a Metasearch?
Solutions
To learn more about our solutions, please click on the questions below.
Events
Amadeus Afterwork – Where Startups & Amadeus Get Together
The global online travel landscape is in a state of change. To stay competitive in this industry, startups have to constantly evolve and adapt based on their understanding of the business challenges and of what is to come.
Join us for a casual knowledge sharing session where we will present our findings around the online travel landscape which can be applied to your business strategies. We will also be joined by a successful startup from your market, who will share their inspiring story.
Finally, learn how Amadeus can support your business with our travel solutions. The event is free-of-charge and will be followed by networking for you to meet and talk to other travel startups in your field.
Click below to learn more about our event in each market!
What is an Online Travel Agency or a Metasearch player
An Online Travel Agency (OTA) will usually offer travelers the capacity to both search and book travel. This can extend to but are not limited to flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and travel activities. OTAs often bundle services together and offer discounts to travelers. The OTA is the ‘middle player’ between the travel provider and the traveler and will purchase airline tickets or makes hotel reservations on behalf of the traveler (their customer).
OTAs will usually help manage travel itineraries up to, during and after trips as well as offer other personal assistance as necessary to the traveler who has booked with them.
A Metasearch Engine is a search engine that aggregates data from multiple sources including OTAs, airline websites, hotel websites, and third-party search engine. It uses algorithms to check these various sources of data simultaneously.
A metasearch player will use these various sources to source and search for relevant data to match the traveler’s search terms. Historically, the metasearch only had searching capabilities and would then direct the traveler to the relevant sites. However, that is changing as metasearch engines are now developing the booking capabilities directly on their sites.
Whether you are a startup planning to become an OTA or Metasearch Engine, or an established travel player looking to expand your horizons, Amadeus can help you.
What are the legal requirements to start an online travel business?
To start an online travel business, you will have to register your company, and for some countries, it is required that you have a license or a permission from the local tourism authorities.
Click HERE to download the full list of legal requirements in the APAC markets.
Where can you find our travel APIs?
Being in the business of travel technology, Amadeus is heavily invested in helping travel players build on their technological capabilities. Amadeus for Developers has a rich offering of travel APIs that allow developers to play, innovate, and launch their applications in a quick and efficient manner! Catering to all developer types, we have two broad categories, namely Self-Service APIs and Enterprise APIs.
Self-service APIs: I am a newcomer to the travel industry, or a startup, and I want to test, build and deliver apps to the market quickly
Self-service APIs allow you to test, explore, build and deliver apps to the market quickly. You can start testing Amadeus data and functionalities in less than 3 minutes! Our new online APIs will allow you to create an Air booking engine with 3 orchestrated services - Search, Price and Book - to be able to search for the best fares, price them and of course book them. Make use of the free calls in the test environment to prototype new apps at zero cost and can benefit from a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme once you’ve moved their app to the production environment. And all this while being supported by Amadeus for Developers experts and community.
Enterprise APIs: I have experience in the travel industry, and I need tailored support and technology to support my business
Enterprise APIs come with a tailored support package that is used by leading brands in the travel industry. These APIs provide in-depth content (Air, Hotel, Rail, Car…) and value-added features (Shopping, Ticketing, Optimization, after sales and more). Request for Enterprise, unlike self-service, is on an access-by-request basis. Pricing and service are customized, with 24/7 support and a dedicated account manager.
What is the best option to become an Online Travel Agency?
It largely depends on which stage your startup is at, but most Online Travel startups begin with Self-Service APIs, which will allow
you to test, explore, build and deliver apps to the market quickly, in a ‘pay-per-use’ model and with REST/JSON technology.
We have just launched a new a bundle of online APIs which will allow you to build a booking engine simply using three orchestrated services: search, price and book.
This catalog of online APIs will keep growing, helping you constantly enrich your booking engine with the new functionalities that will keep coming.
How can you build an air booking engine using our online APIs?
To build a booking engine, startups need to implement 3 APIs, which will be published in Amadeus for Developers: Self-service APIs catalogue.
1. Flight Offers Search: Search for the lowest fares
This API allows you to get cheapest flight recommendations and prices on a given journey. It provides a list of flight recommendations and fares from a given origin (city or airport), for a given date (or date range) and for a given list of passengers. Additional information such as bag allowance, first ancillary bag prices or fare details are also provided.
2. Flight Offers Price: Use the Price verb to retrieve fare details
This API allows you to get or confirm the price of a flight and obtain information about taxes and fees to be applied to the entire journey (optional). It also retrieves ancillary information (e.g. additional bag or extra legroom seats pricing) and the payment information details requested at booking time.
3. Flight Create Orders: Book and Pay
This API allows you to book flights and ancillary services proposed by the airlines like additional checked bags or seats with extra-legroom. It returns flight order unique ID and details.
> In order to book a flight, you will first use Flight Offers Search API to find the flight(s).
> Secondly, you will confirm the price and availability with the Flights Offers Price API and enter your payment method.
> Then, Flight Create Orders API will allow you to complete the booking process and to add ancillary services if needed.
*To be able to build an application allowing the booking of air tickets, you need to be able to perform ticket issuance. The easiest way to do so is to sign an agreement with an airline consolidator. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, contact us and we will help you find the one that suits your needs.
What are airline consolidators?
Airlines consolidators are wholesalers of air tickets. They usually partner with airlines to get negotiated rates for air tickets, and then resell the air tickets to travel agents or consumers. Many airlines consolidators act as host agencies for retail travel agencies or online travel agency startups that do not have the license from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to issue air tickets. To issue air tickets via airline consolidators, the travel startups have to settle commercial agreements with the airline consolidators in the markets in which they want to operate.
It is to be noted that not all the airline consolidators provide post-ticketing services such as monitoring and notifying travel agencies about schedule changes and flight cancellations. This is something that startups have to check with their potential airline consolidators.
How can we connect you with airline consolidators?
To be able to build an application allowing the booking of air tickets, you need to be able to perform ticket issuance. The easiest way to do so is to sign an agreement with an airline consolidator. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, contact us and we will help you find the one that suits your needs.
What is the best option to become a Metasearch?
Amadeus MetaConnect Suite is a one-stop-shop solution for an online travel agency that wants to become a metasearch. Depending on your strategy and your partnerships with airlines, you can become a metasearch following the below three different models.
To get more information and learn which model will best fit your business needs, please contact us, and we will direct you to our Regional MetaConnect Account Manager.
How can we help you become an online travel player with Amadeus APIs?
All our applications are based on web services technology, which allows you to access Air and non-Air content. You can choose from a wide portfolio of REST/JSON and SOAP/XML APIs, granular services or orchestrated services to build your own online travel application, depending on your needs. A world of possibilities!
Have a look at our portal, Amadeus for Developers, where you can browse our portfolio and choose the best option for you.
Self-service APIs: I am a newcomer to the Travel Industry or a startup and I want to test, build and deliver apps to the market quickly.
You can start testing Amadeus data and functionalities in less than 3 minutes. Our new online APIs will allow you to create an Air booking engine with 3 orchestrated services - Search, Price and Book - to be able to search for the best fares, price them and of course book them. Make use the free calls in the test environment to prototype new apps at zero cost and benefit from a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme once you move your app to production environment. And all this while being supported by Amadeus for Developers experts and community.
Enterprise APIs: I have experience in the travel industry and I need tailored support and technology to support my business
Enterprise APIs come with a tailored support package that is used by leading brands in the travel industry. These APIs provide in-depth content (Air, Hotel, Rail, Car…) and value-added features (Shopping, Ticketing, Optimization, after-sales and more). Request for Enterprise is on an access-by-request basis. Pricing and service are customized, with 24/7 support and a dedicated account manager.
Don’t hesitate to contact us to get more information and learn which will be the right solution for your business needs.
I want to build an air booking engine and become an Online Travel Agency
The best way to distribute air content is to build an air booking engine. With our business web services you will simply need to implement 3 orchestrated services - Search, Price and Book - to be able to search for the best fares, price them and of course book them. Visit our catalogue in Amadeus for Developers and get access to our APIs quickly and easily.
1. Flight Offers Search:Search for the lowest fares
This API allows you to get cheapest flight recommendations and prices on a given journey. It provides a list of flight recommendations and fares from a given origin (city or airport), for a given date (or date range) and for a given list of passengers. Additional information such as bag allowance, first ancillary bag prices or fare details are also provided.
2. Flight Offers Price: Use the Price verb to retrieve fare details
This API allows you to get or confirm the price of a flight and obtain information about taxes and fees to be applied to the entire journey (optional). It also retrieves ancillary information (e.g. additional bag or extra legroom seats pricing) and the payment information details requested at booking time.
3. Flight Create Orders: Book and Pay
This API allows you to book flights and ancillary services proposed by the airlines like additional checked bags or seats with extra-legroom. It returns flight order unique ID and details.
> In order to book a flight, you will first use Flight Offers Search API to find the flight(s).
> Secondly, you will confirm the price and availability with the Flights Offers Price API and enter your payment method.
> Then, Flight Create Orders API will allow you to complete the booking process and to add ancillary services if needed.
*To be able to build an application allowing the booking of air tickets, you need to be able to perform ticket issuance. The easiest way to do so is to sign an agreement with an airline consolidator. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, contact us and we will help you find the one that suits your needs.
Illustration: Search & Book the lowest available fare for a predefined route
I want to become a Metasearch
Amadeus MetaConnect Suite is a one-stop-shop solution for an online travel agency that wants to become a metasearch. Depending on your strategy and your partnerships with airlines, you can become a metasearch following the below three different models.
To get more information and learn which model will best fit your business needs, please contact us, and we will direct you to our Regional MetaConnect Account Manager.
I want to distribute Hotel Content
If you want to build your online presence focusing Hotel, we can support you with the right technology and content to fulfill your business needs:
> 2.3M+ hotel shopping options covering over 650,000 unique properties coming from agreements with leading regional and global hotel aggregator providers. This is in addition to around 310 hotel chains, representation companies, and thousands of independent properties
> One set of Hotel Web services for all content; from availability searches to booking
> Access to a wide selection of competitive rates and payment options, adapting to different traveler needs
> Search and filtering options to make finding the hotel your travelers need quick and simple.
To get more information and learn which will be the right solution for your business needs, please contact us.
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