Strong Sales Performance for mercator’s PSS Solution for LCCs, Avantik

DUBAI & BANGKOK – 18 April 2013 - mercator’s leading Passenger Services System (PSS) for low cost and regional carriers, Avantik, has experienced a strong year; further strengthening the global reach of mercator.

Joining a growing family of 23 airlines leveraging the benefits of the Avantik PSS web-based platform, the fourth quarter of  2012 saw Algerian based carrier, Tassilli Airlines, and Thailand based start-up, U-Airlines, sign for the industry leading product with Tassilli making their maiden flight with Avantik and opening their sales channels on the 2nd of March, 2013. Additionally, three carriers have already signed with Avantik in 2013; including Fly Georgia in Eastern Europe, Antrak from Ghana and as well as another regional hybrid carrier. All three carriers are scheduled to commence operations with Avantik within the first half of 2013. mercator welcomes all five new carriers to the group of existing users which includes such recognizable airlines as Osaka-based  Peach and Indonesia’s ever strengthening regional carrier, Merpati.

In a recent interview with Merpati, CEO Rudy Setyopurnomo stated, “Merpati Nusantara Airlines (MNA) has partnered with mercator since October 2008, using Avantik for our passenger reservations and DCS.  When I joined Merpati as CEO in May 2012, my first task was to look at whether MNA was harnessing the full potential of Avantik. Within two months and through a structured approach in assessing user competence on the system with mercator, our revenues increased significantly. Avantik’s fully integrated and optimised web services have allowed us to maximise our web sales; especially in the last year, which have significantly helped increase our passenger bookings. We are also seeing huge benefits in our utilisation of the auto top up feature for travel agencies. Through the power and functionality of Avantik, Merpati is on course to become a leading regional carrier and we look forward to a long and prosperous partnership with mercator.”

mercator’s extensive portfolio of passenger, cargo, financial, loyalty and safety IT solutions are used to manage the operations of award-winning hybrid, low-cost, regional, national and international airlines.

Avantik is a next generation, cost-effective PSS solution built on flexible web-services; making it an especially good fit for low cost carriers and start-ups where initial software investment considerations are sometimes prohibitive. Simple API connections mean that Avantik can be easily integrated with third party platforms to help airlines quickly realize their full potential in ancillary revenues.

About mercator:

Get passengers and cargo to their destinations—safely and on time. That’s the promise of every airline. Rising complexity puts the burden on technology to keep it. Which is where mercator comes in.

Every airline CEO knows that profits only follow when planes and processes really flow. Our aviation heritage gives us unequalled insight into what this requires. In 1995, mercator was created to support Emirates Airline—and dnata soon after, the fourth largest airport services company in the world.
By delivering IT solutions for these major organizations, we became intimate with both the big picture and micro needs of the industry. Our team developed an extensive portfolio of solutions, testing them at the highest level in the real world.
Today, we offer these systems and the process knowledge of Emirates and dnata on the commercial market. Our solutions combine across five key areas of service excellence: Safety, Passenger, Cargo, CRM and Finance.
Our clients span the globe and include award-winning carriers, hybrid, low-cost and regional airlines. While aviation has always driven our technology, the variety of operations we serve has taken our industry expertise to another level.
Our IT infrastructure helps any airline reduce costs, streamline processes and increase productivity—enabling you to deliver your essential promise.
www.mercator.com

About Merpati Airlines:

Merpati Nusantara Airlines, operating as Merpati Nusantara Airlines, is an airline in Indonesia based in Central Jakarta, Jakarta. It is a major domestic airline operating scheduled services to more than 25 destinations in Indonesia, as well as scheduled international services to East Timor and Malaysia. Its main base is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta.
The word merpati is Indonesian for dove. Merpati also listed in category 1 by Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority for airline safety quality. Our vision is to be the prime choice airlines company which is safe and convenience with Indonesian hospitality that grows continuously in domestic and regional arena as well as our mission is to Provides air transport services for passengers and goods and other air transport supports services by does active perform to develops tourism and economic potential with the aim of always generates addition values to stakeholders.

www.merpati.co.id

 Media Contact:

Michelle Girkinger
PR Manager, mercator/Emirates Group
michelle.girkinger@emirates.com
+9714 708 2038

+97156 684 8135

Amadeus receives loan of €150 million with a nine year maturity to finance R&D activities in its Distribution business line between 2013 and 2015



April 29, 2013: The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's long-term financing institution, has granted a second loan for Amadeus IT Group, S.A., subsidiary of Amadeus IT Holding S.A. (Amadeus: "AMS.MC"), a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, with the latter acting as the guarantor of the transaction.

The unsecured loan of €150 million has a nine year maturity. It will be used by Amadeus to finance research and development (R&D) activities in its Distribution business line between 2013 and 2015.

This loan is in addition to a previous €200 million loan received by Amadeus from the EIB in May last year, which had a nine year maturity and was made available to finance the R&D of a variety of projects in the IT Solutions business line between 2012 and 2014.

The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the European Union and is owned by its member states. The EIB Group will significantly step up its lending activities for the 2013 to 2015 period to support the recovery of growth in Europe. Following the Member States' 2012 decision to increase the EIB's capital, the EIB will lend an additional €60 billion over the next three years to promote sustainable growth and jobs, bringing annual lending volumes to €65-70 billion. One such goal is to promote the implementation of the knowledge economy, such as education, R&D and innovation.

Continued investment in innovative travel technology solutions is central to the Amadeus ethos. Approximately €2.4 billion was invested in R&D between 2004 and 2012, with €414 million invested in 2012 alone, representing 14.2% of revenues. Amadeus has sixteen R&D centres globally, currently housing over 4,500 people, and many of these are European based, including the central R&D centre in Nice, plus London, Antwerp, Aachen, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, and Warsaw.

Philippe de Fontaine Vive Curtaz, Vice-President, European Investment Bank says:

"This development loan to Amadeus follows on the success of the previous loan, announced in May last year. Again this is in line with our objective of making long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. Amadeus' pedigree in developing successful IT solutions and commitment to innovating in the travel industry is unquestionable. We are confident this helps to fulfill the objective of ensuring that Europe's knowledge economy remains world-beating."

Luis Maroto, President & CEO, Amadeus commented:

"We are deeply proud to be able to announce, for the second time and within less than a year, that Amadeus has received funding from the prestigious European Investment Bank. We consider this the highest form of recognition for our long-standing commitment to developing innovative customer-focused solutions. The €150 million will be invested in the development of our Distribution business line; it will allow us to continue to revolutionise travel reservation systems for both travel intermediaries and for travel providers, such as airlines, hotels, and railways."

In recent years Amadeus' R&D efforts have been particularly focused on: extremely high performance transaction processing under stringent system availability and dependability requirements; information mining from very large data-bases; super-responsive travel search engines; multi-channel customer servicing applications (agent desktop, web, kiosk, mobile, tablets); or pioneering the use of open systems, among many others.

Previous examples of Amadeus' successful approach to R&D include the development of the Amadeus Altéa Suite, a community-based airline IT platform that consists of three modules covering reservation, inventory management and departure control – which is currently used by 110 airlines, including some of the world's leading airlines, and last year processed 564 million Passengers Boarded (PB).

Further proof of Amadeus' status as a leader in R&D was confirmed late in 2012 when it once again maintained its sector rankings as one of the leading companies in Europe for investment in R&D by the European Commission (EC). The 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, an annual report published by the EC, examined the largest 1,000 European companies investing in R&D during 2011 and ranked them according to the total amount invested. Amadeus gained a number one ranking in the area of travel and tourism.

– Ends –
Notes to the editors:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. www.eib.org
Amadeus is a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (e.g. airlines, hotels, rail and ferry operators, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and travel management companies).

The Amadeus group employs around 10,000 people worldwide, across central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters), Nice (development) and Erding (operations), as well as 73 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations globally.

The group operates a transaction-based business model. For the year ended December 31, 2012 the company reported revenues of €2,910.3million and EBITDA of €1,107.7 million.

Amadeus is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under the symbol "AMS.MC" and is a component of the IBEX 35 index.

To find out more about Amadeus please visit www.amadeus.com

Contact details:

European Investment Bank
Anne-Cécile Auguin, tel: (+352) 43 79 – 83330
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Website: www.eib.org/press 
Press Office: +352 4379 21000
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Amadeus
Corporate Communication
Telephone: +34 91 582 0160
Fax: +34 91 582 0188
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Grupo Albión (Madrid)
Alejandra Moore Mayorga
Sofía García
Tel: +34 91 531 23 88
Fax: +34 91 521 81 87
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
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Powerscourt (London)
Giles Sanderson
Matthew Fletcher
Tel: +44 20 7250 1446
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The Chief Operating Officer of ACS Aviation Solutions (ACS), Australia, Mr. Jake Milford accompanied by the Business Development Manager, Mr. Matthew Miller paid a familiarization business visit to the AFRAA Secretariat in Nairobi on 19 April 2013. During the visit, they met with the Secretary General of AFRAA, Dr. Elijah Chingosho and his team to discuss areas of technical and training collaboration to support for African airlines improve safety.

Under a strategic partnership to be established between AFRAA and ACS safety training and audit services directed at helping airlines attain IOSA will be provided to some airlines. AFRAA and ACS will come up with an action plan, setting realistic and achievable objectives to improve safety. In this regard, ACS will enroll on the AFRAA partnership programme to pave the way for this closer collaboration.

ACS is one of eight IATA Authorized Organisations in the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and IATA Safety Audit Ground Operations (ISAGO). ACS is fully ISO 9001:2008 compliant and an IATA Strategic Partner in RAMP and Air Side Safety operations.

Accompanying the team from ACS to the meeting was Ms. Brenda-Wabule, Business Development Manager of Austrade, attached to the Australia High Commission in Nairobi.

The AFRAA Fuel Committee finalized the second tender awards for 2013 which saw the volumes increase to over 1 billion litres, with the number of locations increasing to 110, up from the first tender's 53 locations. The number of participating airlines also increased from 8 members to 13 members.

The team which comprised of the fuel procurement managers and finance personnel from the respective airlines carried detailed analysis which resulted in significant savings for the members. The Committee noted that suppliers had supported the project with very few exceptions and the feedback was positive. The suppliers were of the view that the process was fairly conducted.

Round one negotiations of the 2013 fuel tender

Tender Progress and Negotiation Phases
Each member committed volumes at the various locations and provided the Secretariat with their fuel suppliers at the various locations. The airlines also notified their fuel suppliers of the joint tender which was issued through AFRAA via a communique.

Fuel Negotiation Stages
Stage 1: 1st round of negotiations where the fuel suppliers had an option of either calling in or having a face to face negotiation.
Stage 2: 2nd round of negotiations where the suppliers had the opportunity to improve on their bids.
Stage 3: The final stage involved the suppliers providing their best and final bids which were not subject to further negotiations.

The technical team reviewed the bids and prepared the final report for the Committee, making recommendations on the awarding of the tenders to the most competitive suppliers. Some of the key issues reviewed were taxes and charges, price basis and payment currency. A precondition is that the price is uniform to all the members but the contracts would be signed between the fuel supplier and the participating individual airline. Payment terms would be agreed and included in the individual contracts.

The Secretary General of AFRAA, Dr Elijah Chingosho commended Fuel Committee members who worked day and night to ensure that the tender was successful. He noted that the team was an asset to their airlines and was impressed with their capacity and in-depth understanding of the tender process. He also noted that the savings had a positive impact on the bottom line and this reconfirmed AFRAA's position that jointly African Airlines working together can ride the tide of the turbulent economic environment.

AFRAA Fuel Committee Members:
 1. Eng. Chris Oanda: Chairman (Kenya Airways)
 2. Ms. Saba Deressa: Vice Chairman (Ethiopian Airlines)
 3. Mr. Brian Mbuti: Lead Negotiator (Kenya Airways)
 4. Mr. Terence Naicker: Technical Team (TAAG Angola)
 5. Mr. Gregory Sanga: Analyst (Kenya Airways)
 6. Ms. Bithian Munjidi: Expert Taxes and Charges (Kenya Airways)
 7. Ms. Fainora Bosibori: Advisor on quality checks (Kenya Airways)
 8. Mr. Richard Furama: Technical Team (RwandAir)
 9. Mr. Haja Andrianarivelo: Technical Team (Air Madagascar)
10. Ms. Hanitra. Rakotomalala: Technical Team (Air Madagascar)
11. Mr. Ivo Nhamaze: Technical Team (LAM Mozambique)
12. Mr. Musenge Shebele: Technical Team ( Air Namibia)
13. Mr. Mustwafa: Technical Team (Astral-Aviation)
14. Mr. Leonidas Ndabazaniye: Technical Team (Air Burundi)

Leaders of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) concluded their 44th Annual General Assembly (AGA) at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa on 20th November 2012, with a call for airlines cooperation, market liberalization and creating of a level playing field to facilitate competition and sustainable growth. The three-day conference was held under the theme "Business together in the era of growing opportunities" and brought together over 400 high profile delegates from Africa and across the world.

Invited guests pose for a photo with the Minister of Public Enterprises of South Africa, Hon. Gigaba (2nd Right) and AFRAA 2012 President Mr. Vuyisile Kona (right)

The well organized and colourful event was officially opened by the Minister for Public Enterprises of South Africa, Hon. Malusi Gigaba, who challenged African airlines to be more aggressive and innovative in the business and work together to better serve the continent air transport needs. He tasked airlines in Africa to work together and seek partnerships to broaden their network and compete with operators from other regions.

The President of AFRAA and Chairperson of South African Airways, Vuyisile Kona, noted that air transport liberalisation is good for the continent although it can pose serious survival challenges to local airlines that are ill-prepared to compete in a liberalized market. He pledged the willingness of South African Airways to support other African airlines in areas where it has expertise. He commended the large turnout at the AGA and reiterated the need for airlines to commit to working together through commercial cooperation and joint initiatives to derive economies of scale. In his words, "this is the only way we can be competitive and profitable".

2011 Performance of African Airlines

Delivering the state of the industry report to the Assembly, the Secretary General of AFRAA, Dr. Elijah Chingosho, highlighted the enormous growing business opportunities on the continent that are stimulating air transport development. He noted that, "Outside of North Africa, economic activity was buoyant with an average growth rate of 4.5% in 2011 reinforcing the recovery of 4.8% in 2010," adding that "growth is expected to recover to 5.1% in 2012 and 5.2%, the year after."

On the performance of the airline industry, Dr. Chingosho said African airlines have attained an average annual traffic growth of 8.75% in the last 8 years except 2011. He identified the challenges posed by the euro zone crisis, the Arab Spring in North Africa and political instability in parts of Africa, as some of the reasons for the 8.2% decline in passenger numbers in 2011 to 56 million. The report noted that 42% of all passengers flew on intercontinental routes, 26% within Africa while 32% were domestic passengers.

On freight, the report noted that African airlines still lack the capacity and are not properly structured to take advantage of this business segment currently dominated by non-African airlines. According to AFRAA, airlines continue to lose freight business on intra-Africa and domestic routes to road, water and rail transport systems. Of the 705,000 tonnes of freight carried in 2011, 68% was to/from intercontinental destinations, 23% to intra-Africa routes and 9% on domestic networks.

The report noted that though Europe remains the biggest intercontinental traffic route (56%), Asia Pacific is the region to watch going forward as it is the fastest growing market for African operators with less competition. He deplored the declining market share of African airlines on intercontinental routes saying that, "In the last decade, African airlines lost 10% capacity to non-African operators. The only way to arrest such rapid decline is for airlines to work together and support each other and States to create the conducive environment for airlines to compete on a level playing field," Dr. Chingosho noted.

Challenges of the Industry

Safety, high and unpredictable oil prices, lack of market access, taxes and charges and failure to cooperate among airlines were identified as some of the key challenges confronting African airlines. The Secretary General charged African States to take their safety responsibility seriously and through the African Union, engage the EU on the banning of many African airlines from operating into EU airspace. He was blunt in stating that "The EU list of banned airlines is a ploy to make African operators in the eyes of passengers look unsafe and thereby divert traffic to European competitors." Dr. Chingosho queried why the EU claims some African airports and facilities are unsafe, yet the EU carriers continue to operate and conduct brisk business out of those unsafe markets.
On safety, the report noted that significant improvements have been made over the years with 38 African airlines currently registered on the IOSA registry. The 44th Assembly urged States to take their safety oversight responsibility seriously and called on countries with challenges in meeting their safety obligations to seek assistance through the AFCAC/ICAO initiated AFI Plan for safety programme.

African airlines took a swipe at the EU list of banned airlines and called upon the European Union to adopt pragmatic and constructive approaches to dealing with safety in the industry. They upheld ICAO as the only neutral body with a mandate to oversee to global regulation of aviation and urged the EU to avoid unilateral regulation of air transport which will likely ignite retaliation.

The Assembly called upon governments to demonstrate commitment towards liberalizing the air transport industry and reducing taxes and charges to make air travel more affordable for the majority of the people. This will stimulate regional and domestic traffic growth and speed up regional integration and intra-Africa trade. African governments were also called upon to remove barriers to cooperation between carriers and put in place policy and regulatory framework that facilitate beneficial cooperation.

Appointment of Officers

The 44th AGA elected Dr. Pimentel, the Chairman and CEO of TAAG Angola Airlines as Chairman of the Executive Committee while Mr. Inati Ntshanga, CEO of South African Express and Mr. Sergio Rosa CEO of Air Burkina were re-elected First and Second Vice Chairmen respectively of the Executive Committee. The AFRAA Executive Committee has oversight responsibility for the Association and crafts policy as well as oversees implementation of projects and programmes by the Secretariat.

The Assembly also elected three new members to replace those whose term of office on the Executive Committee expired at the close of the 44th AGA. They are: Mrs. Fatima Beyina-Moussa, CEO of EcAir; Eng. Enhemed Elwani, Chairman and Ag. CEO Afriqiyah Airways and Mr. John Mirenge, CEO of RwandAir. They will serve a term of 3 years each.

Host of 45th AGA

Kenya Airways was elected by the Assembly as host of the 2013 AFRAA AGA. The Assembly announced that the 45th AGA will be held in a yet to be named venue in Kenya from 24-26th November 2013.

Individual Recognition
A former Chairman of EgyptAir Group and AFRAA, Eng. Hussein Massoud, was recognized at the AGA for his distinguished contribution to AFRAA and the African aviation industry. Eng. Massoud, who is also the immediate former Minister of Aviation of Egypt, received a plaque of recognition from the Minister of Public Enterprises of South Africa, Hon. Malusi Gigaba.

Presentations and reports are available through the link: http://www.afraa.org/index.php/our-work/agas/44th-aga-2012

Event photos available on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AFRAA.AfricanAirlinesAssociation/photos_stream

AFRAA held the 1st Finance Oversight Committee (FOC) on the 30th July 2012 at the AFRAA headquarters. The FOC replaces the Economic and Finance Committee which was phased out in the new AFRAA structure.

Delegates from the airlines and AFRAA Secretariat who were present at the Finance Oversight Committee meeting

In April this year, the Executive Committee nominated EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways and South African Airways to constitute the FOC. The inaugural meeting was attended by the Finance Director of Kenya Airways, Alex Mbugua, Head of Passenger Revenue Accounting of South African Airways, George Mellet and Hossam Essa, Manager: Alliances & Agreements Yield Evaluation of EgyptAir. The fourth member of the Committee who could not attend the meeting due to prior commitments is Nega Mekonnen of Ethiopian airlines. The Committee unanimously elected South African Airways George Mellet as the first Chairman of the FOC.

The role of the FOC is to advise the Executive Committee and Secretary General on all financial matters relating to Association and financial issues concerning air transport in Africa. During the meeting, the committee among others; reviewed and endorsed the financial statements and auditors report for 2011 undertaken by Messrs. Deloitte & Touche and recommended their submission to the Executive Committee and 44th Annual General Assembly. They also reviewed and endorsed the new membership subscription and the budget for 2013.

The Secretary General briefed the Committee about the proposed development of the vacant AFRAA land at the headquarters and they made far reaching and constructive contributions to development planning process. Kenya Airways offered to avail expertise to assist the Association develop a procurement policy which will serve as guide to transparent tendering and procurements of suppliers and services by the Association whenever major investments of resources are required.

To ensure Senior Finance Executives in all member airlines are kept abreast with the work of the FOC and contribute to the work of the four-man team, the Committee directed the Secretariat to send out a communique to all airlines informing Finance executives of the terms of reference and business of the FOC and soliciting contributions of issues of interest to be included in the work programme of the FOC.

The Committee would like the Secretariat to invest resources into joint initiatives among airlines that will reduce airport handling costs and improve service delivery and also arrest the Unpredictable increases in airport taxes, charges and fees that are stifling the growth of the industry. The AFRAA Secretariat was represented at the meeting by Dr Elijah Chingosho, Secretary General, Raphael Kuuchi, Director, Commercial/Corporate & Industry Affairs, Juliet Indetie, Deputy Head, Corporate Finance & Admin and Roselyn Mbugua, PA & Accounts and Admin Assistant.